SCIENCE 



A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement 

 of Science, publishing the official notices and 

 proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, edited by J. McKeen 

 Cattell and published every Friday by 



THE SCIENCE PRESS 



I I Liberty St.. Utica, N. Y. Garrison. N. Y. 



New York City: Grand Central Terminal 



Annnal Subscription, $6.00. Single Copies, 15 Cts. 



Entered as second-class matter January 21, 1922, at the 

 Post Office at Utica, N. Y., under the Act of March 3. 1879. 



Vol. LV June 2, 1922 No. 1431 



CONTENTS 



Contemporary Deterrents to the Process of 

 Clinical Medicine: Dr. Sydney E. Miller.... 577 



Photoperiodism, the Response of the Plant to 

 Selative Length of Day and Night: Dr. 

 W. W. Garner, Dr. H. A. Allard 582 



Fish Parasitism in its relation to the Biolog- 

 ical Problems of the Northwest: Dr. 

 Nathan Fasten 583 



The Third Asiatic Expedition of the American 

 Museum of Natural History: Dr. Roy 

 Chapman Andrews 584 



Scientific Events: 



The University of Halifax; Activities of 

 the Rockefeller Foundation; The Annual 

 Meeting of the American Ceramic Society; 

 The Illinois State Academy of Science; 

 The Third International Congress of the 

 History of Medicine 587 



Scientific Notes and News 590 



University and Educational Notes 593 



Discussion and Correspondence: 



The Writing of Popular Science: De. N. 

 Ernest Doesey, J. O'H. Cosgrave. The 

 University of Graz: Dr. L. B. Becking. 

 Bequest for Papers on Geological Diffusion: 

 Dr. George Otis Smith 593 



Atmospheric Pollution: Dr. Alexander 

 McAdie 596 



Special Articles: 



The Pollen Tubes and Abortive Ovules of 

 the Globe Mutant of Datura: Dr. John T. 

 BucHHOLZ and Dr. Albert F. Blakeslee.... 597 



The Mathematical Association of America: 

 Professor W. D. Cairns 599 



The Mathematical Society of America: Pro- 

 fessor E. G. D. ElCHAEDSON .♦. 600 



CONTEMPORARY DETERRENTS TO 



THE PROCESS OF CLINICAL 



MEDICINE! 



Inteoductiok. — It has been said that "Meth- 

 ods and view points rather than men detei-mine 

 periods in the history of medicine." Following 

 an era dominated by the study of structural 

 pathology and of those physical signs expres- 

 sive of structural change, there occurred a 

 rather abrupt transition to a period charac- 

 terized by investigation of the function of the 

 various organs of the body in health and dis- 

 ease. "Within the past fifty years there has 

 been an increasing utilization of the sciences 

 of chemistry, physics, biology, and mathe- 

 matics, employed by investigators in their en- 

 deavor to measure function in exact ways, to 

 estimate the degree of functional impairment 

 in an organ diseased, to establish diagnosis 

 upon a functional basis, and to institute 

 therapy along lines calculated to prevent func- 

 tional deterioration. By some, the contem- 

 porary period is termed "the golden age in 

 medicine." That period will have come more 

 truly when there is a more appropriate corre- 

 lation between functional impairment and 

 structural change. Contemporary medicine has 

 lost somewhat by its neglect of pathological 

 anatomy. 



This "functional" period in medicine has 

 been marked by numerous well recognized 

 trends. It has witnessed the development of 

 an enormous number of laboratory tests and 

 procedures. Many mechanical devices and 

 instruments of precision have been introduced, 

 designed to detect the slightest deviation from 

 the so-called normal. The period has been asso- 

 ciated with the sub-division of medicine into a 

 great number of specialties, and a marked re- 



1 Presidential address read before the American 

 Congress on Internal Medicine, at Eoehester, 

 Minnesota, April 7, 1922. 



