A Weekly Journal devoted to the Adv 

 of Science, publishing the official notices and 

 proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, edited by J. McK.een 

 Cattail and published eveiry Friday by 



THE SCIENCE PRESS 



I 1 Liberty St.. Utica. N. Y. Garrison, N. Y. 



New York City: Grand Central Terminal 



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



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



CONTENTS 



Research Institutes and their Value: Dr. 

 Francis Carter Wood 657 



The Effect of the Nature of the Diet on the 

 Digestibility of Butter: Dr. Arthur D. 

 Holmes 659 



Are Scientists encouraging Popular Ignor- 

 ance: Professor Eugene C. Bingham 664 



American Committee to aid Russian Scientists 

 with Soientifio Literature: Dr. Vernon 

 K!ellogg 667 



Scientific Events: 



The Agitation against the Teaching of 

 Evolution; The Proposed Bombay School 

 of Tropical Medicine; The Royal Academy 

 of Belgium; The Royal Geographical Soci- 

 ety; Sigma Xi at the University of Ken- 

 tucky; Dean of the Sheffield Scientific 

 School 669 



Scientific Notes and Neios 672 



University and Educational Notes 675 



Discussion and Correspondence: 



Observations of Falling Meteorites: Dr. 

 George P. Merrill. Origin of Soil Col- 

 loids: Dr. Neil E. Gordon. A Crayfish 

 Trap: E. C. O'Eoke 675 



Special Articles: 



The Relation between Photic Stimulus and 

 the Rate of Locomotion of Drosophila: 

 Dr. William H. Cole. • The Structure of 

 Benzene: Maurice L. Huggins 678 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: 

 Meeting of the Executive Committee of the 

 Council: Professor Burton E. Living- 

 ston. Permanent Secretary's Report. Sec- 

 tion M — Engineering and Associated Socie- 

 ties: Dr. Peter Gillespie 680 



RESEARCH INSTITUTES AND THEIR 

 VALUEi 



In this restless, drifting world in which we 

 now live, even intelligent people are not alv/ays 

 appreciative of the fact that many if not most 

 of the great intellectual achievements in various 

 fields have been accomplished only v.-hen the 

 thinker has been protected from the interrup- 

 tion and annoyance of passing events and per- 

 mitted to work out his ideas somewhat apart 

 from the general current of existence. In the 

 Middle Ages, the alchemist, the philosopher or 

 the mathematician retired to a garret or cellar 

 and there achieved his purpose, and even to 

 this day the idea that starvation and a garret 

 are successful stimulants to scientific investiga- 

 tion clings persistently to the popular mind, 

 together with so many of those superstitions by 

 which humanity is still largely guided. Truth 

 is that the thinking man in the middle ages 

 was driven into a garret and often compelled 

 to accept poverty because his thoughts or dis- 

 coveries had no commercial value or popular 

 interest, and, if published, sometimes led to 

 controversies settled once for all by that unan- 

 swerable argument of authoritj', the fagot and 

 the stake. The example of Servetus must 

 surely have been a severe blow to hasty pub- 

 lication. One of the early masters of medi- 

 cine, he died a martyr to his printed opinions 

 at the early age of 42, his old friend, John 

 Calvin, seeing to it, it is said, that the fire was 

 well started. 



But the time when important extensions of 

 the boundaries of knowledge, especially in sci- 

 ence, can be accomplished in garret or cellar 

 with no material except brains, a little sealing 

 wax, some wire and a few pieces of glass, 



1 An address delivered at the opening of the 

 new laboratory building of the Collis P. Hunting- 

 ton Memorial Hospital, Harvard University, May 

 15, 1922. 



