October i, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



429 



important fields of research, and the great in- 

 vestigator does not always accept the views 

 of the masses as evidence of truth. 



At the funeral of Poincare the French Min- 

 ister of Public Instruction remarked that all 

 his work, all his life, was animated by a pre- 

 possession, which he expressed in this thought : 

 " The search for truth must be the goal of 

 our activity; it is the only end that would he 

 worthy of it." 



An open confession of some of the hidden 

 ignorance of the mathematical scholars has 

 furnished the starting point of many of the 

 most important advances in recent years. 

 In this way Weierstrass started some of the 

 fundamental work relating to continuous 

 functions, and in this way Poincare clarified 

 a number of questions relating to foundations, 

 especially to the foundation of geometry. 

 The mathematical refinements resulting from 

 such new viewpoints have already taken root 

 in the minds of leaders in other sciences. 

 For instance, Boltzmann said : " The fact that 

 the actual behavior of gases is represented by 

 a curve which can not be differentiated and 

 hence can not be represented graphically 

 leads to great difficulties.'" 



In closing this brief appreciation we may 

 perhaps fittingly quote the words of Sir G. H. 

 Darwin, President of the Fifth International 

 Congress, which met recently at Cambridge, 

 England. At the opening meeting of this 

 congress, held August 22, 1912, Sir Darwin 

 said : " Up to a few weeks ago there was one 

 man who alone of all mathematicians might 

 have occupied the place which I hold, with- 

 out misgivings as to his fitness. I mean 

 Henri Poincare." 



G. A. Miller 



UNivERsir? or Illinois 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 The New York State Education building 

 . will be dedicated with elaborate exercises on 

 October 15, 16 and 17. The dedicatory ad- 

 dress will be made by Dr. Andrew S. Draper, 



^ Klein und Hoefler, " Grenzf ragen der Mathe- 

 matik," 1906, p. 8. 



Bureau of Education, and in the course of 

 the exercises a number of addresses will be 

 made, including one on museums by Dr. 

 Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, and 

 one on Educational Extension by Dr. C. E. 

 Van Hise, president of the University of Wis- 

 consin. 



Professor Stimpson J. Brown, head of the 

 department of mathematics and mechanics at 

 the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and Pro- 

 fessor H. M. Paul, the second ranking officer 

 of the department, have been relieved from 

 duty at the academy and Professor Harry E, 

 Smith has been named as head of the depart- 

 ment. 



Professor Theodore Fuchs, director of the 

 geological department of the Eoyal Natural 

 History Museum at Vienna, has celebrated 

 his seventieth birthday. 



E. O. E. Davis, Ph.D., lately physicist in 

 the Bureau of Soils, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, has been appointed head of the 

 Division of Soils Water Investigation, in the 

 same bureau, to fill the vacancy in that office 

 occasioned by the death of Dr. W J McGee. 



Dr. F. D. Heald, professor of botany in the 

 University of Texas, has resigned to become 

 pathologist to the Pennsylvania Chestnut 

 Tree Blight Commission, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Dr. S. E. Klein, formerly professor of his- 

 tology and embryology at the Fordham Uni- 

 versity School of Medicine, New York, haa 

 been placed in charge of the new research 

 laboratories of the Hahnemann Medical Col-. 

 lege, Chicago. 



Mr. Owen M. Jones, who has been carrying 

 on investigations during the last year for the 

 Michigan-Lake Superior Power Co. at Sault 

 Ste. Marie, Michigan, has resigned his position 

 at the Tulane University of Louisiana, where 

 he was in charge of the department of civil 

 engineering, to accept a permanent position, 

 with the Power Co. 



Professor Hugo de Vries, on his present 

 trip to Alabama to visit the original locality 

 for QHnothera grandiflora (see Science for 



