SCIENCE 



Friday, December 13, 1912 



CONTENTS 



The Problem of Organization: De. Herbekt 

 Band 803 



The Growth of Children: Professor Feanz 

 Boas 815 



The WorTc done iy the German Subcommittee 

 on the Teaching of Mathematics: Peo- 



PESSOE A. GUTZMEE 818 



The Nineteenth International Congress of 

 Americanists : Ds. A. Hrdlicka 820 



Scientific Notes and News 821 



University and Educational News 824 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Insects contributing to the Control of the 

 Chestnut Blight Disease: F. G. Craighead. 

 A Possible Cause of Accidents to Aviators: 

 James Means. The Pedometer: T. C. M. . 825 



Scientific Books: — 



Marshall's Physiology of Beproduction : 

 Dr. Oscar Riddle. Sherman on Organic 

 Analysis, Moody on Quantitative Analysis, 

 Thole on Qualitative Organic Analysis, 

 Byers and Knight on Qualitative Analysis: 

 J. E. G. Ellwood's Sociology in its 

 Psychological Aspects: Proeessoe A. A. 

 Tenney 827 



A Vote on the Priority Pule: Professors C. 

 C. Nutting, S. W. Williston, Henry 

 B. Ward 830 



Special Articles: — • 



Fat Deposition in the Testis of the Domestic 

 Fowl: Dr. Raymond Pearl. The Star- 

 nosed Mole: Francis H. Allen. Economic 

 Importance of the Mite Phyllocoptes 

 schlechtendali nalepa: P. J. O'Gaea. A 

 Paraffin Bath with Concealed Thermo- 

 electric Eegulator: De. Webstee Chester. 

 A Simple Discharge Tube for Demonstra- 

 tion Purposes: Peoeessor Chas. T. Knipp 833 



The Convocation Week Meetings of Scientific 

 Societies 838 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Philosophical Society of the University 

 of Vi/rgvnia: Wm. A. Kbpner. The Elisha 

 Mitchell Scientific Society: James M. Bell 840 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to the Editor of Soikkce, GarrJson-»n- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



THE PBOBLEM OF ORGANIZATION 

 THE PROBLEM 



The contemplation of living beings has 

 ever plunged the human mind into a state 

 of perplexity and interrogation. So mani- 

 fold are the aspects presented to us by the 

 form and behavior of living things and so 

 diverse are the minds which have sought 

 to interpret the phenomena of life that we 

 may at times feel ourselves submerged in 

 a sea of distracting problems, uncorrelated 

 theories and data which, while valuable, 

 are more or less chaotic. From time to 

 time, momentarily realizing that the par- 

 ticular problem which looms immediately 

 before us, mighty and impregnable, is but 

 one of a score or a hundred of equal im- 

 portance, and that its solution would be 

 for us as merely one sentence of a long 

 story, we give vent to a question which at 

 once epitomizes all of our perplexities and 

 expresses the very heart of what we want 

 to know. We ask, what is an organism? 

 But this question, simple in form, yet all- 

 inclusive, leads us nowhere. It is a blank 

 wall offering no foothold for experimental 

 attack. Should nature present to us no 

 other question than this, she will ever re- 

 main a sphinx. For working purposes we 

 must find questions which suggest a pro- 

 gram of investigation. The following dis- 

 cussion states no new problem. Nor does 

 it purport to be in any essential matter a 

 new statement of the old problem of the 

 organism. It is at most a restatement of 

 the problem in terms which lay the em- 

 phasis at a point where it has been, per- 

 haps, not so commonly put, but where for 

 purposes of investigation I believe it may 



