January 17, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



65 



As presented by Professor Williams geology 

 was not a guide to making money or to the 

 collection and labelling of natural objects. 

 It was a method of adjusting one's thinking 

 to great truths. The many students who came 

 imder Williams's influence learned to view 

 the world in a new light. Space and time and 

 matter and living organisms took on new 

 meaning, and somehow assumed a spiritual 

 aspect, so that knowledge was not mere ac- 

 quisition of facts and methods, but a some- 

 thing which ennobled its possessor. Someway 

 also the search for truths imtarnished by 

 mercenary or selfish motives tended to dis- 

 solve doubts and to land one on a solid founda- 

 tion. Teaching which produces such results 

 is a man's work. 



Williams exerted a large influence through 

 an advanced course in the philosophy of life 

 and organisms — a course sometimes enroll- 

 ing a dozen, sometimes one hundred or two 

 hundred, as arrangement of the curriculum 

 allowed choice on the part of students. The 

 teachings of this course became campus dis- 

 cussion, and entered into the thinking of 

 graduates, imdergraduates and faculty. Its 

 value was so obvious that after Williams re- 

 turned to Cornell the course was again organ- 

 ized and is now one of the prominent features 

 of the Yale curriculum. 



At Yale we remember Professor Williams 

 as a man wholly vmselfish, who would not 

 magnify his importance, who would not fight 

 for what might be considered his rights. He 

 was ready to use poorly equipped laboratories 

 and class rooms and to take undesirable hours 

 for teaching in order to advance the work of 

 others. He freely shared his great fund of 

 knowledge and experience and seemed more 

 interested in the success of others than in his 

 own success. Unselfishness and devotion to 

 truth are the traits we remember in Williams. 

 They characterized his personal relations, his 

 teaching and his writing. More than any 

 man of my acquaintance he exemplified the 

 text : " Ye shall know the truth and the truth 

 shall make ye free." 

 Williams's work lives in his writings and per- 



haps even more in his students, but his death 

 is no small loss. Unselfish teachers of truth 

 are rare in any generation. 



Herbert E. Gregory 

 Tale Univeksity 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL 

 RESEARCH FOR JAPAN' 



The outbreak of the great war in 1914, 

 which at once cut oil the import, mainly from 

 Germany, of dyestuffs, drugs and other prod- 

 ucts of daily necessity, and at one time almost 

 gave rise to a panic in business, was respon- 

 sible for producing a profoimd change in the 

 mental attitude of the government oflBcials. 

 the business men, and, in fact, the whole na- 

 tion towards science. Those who had in vain 

 been preaching the supreme importance of 

 cultivating science with all activity and plead- 

 ing for public support now saw at once that 

 the right opportunity presented itself, and lost 

 no time in drawing up a definite plan for an 

 institute of physical and chemical research — • 

 a plan which, though not ideal, was deemed to 

 be practical and to meet the most urgent need. 

 This, fortimately, obtained the cordial sup- 

 port of some of the most influential and public- 

 spirited of the business men, particularly of 

 Baron Shibusawa, and afterwards also of the 

 government of which Count Okuma was at the 

 time premier. 



According to the plan, which was ultimately 

 adopted, a fimd of 5,000,000 yen (10 yen = £l) 

 was to be raised by public subscription. Of 

 this sum just about one half has already been 

 promised, and is being paid in, almost wholly 

 by those who have either commercial or in- 

 dustrial concerns in Tokj'o and Yokohoma. 

 The other half is, with good reason, expected 

 to be contributed within a few years by those 

 in Osaka, Kobe and other large and wealthy 

 cities in the southwestern districts. The plan 

 also included an application for a government 

 subvention, and, in accordance with the bill 

 passed by the Diet in its 1915-16 session, the 

 government is giving the institute a subven- 

 tion of 2,000,000 yen in ten years, whilst H.M. 



1 From Nature. 



