216 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX, No. 1261 



work on tests of flying ability. Burtt, Troland 

 and Miles were working at Cambridge in the 

 spring and summer of 1917, and the work of 

 Captain Henmon at Kelly Field No. 2 in the 

 spring of 1918 was contemporaneous with and 

 under the same authorization as that of Pro- 

 fessor Stratton. A prophesy based upon Cap- 

 tain Henmon's results was of notable influence 

 in leading the director of military aeronautics 

 to authorize tests of ability to learn to fly in 

 connection with the regular work of the ex- 

 amining boards. E. L. Thoendike 

 Teachers College, 

 Columbia TJniveksitt 



To THE Editor of Science : Professor Thorn- 

 dike has called my attention to the fact that 

 in my article on psychological research for 

 aviators in Science of January 24, I made no 

 reference to the work of Burtt, Troland and 

 Miles, and the work of Henmon, which was 

 reported in relatively full detail in Thorndike's 

 article in the preceding (January 17) number 

 of Science. A footnote referring to Thorn- 

 dike's report should have been inserted in my 

 article to prevent the supposition that I was 

 covering the work of all investigators. No 

 detailed information concerning the work of 

 Burtt, Troland and Miles was given me until 

 Thorndike's address appeared, hence I should 

 not attempt to describe it. The work started 

 by Stratton, and subsequently developed by 

 Stratton and Henmon, should, as I stated in 

 my larticle, be reported by Stratton. 



I may add that important work in aviation 

 was done by a number of psychologists not 

 mentioned by either Thorndike or myself: 

 Masfield for instance conducted a valuable 

 piece of research which was, I believe, reported 

 to the psychology committee. 



I trust it will be understood that my report 

 was not intended as a comprehensive account 

 of all work in aviation by psychologists, and 

 that if I am able, later, to give a full account 

 of all work done under my control, I shall not 

 attempt to relate the activities of other psy- 

 chologists except in so far las those activities 

 had direct effects in facilitating or interfering 

 with my own work. Knight Dunlap 



QUOTATIONS 



THE HISTORY OF INFLUENZA 



Although the term influenza was not for- 

 mally adopted by the Royal College of Phy- 

 sicians of London till 1782, the disease was 

 known to Hippocrates and other ancient phy- 

 sicians, and a formidable list of epidemics 

 in various parts of the world between the 

 years 1173 and 1875 is given by Hirseh in his 

 "Handbook of Geographical and Historical 

 Pathology." Records of outbreaks in this 

 coimtry between 1510 and 1837 were collected 

 by Theophilus Thompson and published by 

 the Sydenham Society in 1852; they were 

 brought down to 1891 by E. Symes Thompson. 

 Many physicians, among them such men as 

 Sydenham (1675), Huxham of Plymouth 

 (1729), Arbuthnot (1732), Sir George Baker 

 (1762), and John Fothergill (1775) had writ- 

 ten about the disease from the clinical point of 

 view, but Immanuel Kant, who, like Bacon, 

 took all learning for his province and was 

 specially interested in medicine, was one of the 

 first to direct attention to its epidemiology. 

 Towards the end of the eighteenth century 

 influenza swept over nearly the whole world. 

 It reached Siberia and Russia, China and In- 

 dia, in the autumn of 1781, and in the follow- 

 ing December and February it invaded suc- 

 cessively Finland, Germany, Denmark, Swe- 

 den, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, 

 France, Italy, and Spain. Kant, in a " Notice 

 to Physicians" published in the lay press of 

 Konigsberg on April 18, 1782, considered the 

 disease in its relation to physical geography. 

 He expressed the opinion that it was spread 

 not only by atmospheric conditions but by in- 

 fection conveyed by insects. The paths of 

 communication between Europe and other 

 parts of the world by sea and by caravan were, 

 he thought, the means of conveyance of many 

 diseases, and he found reason to believe that 

 the Russian trade route to China by land had 

 brought several kinds of hai-mful insects from 

 the farthest East. The epidemic of 1781-82 

 ■spread along the Baltic coast till it reached 

 Konigsberg; thence it travelled to Danzig and 

 Prussia. Kant's interest in influenza is shown 



