SCIENCE 



Friday, Mat 30, 1919 



CONTENTS 



The Lessons of the Pandemic: Major George 

 A. SoPEE 601 



The Freas System : Ds. W. L. Estabeooke ... 506 



OrgarUzation Meeting of the American, Section 

 of the Proposed Internatiotial Astronomical 

 Union : Professor Joel Stebbiss 508 



Scientific Events: — 



War Eesearches at St. Andrews University; 

 The Department of Bacteriology and Public 

 Health at Tale University; Base Eospital, 

 No. SI, of the Washington University 

 School of Medicine; The Chemical Warfare 

 Service; The Division of Applied Psychology 

 of the Carnegie Institute of Technology .... 510 



Scientific Notes and News 513 



University and Editcational Netes 515 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



Quantitative Character-measurements in 

 Color Crosses: Professor H. F. Roberts. 

 Surplus Bisons for Museums: Dr. Harlan I. 

 Smith. Information Service for Experi- 

 mental Biologists : E. D. Bro'vto 516 



Scientific Books: — 



Miller on the Mineral Deposits of South 

 America: Dr. Adolf Knopf 618 



The Ecology of North American lymn<Hd<e: 

 Dr. Frank Collins Baker 519 



Special Articles: — 

 Sound and Flash Banging: Professor Au- 

 gustus Trowbridge 521 



The American Mathematical Society: Peo- 

 FESSOR F. N. Cole 523 



MSS. intended for public&tion and booka, etc., intended for 

 review should be aent to The Editor of Science, GBrTiw>DK)i>- 

 Hudrcn, N. Y. 



THE LESSONS OF THE PANDEMIC 



The pandemic which has just swept round 

 the earth has been without precedent. There 

 have been more deadly epidemics, but they 

 have been more circumscribed; there have 

 been epidemics almost as vridespread, but they 

 have been less deadly- Floods, famines, earth- 

 quakes and volcanic eruptions have all written 

 their stories in terms of human destruction 

 almost too terrible for comprehension, yet 

 never before has there been a catastrophe at 

 once so sudden, so devastating and so uni- 

 versal. 



The most astonishing thing about the pan- 

 demic was the complete mystery which sur- 

 rounded it. Nobody seemed to know what 

 the disease was. where it came from or how to 

 stop it. Anxious minds are inquiring to-day 

 whether another wave of it will come again. 



The fact is that although influenza is one 

 of the oldest known of the epidemic diseases, 

 it is the least understood. Science, which by 

 patient and painstaking labor has done so 

 much to drive other plagues to the point of 

 extinction has thus far stood powerless before 

 it. There is doubt about the causative agent 

 and the predisposing and aggravating factors. 

 There has been a good deal of theorizing about 

 these matters, and some good research, but no 

 common agreement has been reached with re- 

 spect to them. 



The measures which were introduced for 

 the control of the pandemic were based upon 

 the slenderest of theories. It was assumed 

 that the influenza could be stopped by the 

 employment of methods which it was assumed 

 would stop the other respiratory diseases. 

 This double assumption proved to be a weak 

 reed to lean upon. The respiratory diseases 

 as a class are not under control. They con- 

 stitute the most frequent cause of death, yet 

 it is not known how they can be prevented. 



Three main factors stand in the way of pre- 



