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SCIENCE 



\^' JUN 1 S 1919 



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Friday, Juxe 13, 1919 



CONTENTS 



The Scientific Spirit: Professor Matkard M. 

 Metcalf 551 



Scientific Events: — 

 International Cooperation in Medicine; The 

 Total Eclipse of the Sun; Mapping from the 

 Air; The National Exposition of Chemical 

 Industries 558 



Scientific Notes and Netvs 561 



University and Educational News 5C3 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 

 Sadium Production : Dr. E. B. Moore .... 564 



Quotations: — 

 The Future of Medicine 566 



Scientific BooTcs: — 

 McAtee on the Natural Histonj of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia: Dr. Harry C. Ober- 

 BOLSER 568 



Special Articles: — 

 The Amphibioidei : Carl L. Hubbs 569 



The Buffalo Meeting of the American Chemical 

 Society: Dr. Charles L. Parsons ^70 



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

 review should be iieot to The Editor of Science, Guri<oo-OD- 

 Hudjon, N. Y. 



THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT' 



The scientific spirit, while not easy to de- 

 fine, is a reality, diflfering from the artist 

 spirit in some important elements and differ- 

 ing also from the usual spirit in philosophy. 

 William James, to be sure, made philosophy 

 almost an experimental science, and religion 

 may be and is so treated by a few. Perhaps 

 as good a concise statement of the scientific 

 spirit as we have is from the pen of Paul of 

 Tarsus, who wrote : " Prove all things and 

 hold fast that which is good." I wish to dis- 

 cuss this injunction with you for a few min- 

 utes, to direct your attention to a number of 

 conceptions and practises built into our pres- 

 ent social system which do not successfully 

 endure such scrutiny as Paul suggested, and 

 iinally we will refer briefly to the scientific 

 spirit in relation to some deep issues of the 

 war and some profound problems of the post- 

 war period. 



Science versus tradition, experiment versus 

 conformity to convention, scrutiny versus 

 blind faith, reason versus custom. We are 

 all creatures of habit, mental and physical. 

 Indeed custom lies at the root of our whole 

 social system, and necessarily so. Community 

 life is dependent upon the dominance of social 

 custom. A group of individuals each of whom 

 went his own independent and unpredictable 

 way would not form a real community. The 

 conservative tendency in men, the habit of 

 thinking and doing as their fathers thought 

 and did, is essential in enabling them 

 to live and work together as a cooi)erating 

 society rather than be a mass of contending 

 rival imits. And one of the chief services 

 this conservatism renders to human society 

 lies in the difficulty which it presents to the 



1 Address by the president of the Ohio Academy 

 of Science, at the annual meeting of the academy, 

 in Columbus, Ohio, May 29, 1919. 



