558 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1276 



cataclysmic disaster. The tremendous energy 

 of the forces now stirring in society is too val- 

 uable to be wasted even if we could suppress 

 it. It should be guided into the performance 

 of valuable work. Led off through the proper 

 chamiels and connected with the reorganized 

 machinery of society it could do great things. 

 But it must be led to service of society as a 

 whole and not to service of any privileged 

 class, proletariat, bourgeoisie, or aristocracy. 

 Class prejudice, class rivalries, class hatreds, 

 any organized or individual self-seeking at 

 the expense of others, must be fought wher- 

 ever found and the open unselfish mind pro- 

 moted. In leading and in upholding the 

 hands of the leaders the men of true scien- 

 tific spirit will effectively serve. They will 

 be the leaven, helping the people to under- 

 stand and accept the new order. The 

 road to the new and better order is through 

 intelligence and altruism, through appreciation 

 of and devotion to the truth, that is through 

 the scientific spirit. Does this seem a tame 

 conclusion? It is old fashioned, as old fash- 

 ioned as the man of ISTazareth who is still 

 unsurpassed in clear vision into the heart of 

 the truths underlying human relations and in 

 unselfish devotion to the truth as seen. 



IIatnaed M. Metcalf 

 The Orchabd Laboeatoey, 

 Obeblin, Ohio 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN MEDICINE 



According to the London Times a very large 

 sum of money has been promised to found 

 what vfdll amount to a headquarters of the 

 American Medical Association in England. 

 The headquarters are to consist of a hospital, 

 a library, lecture theaters, and demonstration 

 rooms, reading rooms, and so forth. American 

 doctors will thus possess a rallying point when 

 visiting London, and the spirit of English 

 medicine will be made free to them in a man- 

 ner impossible by any other means. 



It is understood that Lord Eeading has ac- 

 cepted the presidency of the scheme and that 

 Hr. Taft is much interested in it. The names 

 of Messrs. Newton Crane and Van Duzen are 



also associated with the work, while the secre- 

 tary of the American College of Surgeons, 

 Dr. Franklin Martin, of Chicago, has taken a 

 prominent part in furthering it. The new 

 hospital may, it is hoped in some quarters, 

 become a kind of Rockefeller Institute in Lon- 

 don. British medical men are anxious to give 

 all the help they can. 



The forthcoming general meeting of the 

 American Medical Association at Atlantic City 

 is likely to be attended by, among others. Sir 

 Arbuthnot Lane and, it is hoped. Sir Bertrand 

 Dawson, who will thus help fmther to cement 

 the friendship which now exists between the 

 profession in the two countries. 



Efforts are also being made in Paris to in- 

 crease the usefulness and importance of the 

 British Hospital there. This hospital, the 

 Hertford, is rather small and the site has cer- 

 tain drawbacks. A scheme recently put for- 

 ward would transfer it to a new site in the 

 Bois de Boulogne and would considerably en- 

 large its scope. Speaking at an informal 

 gathering recently. Dr. Monod, a distinguished 

 French doctor, declared that British doctors 

 would receive the warmest welcome in his 

 country, and expressed the hope that French 

 doctors would be encouraged to go to England 

 to study. This gathering, which was presided 

 over by Sir Bertrand Dawson, included some 

 of the most outstanding physicians, surgeons 

 and medical officers in the British and Col- 

 onial professions. 



THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 



Professor Henry ISTorris Eussell, of 

 Princeton University, writes in the Scientific 

 American as follows: 



The present montli is notable for the occurrence 

 of a great eclipse, which happens on the 29th, and 

 affords the longest view of the surrounduigs of 

 the sun, while its own disk is hidden, which has 

 been possible for many years. 



At the time of this eclipse the moon is within a 

 day of perigee, and unusxially near the earth — her 

 distance being a little less than 224,000 miles. In 

 consequence her tapering shadow is still nearly 150 

 miles in diameter where it reaches the earth's sur- 

 face, and observers situated within the belt, about 

 8,000 miles in length, over which this shadow 

 sweeps as it crosses the earth's disk, will see a 



