SCIENCE 



Friday, May 4, 1917 



CONTENTS 



The Pacific Division of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science: — 



Some of the Scientific Prolilems and Duties 



at our Doors: Dk. J. C. Beanner 417 



Scientific Events: — 



The Use of Primitive Art in Textiles; He- 

 search Work of the Leander McCormicTc Ob- 

 servatory; The Engineering Committee of 

 the National Sesearch Council; Medical Stu- 

 dents and the War 424 



Scientific Notes and News 427 



University and Educational News 430 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Want of Adaptation to the Time of the 

 Printing Press: Charles Robertson. Fun- 

 damental Conceptions of Modern Mathe- 

 matics: Egbert P. Eichaedson and Ed- 

 ■WARD H. Landis 431 



Scientific Snobbery 433 



Proceedings of the National Academy of 

 Sciences: Professor Edwin Bidwell Wil- 

 son 435 



Special Articles: — 

 A Quantitative Method of ascertaining the 

 Mechanism of Growth and of Inhibition of 

 Growth and Dormant Buds: Dr. Jacques 

 LoEB 436 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Botanical Society of Washington: Dr. 

 H. L. Shantz. Tlie Anthropological Society 

 of Washington : Frances Densmore 439 



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

 review should be sent to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 On-Hudson, N. Y. 



SOME OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS 

 AND DUTIES AT OUR DOORS i 



We are here at the second meeting of a 

 new endeavor on the part of the American 

 Association to foster an interest in scien- 

 tific work and in scientific research, and 

 it is sincerely hoped that we shall worthily 

 do for and in this portion of our country 

 what the parent association has done for 

 the country at large, and what the British 

 Association has so long been doing for 

 Great Britain. It is for us not only to 

 keep alive the interest in the good work 

 of the general organization, but to widen 

 its scope, to extend its influence and to 

 bring it to a higher degree of usefulness. 



Our national association has been a 

 power for good in this country from its 

 inception in 1848, for it has helped to 

 awaken and has kept alive a widespread 

 interest in science throughout our country, 

 and it has brought together and kept in 

 touch with each other persons interested in 

 the various branches of science. 



Since 1831 the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science has been a 

 powerful and even a remarkable agency 

 in the encouragement of local workers in 

 Great Britain, and in the quickening of 

 interest in every branch of science. But 

 while the British Association has of late 

 years visited Australia, Canada and South 

 Africa, from the outset most of its activ- 

 ities have been confined to England, Wales, 

 Scotland and Ireland, an area (121,112 

 sq. ms.) smaller than that of the state of 



1 Presidential address before the Pacific Division 

 of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, at Stanford University, California, 

 April 5, 1917. 



