SCIENCEss. 



Friday, Mat 11, 1917 



CONTENTS 

 The Making of Scientific Theories : Pkofessor 

 William H. Hobbs 441 



Eeriert W. Conn 451 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 Beport of the Committee on Grants 452 



Scientific Events : — 



The Carnegie Expedition for the Study of 

 Coral Beefs; Committees under the British 

 Boards of Trade and Agriculture; Base 

 Bospitals Abroad 455 



Scientific Notes and News 457 



University and Educational News 461 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Varietal Belations of Crown Gall: J. K. 

 Shaw. When a Force is a Force: Pro- 

 fessor L. M. HosKiNS 461 



Scientific Boohs: — 



Gilbert on the Potato: Wm. Stuart. Lee on 

 Health and Disease: Curtis M. Hilliard. 462 



Special Articles: — 

 A Note on the Effect of Asphyxia and Af- 

 ferent Stimulation on Adrenal Secretion: 

 Professor W. B. Cannon 463 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Biological Society of Washington: Dr. 



M. W. Lyon, Jr 464 



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

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

 On-Hudson, N. Y 



THE MAKING OF SCIENTIFIC 

 THEORIESi 



The ancient Hebrews conceived the 

 earth to be a disk hemmed in on all sides by 

 mountains and surmounted by the crystal 

 dome or firmament of the "heavens." 

 This covered disk floated upon "the 

 waters under the earth" and from the 

 "windows of heaven" waters were poured 

 out upon the ' ' thirsty earth ' ' from another 

 reservoir which was above the firmament. 

 To the denizen of the humid temperature 

 regions it is perhaps a little difficult to see 

 how this theory could have come into exist- 

 ence. The rains with which he is so fa- 

 miliar are showers, and they suggest not so 

 much windows in the sky as they do a ceil- 

 ing with innumerable perforations or some 

 other glorified sprinkling device. To the 

 Children of Israel the phenomenon of show- 

 ers was unknown, for the rains to which 

 they had become accustomed both during 

 their wanderings in the desert of Sinai and 

 in Palestine, were of the local downpour or 

 cloudburst type, the characteristic precipi- 

 tation of the arid lands. So also their 

 country was one in which earthquakes have 

 been frequent, and they were not unaccus- 

 tomed to seeing the earth open and water 

 shoot upward frOm the fissures in much the 

 same manner that it spurts into the hold of 

 a ship from the opening of a seam. This 

 oft-observed phenomenon is with little 

 doubt responsible for the conception of the 

 "waters under the earth" referred to in 

 the twentieth chapter of Exodus. We see, 

 therefore, that this crude theory of the 



1 Address of the president of the Michigan Acad- 

 emy of Science, delivered at the Annual Meeting in 

 Ann Arbor, March 28, 1917. 



