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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1168 



not been discussing the general elements 

 in scientific progress ; my purpose has been 

 much less ambitious. In speaking to my 

 colleagues in other fields I have tried to 

 give an account of the faith that is in me 

 so that they shall see what sort of motives 

 (aside from those of esthetic delight, which 

 however are central) the mathematician 

 has in the work which he pursues. With 

 this purpose before me I have spoken of 

 just one side of the fundamental requisites 

 of scientific progress. And now I wish 

 to say with emphasis that I have the keen- 

 est appreciation of the use and purport of 

 other methods and the sharpest delight in 

 the contemplation of their achievements — 

 — achievements so different from any to be 

 wrought out by my own familiar and loved 

 mathematical tools. One could hardly 

 speak of these other methods without be- 

 coming eloquent in his admiration of them. 

 They are left unmentioned, then, not be- 

 cause I do not appreciate them, but because 

 they do not fall within the scope assigned 

 to this discussion. 



My purpose will have been served if I 

 have tended to produce in your minds a 

 keener appreciation of the place of mathe- 

 matics in the development of scientific 

 thought; and particularly if I have in- 

 duced in you a conception and feeling of 

 the consecration with which choice mathe- 

 matical spirits devote their energies to 

 penetrating into the unknown regions of 

 their own creations and to opening up 

 larger areas of the enormously expanding 

 field of mathematics which has grown more 

 in the present generation perhaps than in 

 any other in the history of the world. 



E. D. Caemichael 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 

 THE GAUTHIOT MEMORIAL 



Dr. Robert Gauthiot, directeur d'etudes 

 adjoint in the Ecole des Hautes- Etudes, one 



of the most brilliant Oriental scholars of onr 

 time, died in Paris on September 11, 1916, at 

 the age of forty, from the effects of a wound 

 received as captain of infantry while gallantly 

 leading his company to a grand attack. 

 Gauthiot was a real genius, and has made 

 lasting contributions to Iranian and Indo- 

 European philology, playing a prominent part 

 in the recent movement of opening up the his- 

 tory of Central Asia. To his ingenuity and 

 acumen is due the complete decipherment of 

 the Sogdian, an Iranian language preserved 

 in ancient manuscripts which some years ago 

 were discovered in Turkestan. He conducted 

 two highly successful expeditions into the 

 Pamir for linguistic exploration. Hardly had 

 he reached the Pamir for the second time in 

 July, 1914, when news of the outbreak of the 

 war determined him to return to Prance and 

 to take his place in the defense of his coun- 

 try, distinguishing himself by his bravery 

 and receiving the eroix de guerre. 



The loss caused to science by his premature 

 and tragical death is irreparable. He has left 

 in straitened circumstances a widow and four 

 daughters, the youngest being three years of 

 age. A committee has been organized for the 

 purpose of raising a Gauthiot Memorial Fund 

 in commemoration of the great scholar, this 

 fund to be utilized for the maintenance of his 

 destitute family and for the publication of a 

 Gauthiot Memorial Volume. Any further in- 

 formation, if desired, will be gladly given by 

 the secretary. Contributions which will be 

 gratefully acknowledged may be sent to some 

 member of the American committee, or if pre- 

 ferred, directly by draft on Paris to Professor 

 A. Meillet (65 rue dAlesia, Paris STV", 

 Prance), treasurer of the French Board of 

 Trustees for the Gauthiot Memorial Fund. 



The American committee consists of : 



Martin A. Eyerson, 134 South La SaUe Street, Chi- 

 cago — Honorary President. 



A. V. Williams Jaekson, professor of Iranian and 

 Sanskvit, Columbia University, New York. 



James H. Breasted, professor of Egyptology and 

 Oriental History, University of Chicago. 



Walter E. Clark, professor of Sanskrit, University 

 of Chicago. 



