440 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 40. 



who assert that volition is only an empty 

 shadow of the changes which go on in the 

 physical basis. So far as I can see, there 

 can be no compromise between these opin- 

 ions ; and the modus vivendi is a device of 

 the men of affairs, with which science has 

 no concern. 



Science still has many acute and well- 

 trained enemies, and if they should concen- 

 trate their forces in an attack upon biology 

 what better weapon could we place in their 

 hands than our own failure to agree ? 



Honesty of purpose and expediency unite 

 in the demand that we build biology upon 

 a foundation which can never be shaken; 

 and if we accept as our creed the assertion 

 that while we do not know whether life is 

 or is not different from matter, that while 

 we do not know whether thought is or is 

 not an agent, we should like to find out, we 

 need fear no attack by anything in the uni- 

 verse or outside it. 



I am tempted to add a word of comment 

 on one of my letters, as it bears upon the 

 case in point, and is a good illustration of 

 a belief which is held because it cannot be 

 disproved. 



It is accompanied by a book in which the 

 writer devotes literary training and skill 

 which many a scientific wi-iter might envy, 

 and eloquence and enthusiasm worthy of 

 any cause, to the thesis that the living world 

 is the work of ' Biologos;' a being who is said 

 to bear about the same relation to us as that 

 which we bear to the plants which we 

 cherish in our gardens from love of horti- 

 culture ;. a being who is very paternal, very 

 loving, very sympathetic and very super- 

 human, but still very far short of omnipo- 

 tence or omniscience. 



The writer seems to forget that there is 

 no new thing under the sun, and that ages 

 ago the first of naturalists failed to secure 

 appointment as successor to the head of a 

 school where very similar views had been 

 taught, on account of his refusal to advocate 



them, not because he thought he could dis- 

 prove them, but because he held that they 

 are not supported by evidence. 



W. K. Beooks. 



JOHXS HOPKIXS XJXIVEESITY. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY AS A FEATURE OF THE 



CHEMICAL CURBICULV3I* 

 When the Chairman of the Committee on 

 Didactic Chemistry sent me a flattering in- 

 vitation to address the Chemical Section on 

 some topic associating bibliographj' with 

 instruction, I hesitated to accept, for it 

 seemed to me that the matter was too ob- 

 vious to require discussion; but later, as 

 chairman of a committee whose duty it is 

 to encourage, in every possible way and on 

 all occasions, the indexing of chemical lit- 

 erature, I concluded it was my duty to 

 seize the opportunity of sajang a few words 

 in favor of introducing bibliographical re- 

 search into the chemical curriculum of our 

 American colleges. Could this be generally 

 done what a multitude of chemical indexes 

 to special topics might be secured! 



The matter is largely in the hands of the 

 heads of the chemical departments in our 

 institutions of learning. As in every 

 branch of instruction, in order to impart 

 to students a lively interest in the subject, 

 the teacher should himself have practical 

 experience in the approved methods of in- 

 dexing. He might introduce the subject 

 by a lecture on Chemical Literature, point- 

 ing out the most recent and the most useful 

 books and serials in the several branches of 

 the science, their special and relative val- 

 ues, and the best Avay to use them. The 

 teacher might exhibit a sample index in 

 MS., prepared on the index cards of the 

 Library Bureau, and he might explain to 

 those unfomiliar with library cataloguing 

 the technical methods employed. He 

 might also discuss the different ways of 

 *Read to the Cliemical Section of the American As- 

 sociation for tlie Aclwincement of Science, Springfield 

 Meeting, August, 1895. 



