October 18, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



521 



The number of students in the school of 

 biology of the Univei"sity of Pennsylvania 

 has greatly increased. More than 300 

 students are taking the biological courses, 

 about one-third of these being women. 



The Spring Garden Institute of Philadel- 

 phia has received a gift of $100,000 from 

 the heirs of Samuel Jeanes, who supported 

 the Institute with great generosity during 

 his lifetime. 



M. H. White, of Cincinnati, and his 

 brother, F. T. White, of ISTew York, have 

 given $25,000 to Earlham College at Eich- 

 mond, Ind., in memory of their father, the 

 late John T. White. The College is sup- 

 ported by the Society of Friends. 



Dr. a. H. Thoendike has been appointed 

 instructor in mathematics in Boston Uni- 

 versity. 



De. G. p. Geimsley, of Topeka, Kansas, 

 has accepted the professorship of geology 

 and natural history in Washburn College. 



Lafayette College will hold a celebra- 

 tion on October 24th in honor of Professor 

 Francis A. March, the distinguished phi- 

 lologist, who this fall completes his seventi- 

 eth year and forty years of service in the 

 College. The exercises will begin at 11 

 a. m., in the auditorium of Pardee Hall, 

 ex-President W. C. Cattell presiding, and 

 will consist of an address by Professor W. 

 B. Owen on Dr. March and his work for 

 Lafayette, and several addresses by Dr. 

 March's fellow laborers in the field of Eng- 

 lish language and philology ; Dr. Wm. T. 

 Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Education ; 

 Professor T. E. Lounsbury, of Yale ; Profes- 

 sor J. W. Bright, of Johns Hopkins, and 

 Professor Thos. R. Price, of Columbia. 



Lehigh Univeesity celebrated Founder's 

 Day on Thursday, October 10th. An ad- 

 dress was delivered in the Packer Memorial 

 church by the President, Dr. Thomas M. 

 Drown. 



The Council of University College, Dun- 

 dee, has appointed to the new Harris chair 

 of physics Dr. J. P. Kuenen, Ph. D., of the 

 University of Leyden, Holland. 



Me. George Saintsbuey has been ap- 

 pointed professor of rhetoric and English 

 literature in the University of Edinburgh. 



Db. W. Biedeemann, professor of physi- 

 ology at Jena, has received a call to the 

 University at Graz. Dr. Adolf Heyd- 

 weiller, of Strassburg, has been made 

 assistant professor of physics in the Uni- 

 versity of Breslau. 



De. Otto Jaekel has been promoted to 

 be a professor of paleontology at Berlin. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



professor beooks on consciousness and 

 volition. 



In Science of October 4th Professor Brooks 

 has a letter on two communications in previous 

 numbers by Professor Gage, of Cornell Univer- 

 sity, and myself, in which he expresses objec- 

 tions to them. It is necessary that I state the 

 names of the authors of these articles, as Pro- 

 fessor Brooks unaccountably does not do so. 



Professor Brooks' objection is to a supposed 

 assumption of knowledge on the part of these 

 persons which he is sure that they do not pos- 

 sess, and he is wilUng to characterize their as ■ 

 sumption by no worse a term than ' poetry. ' In 

 any case, he says, it is not science. His objec- 

 tions extend not only to the papers criticised, 

 but to the societies which are supposed to have 

 endorsed such views by electing one of their 

 authors ' many times president ; ' they will 

 logically extend also to the societies who have 

 elected the other one president, though Pro- 

 fessor Brooks does not refer to them. 



Professor Brooks' specific objection is to the 

 assumption that ' ' consciousness and volition can 

 cause structure or anything else." He also 

 varies the proposition thus : "If we admit, as I 

 think we must, that for all we know an oak 

 tree may have volition and may do as it likes, 

 what evidence is there that it ever likes to do 

 anything which it would not do in any case by 



