418 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1055 



cited the nervous events associated with 

 the state of consciousness do indeed play a 

 conspicuous role. If, however, the essen- 

 tial thing about this reaction is what we 

 have suggested, namely, that the connec- 

 tion between afferent and efferent fibers is 

 a path blazed through the nervous sub- 

 stance rather than a definite localized con- 

 duction through specialized neurones, it 

 would seem that consciousness comes so 

 frequently into play merely because it is 

 through the nervous substance of the cere- 

 brum that such paths can be blazed most 

 readily, and the activity of cerebral centers 

 carries with it as a usual thing a state of 

 consciousness. If this be true there is no 

 reason why conditioned reflex associations 

 may not arise between subcortical as well 

 as between cortical centers ; it is only neces- 

 sary that the centers be simultaneously ac- 

 tive, reflexly or otherwise; and possibly 

 some cases of associated action of two bul- 

 bar or spinal centers — respiratory and 

 vaso-motor, or respiratory and cardio-in- 

 hibitory — may be of this kind rather than 

 distinct collateral connections between the 

 neurones of the two centers. This is, of 

 course, only a surmise, but it is clearly a 

 possibility and certainly there is no evi- 

 dence whatever to exclude it. We have 

 been too quick to assume that coordinations 

 are always effected by the same mechanism, 

 and that too the kind of mechanism pic- 

 tured in our typical reflex arc. An un- 

 proved assumption ; and so long as it is an 

 unproved assumption it is the logical thing 

 to keep in separate categories the two 

 classes of reactions which to-day are almost 

 universally thought of as one and the same. 

 Theodore Hough 

 Univeksity of Virginia 



THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW BUILDING 

 OF THE MELLON INSTITUTE 



The 5iew $350,000 building which will form 

 the permanent home of the Mellon Institute 



of Industrial Eesearch and School of Specific 

 Industries of the University of Pittsburgh, 

 was formally dedicated on February 26. This 

 building, the gift of Messrs. Andrew William 

 and Richard Beatty MeUon, of Pittsburgh, was 

 especially designed for the needs of the insti- 

 tute; it is distinctly modern in every respect, 

 and complete facilities are provided for the 

 investigation of manufacturing problems and 

 for conducting industrial research according 

 to the practical system of cooperation between 

 science and industry, founded by the late 

 director of the institute, Dr. Eobert Kennedy 

 Duncan. By this system, an industrialist hav- 

 ing a problem requiring solution may become 

 the donor of a fellowship by providing the 

 salary of the researcher selected to carry out 

 the investigation desired, the institute supply- 

 ing every facility for the work — laboratory 

 space, the necessary apparatus and supplies, 

 library facilities and advice of a staff expert 

 in industrial research, etc. 



The new home of the Mellon Institute is a 

 five-story and attic building. The basement 

 contains seven rooms : the main storeroom, the 

 boiler room, the electric furnace room, a heavy 

 apparatus room, a room equipped for low-tem- 

 perature work, the machine shop and a 

 kitchen. On the first, the main floor, are lo- 

 cated the general office, the director's suite, 

 the office of the editorial department, the li- 

 brary, the office and laboratory of the assistant 

 directors, the assembly hall, a special apparatus 

 room and a dark-room laboratory. The second 

 and third floors each contain ten large research 

 laboratories and nine small ones; the fourth 

 floor, which is not finished, will contain an 

 identical number of laboratories as soon as 

 the growth of the institute warrants its com- 

 pletion.i At the present time twenty-three 

 fellowships are in operation and forty research 

 chemists are engaged in a study of the variety 

 of industrial problems under investigation at 

 the institute. 



While the Mellon Institute possesses an en- 

 dowment of its own and has its own board of 

 trustees, it is an integral part of the Univer- 



1 For a full description of the new building of 

 the Mellon Institute, see The Journal of Industrial 

 and Engineering Chemistry for April, 1915. 



