May 21, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



753 



the royal purple of hematoxylin before they 

 could be exposed to the awed gaze of the 

 beholder. Likewise, in 1899, when the name 

 of vom Eath was a word to conjure by ; con- 

 tinuing in 1900, when nerve endings were 

 the end and aim of all that was worth while, 

 he could only wonder and be silent. I re- 

 member in 1899 asking an acquaintance 

 that I had made the previous year what he 

 was working at. His reply was: "I have 

 been working for the past two years on the 

 nerve endings of Arenicola, but have not 

 got any results yet." But with the intro- 

 duction of experimental methods the epoch 

 of zoological fads came to an end. Now our 

 dweller beside the road listens with appre- 

 ciation to illuminating lectures on a vari- 

 ety of subjects, where problems new and 

 old are attacked from various and unusual 

 points of approach and by a multiplicity 

 of methods. He listens with delight to the 

 lecturers who announce the results of their 

 researches, but with a conviction that is 

 sometimes in inverse proportion to his 

 knowledge of the subject under discussion. 

 Often he is inclined to accept these conclu- 

 sions with enthusiasm, only to have his 

 enthusiasm chilled when he hears what the 

 lecturer's friends have to say about the lec- 

 ture on the following morning. 



When, in more recent years of the Fish 

 Commission, or Bureau of Fisheries, as it is 

 now called, Parker, with no other equip- 

 ment than a pair of hat-pins, demonstrated 

 the functions of the otoliths of fishes, and, 

 with an apparatus which he constructed 

 with the aid of a saw and hammer, supple- 

 mented by a simple surgical operation, dis- 

 covered the function of the lateral line in 

 fishes, and in equally simple fashion cleared 

 away the fog that enveloped our knowledge 

 of how much or how little fishes hear sounds 

 either above or beneath the water; when 

 Sumner showed by ingenious but easily 

 worked experiments the degree to which 



flat-fishes adapt themselves to their sur- 

 roundings; when Field gave proof as con- 

 vincing as that of the proverbial pudding 

 that Mytilus edulis is truly an edible, and 

 that the smooth dog-fish by some other name 

 would be eagerly sought in the markets; 

 when these pieces of original work and 

 others like them, of which many could be 

 named, are considered, we feel that they 

 represent in good degree the kind of inves- 

 tigation which would have won Professor 

 Baird's hearty sympathy and approval. I 

 am inclined to think, however, that he 

 would have viewed with still greater favor 

 the Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries for 

 1911 reporting a Biological Survey of the 

 Waters of Woods Hole and Vicinity. 



Edwin Linton 



Washington and Jefpeeson College, 

 Washington, Pa. 



TEE INTEENATIONAL ENGINEEBING 



CONGBESS 

 There will be held at San Francisco, from 

 September 20 to 25, .1915, an International 

 Engineering Congress, organized and con- 

 ducted under the auspices of the American So- 

 ciety of Civil Engineers, the American Insti- 

 tute of Mining Engineers, the American 

 Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Ameri- 

 can Institute of Electrical Engineers and the 

 Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engi- 

 neers. General G. W. Goethals has consented 

 to act as honorary president and is expected to 

 preside over its general sessions. The follow- 

 ing eminent engineers have consented to serve 

 the congress as honorary vice-presidents : Pro- 

 fessor Eichard Beck, Sir J. H. Biles, Otto T. 

 Blathy, Commander Christian Blom, Pro- 

 fessor Andre Blonde!, Dr. C. E. L. Brown, 

 Dr. Emil A. Budde, Henry Le Chatelier, Pro- 

 fessor Hermann HuUmann, Wm. Henry 

 Hunter, Professor Luigi Luiggi, Eear Ad- 

 miral Yoshihiko Mizutaui, W. M. Morday, Sir 

 Charles Parsons, Jean L. de PuUigny, V. E. 

 TimonofF, E. P. J. Tutein-Melthenius, H. H. 

 Vaughn, Sir Wm. WiUcocks. 



