524 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1006 



the north, with its highly standardized 

 school system, may have to import its 

 scientific spirit from the corn and canning 

 clubs of the south? If we science teachers 

 wish to avert such a humiliating catas- 

 trophe, there is but one thing to do ; go to 

 work and develop an equally eificient in- 

 dustrial science in the schools. 



This is the only thing that will statisfy 

 the present demand of the public and con- 

 vert the schools of a machineless age into 

 educational institutions that will turn out 

 pupils competent to understand and to 

 cope with this age of machines. For ma- 

 chines are one of the products of science; 

 and if they have caused misery and slavery 

 among workmen and have reduced human 

 beings to machines, it is because they have 

 been owned and manipulated by men who 

 did not possess the scientific spirit. Ma- 

 chines are bound to master and to control 

 men who try to manage them with words 

 or with the ideals of the past machineless 

 age. Only men with the true scientific 

 spirit are able to understand the real mean- 

 ing of machines and to use their power for 

 the uplift of humanity. Only men with 

 the sacred faith can ever hope to master 

 and to control them permanently. 



C. E. Mann 



The University of Chicago 



THE FUNCTIONS OF AN ENFIBONMENT^ 

 In its nature the present paper falls within 

 the field of abstract physical science, and it 

 can, I fear, interest biologists only through 

 its conclusions. But there is reason to be- 

 lieve that by means of these conclusions a 

 trustworthy foundation for the systematic 

 study of the environment may be established. 

 The result of my recent inquiry into the re- 

 lation between the organism and the environ- 

 ment^ has been, as I believe, proof that a 



1 Read before the American Society of Natural- 

 ists, December 31, 1913. 



2 ' ' The Fitness of the Environment : An In- 

 quiry into the Biological Significance of the 



hitherto unrecognized order exists among the 

 properties of the elements. This new order is, 

 so to speak, hidden, when one considers the 

 properties of matter abstractly and statically. 

 It becomes evident only when time is taken 

 into consideration. It has a dynamical sig- 

 nificance, and relates to evolution.^ It is asso- 

 ciated with the periodic system of the elements 

 in somewhat the same way that the functional 

 order is related to the structural order in biol- 

 ogy. Hence it is not independent of the other 

 order, but may be said to lie masked within it. 



This is no novel experience, that the con- 

 sideration of phenomena in time should lead 

 to new points of view. In truth, it might 

 almost have been said a priori that a new 

 order must be revealed by a study of the prop- 

 erties of matter in relation to evolution. 



This order may be described abstractly 

 as follows: — The properties of matter are 

 not evenly distributed among the elements, 

 nor in such a manner as can be explained by 

 the laws of chance, nor are they altogether dis- 

 tributed in the manner which the periodic 

 system describes. If the extremes be consid- 

 ered, all the physical and chemical properties 

 are distributed with the very greatest uneven- 

 ness, so that the extremes are concentrated 

 upon a few elements, notably hydrogen, oxy- 

 gen and carbon. As a result of this fact there 

 arise certain characteristics of the cosmic proc- 

 ess which could not otherwise occur. 



The characteristics which make up this 

 unique ensemble include the greater number 

 of characteristics and especially the most im- 

 portant and the most conspicuous physical and 

 chemical properties. This order has for cosmic 

 and organic evolution extremely important re- 

 sults — maximal stability of physico-chemical 

 conditions and maximal complexity in the 

 physico-chemical make-up of the surface of a 

 planet; further, the possibility of maximal 

 complexity, durability and activity of physico- 

 chemical systems in such an environment. 



All the considerations upon which these 

 results are based are purely physico-chemical, 



Properties of Matter," New York, The Mac- 

 millan Company, 1913. 



3 I do not, of course, refer to radioactivity, and 

 the possible evolution of the elements. 



