592 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 406. 



that the only -assurance of freedom of action 

 lay in the personal statements of ' one or two 

 of our trustees.' His meaning will doubtless 

 be clear to those familiar with the basis of 

 agreement, but as a statement to scientific 

 men in general, who are not fully cognizant of 

 the true situation, it is somewhat misleading. 

 It is due alike to the Carnegie Institution and 

 to the scientific public to state that the entire 

 scientific management of the laboratory, under 

 the proposed arrangement, is placed in the 

 hands of a representative hoard of scientific 

 men, the constitution, powers and functions of 

 which are fully defined in a set of by-laws 

 roughly drafted by our own representatives in 

 consultation with those of the Carnegie Insti- 

 tution, submitted in writing to every member 

 of our board of trustees, discussed and modi- 

 fied in subsequent meetings of conference com- 

 mittees, and finally adopted by unanimous 

 vote of the board at their last meeting before 

 action by the corporation. Nominated to the 

 Carnegie trustees by members of the labora- 

 tory, and subject only to the limits of the 

 appropriations made by the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion and of income from other sources, this 

 board of managers is given entire control of 

 the scientific management of the laboratory 

 and its dependencies, and is by the by-laws 

 constituted an advisory council to the Car- 

 negie Institution. The only conditions limit- 

 ing the action of this board were that it should 

 include one representative of the Carnegie 

 trustees, and that, in accordance with the 

 terms of Mr. Carnegie's endowment, the Car- 

 negie funds were not to be devoted to purposes 

 of elementary instruction. To many of the 

 trustees and members of the corporation it has 

 seemed that this organization not only gave 

 the scientific management the utmost freedom 

 consistent with sound financial management, 

 but by the constitution of the board as an 

 advisory council to the institution gave it full 

 opportunity to exert its influence in molding 

 the future policy and development of the labo- 

 ratory. 



Whether the working plan thus outlined is 

 adequate to the present needs and future de- 

 velopment of the laboratory is no doubt open 

 to discussion; and it may be stated on good 



authority that it will not be consummated, 

 either in its present form or with modifica- 

 tions, without giving abundant further oppor- 

 tunity for such consideration. To maintain, 

 however, that such a plan involves the aban- 

 donment of the principles of scientific repre- 

 sentation, cooperation and freedom, would I 

 think be at variance with the facts. That the 

 laboratory has hitherto stood for these prin- 

 ciples, and owes its success largely to their 

 successful application, is undeniable ; and that 

 such cooperation has been possible in so large 

 a measure is a lasting honor to American 

 biologists. But before adopting a pessimistic 

 view of the prospects of retaining the real 

 substance of these much-to-be-desired bless- 

 ings under the proposed Carnegie reorganiza- 

 tion, it may be well to ask ourselves, in all 

 candor, whether the history of the laboratory 

 under its existing organization has left us 

 above criticism. 



Edmund B. Wilson, 

 Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Ma- 

 rine Biological Laboratory during the period of 

 the negotiations ivith the Carnegie Institution. 



THE COOLING OF GASES BY EXPANSION AND THE 

 KINETIC THEORY. 



In Science for August 22 there appears an 

 abstract of a communication presented by Mr. 

 Peter Fireman at the last meeting of the 

 American Association, in which the cooling 

 and heating effects in the classical experiment 

 of Joule are referred to a sort of fractioning 

 process of the slow and swift molecules. How 

 rigorous a treatment he has given the subject 

 I am unable to judge from the abstract, in 

 which it is merely stated that, if a molecule 

 enters the vacuum receiver at a high velocity, 

 it will retain this velocity, while if a slower 

 moving one enters, it will soon meet with a 

 swifter one and exchange velocities with it. 

 Just how the fractioning process occurs is not 

 very clearly stated. 



This same explanation, only in a much more 

 complete form, was given by Natanson more 

 than thirteen years ago. His treatment will 

 be found in Wiedemann's Annalen, Vol. 

 XXXVII., page 341. E. W. Wood. 



San Francisco, 

 September 8, 1902. 



