SCIENCE 



Friday, April 8, 1910 



CONTENTS 

 The Debt of Physics to Metaphysics: Peo- 

 FESSOE Henet Ceew 521 



Charles Reid Barnes: Peofessob Henet C. 

 CowLES 532 



A National Bureau of Seismology 534 



Scientific Notes and News 534 



TJniv&rsity and Educational News 537 



Discussion a/nd Correspondence: — 

 Some Additional Considerations as to the 

 Carnegie Foundation: Peofessoe J. M. 

 Aldeich. Kahlenherg's Chemistry: De. 

 Abthue John Hopkins. Botanical-eduoa- 

 tional Information wanted: Peofessoe W. 

 F. Ganong 538 



Scientific Journals and Articles 540 



Scientific Books: — 



Steinmetz on Radiation, Light and Illu- 

 mination: De. Edw. p. Hyde. Hubrecht on 

 Die Saugetierontogenese: Peofessoe Wm. 

 B. RiTTEE. Jordan's Th^ Story of Matka: 

 V. L. K. Russell and Kelly's First-year 

 Science for Secondary Schools: Peofessoe 

 John F. Woodhtill 540 



Special Articles: — 



Pulsations in Scyphomedusw deprived of 

 their Marginal Organs : De. Max Moese . . 544 



The Society of American Bacteriologists : De. 

 Noeman MacLeod Haeeis 545 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Philosophical Society of Washington: 

 R. L. Faeis. The Anthropological Society 

 of Washington: I. M. Casanowicz. The 

 American Chemical Society, Rhode Island 

 Section: Albeet W. Clafun; Northeastern 

 Section: F. E. Gaulaghee. The American 

 Philosophical Society 557 



MSB. intended for publication and books, etc., Intended for 

 review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson. N. Y. 



THE DEBT OF PHYSICS TO METAPHYSICS'- 

 If I venture to address this society upon 

 a subject where I am very liable, perhaps 

 even likely, to be misunderstood, please 

 bear in mind that I do so only in the belief 

 that it is a matter of no small importance 

 for workers in any one science to realize 

 fully the limitations as well as the powers 

 of their own science. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to add, that while I shall consider a 

 phase of physics which has little to do with 

 experiment, I am not for an instant un- 

 mindful of the fact that ours is an experi- 

 mental science, and that all the really great 

 achievements in physics have been wrought 

 through, or have led up to, or have been 

 completed by, experiment and observation. 

 This remark is doubtless true even of the 

 supreme work of Newton, Fresnel and 

 Maxwell. Nor am I forgetful that in days 

 gone by the normal development of sound 

 physics has been much retarded by meta- 

 physics. 



Second to none in my admiration of the 

 man who has contributed even a single ex- 

 perimental fact to either the foundation 

 or superstructure of the edifice which we 

 call modern physics, I invite your attention 

 for a few moments to the debit side of the 

 account as it stands between the physicist 

 and metaphysician. This I do with no 

 little trepidation, remembering how easily 

 one may, even with the utmost good will, 

 go astray in a strange field of thought. 

 Metaphysics is a term employed with such 

 a variety of meanings that I must, at the 

 very outset, explain the one sense in which 



^ Presidential address before the American 

 Physical Society in New York, March 5, 1910. 



