330 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 478. 



clearer insight into the causal relations of 

 things about him. 



The thought element is ever dominant. 

 He goes from strength to strength until no 

 task seems too diiScult for his disciplined 

 powers. 



Two young men stand before an intricate 

 machine. They are told that their success 

 in life depends in large measure on their 

 ability to understand and use it. One ex- 

 amines piece by piece the parts of which 

 it is composed. He discovers the way in 

 which these parts are connected, the ma- 

 terial of which they are made, their size, 

 their strength, their beauty. After long 

 and arduous study, he knows very much 

 about the machine but he can not put it in 

 motion, he can not make it work, he can do 

 nothing with it except to admire its per- 

 fection of form. 



The other student begins to construct 

 another machine like the one shown him. 

 As it grows under his hands, he is con- 

 stantly using it for every operation to 

 which it can be applied. As it approaches 

 completion he admires more and more its 

 adaptability and wide range of useful ap- 

 plications. Its beauty no longer affects 

 him greatly, but he is lost in wonder 

 and admiration before its marvelous 

 power. This power he harnesses to the car 

 of progress and he himself becomes one of 

 the benefactors of his race. 



Do we need to stop long to discover who 

 is the 'man thinking'? 



In later years mathematical instruction 

 in this country has greatly improved in its 

 thought content, but it has responded slowly 

 and conservatively to modern methods. We 

 are still more English than German. In the 

 work of training a master of the physical 

 sciences the text-book and. the senseless 

 repetition of words and formulas falling 

 upon the dull ear of an instructor half 

 asleep have been replaced by the lecture, 

 the laboratory and the seminarium. Why 



should not mathematics, so intimately re- 

 lated to them, follow their lead and partake 

 in the benefits of modern methods carried 

 to their legitimate and logical completion? 

 C. A. Waldo. 

 Purdue University. 



TBE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 



The winter meeting of the American 

 Physical Society was held in cooperation 

 with Section B of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science at 

 St. Louis, joint sessions being held on 

 December 29-31, 1903. The business 

 meeting of the Physical Society was held 

 on December 30, and the program for that 

 day consisted of Physical Society papers. 



The meeting was a distinctly successful 

 one. The program, consisting of twelve 

 papers, was as large as could be satisfac- 

 torily handled, and contained several 

 papers of exceptional interest. While 

 comparatively few eastern members were 

 present, the attendance was, nevertheless, 

 well up to the average of previous 'annual' 

 meetings. The large attendance of physi- 

 cists from the middle west, most of whom 

 are only rarely able to attend the meetings 

 in New York, offered a strong argument in 

 favor of more frequent meetings in that 

 part of the country. 



At the annual election the officers of the 

 past year were reelected, i. e., 



President — A. G. Webster. 

 Vice-President — Elihu Thomson. 

 Secretary — Ernest Merritt. 

 Treasurer — William Halloek. 

 Members of the Council — Messrs. E. Rutherford 

 and W. S. Franklin. 



It was decided to hold the spring meeting 

 of the society (1904) in Washington, this 

 action being taken in consequence of a 

 cordial invitation extended to the society 

 by the Philosophical Society of that city. 

 Not only is the local membership of the 

 society in Washington large, but the ad- 



