SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Friday, April 22, 1904. 



CONTENTS: 

 The Growth and Function of the Modern 

 Laboratory : Professor S. Lawrence Bige- 

 Low 641 



Is the Course for College Entrance Require- 

 ments iest for those who go no further? 

 Dr. James G. Needham 650 



Seientifie Books: — 



Reports of the Belgian Antarctic Expedi- 

 tion: Dr. W. H. Daix 656 



Scientific Journals and Articles 659 



Experimental Psychology. The Philosoph- 

 ical Society of Washington: Charles K. 

 Wead. The Academy of Science of St. 

 Louis. Clemson College Science Gluh: F. 

 S. Shiver 659 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



The University of Cincinnati and its Presi- 

 dency: X. Natural and Unnatural His- 

 tory: Wm. Harper Davis 661 



Special Articles: — 



The Encyclopedia Americana on Ichthyol- 

 ogy : Dr. Theo. Gill 675 



I'he Minnesota Seaside Station 676 



Scientific Notes and News 677 



University and Educational News 680 



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

 for review should be aent to the Editor of Science, Qarri- 

 aon-on-HudBon, N. Y. 



THE GROWTH AND FUNCTION OF THE 

 MODERN LABORATORY.* 



It is opportune, upon an occasion such 

 as this, when we are assembled at the dedi- 

 cation of the newest of scientific labora- 

 tories, to consider for a moment the process 

 of development by which they arrived at 

 the state of efficiency of which this build- 

 ing is so striking an example. Then, too, 

 it is of vital interest to those of us whose 

 work lies in laboratories, and of much more 

 than passing interest to every individual 

 in the community, to have a clear idea as 

 to what good purpose this and other sim- 

 ilar institutions may be expected to serve, 

 and how best they may accomplish that 

 purpose. 



The marvelous advances of the past 

 seventy-five years are well enough known 

 to us all, and never fail to fill us with 

 astonishment when we stop to think about' 

 them. Discoveries and applications of 

 discoveries have followed each other with 

 such rapidity that our sense of apprecia- 

 tion is in a measure blunted, and we fail 

 to realize adequately what they mean to 

 each one of us, in comfort and convenience. 

 No sooner did we become accustomed to 

 the fact that we could telegraph across the 

 ocean, than we were occupied in wondering 

 at our ability to telephone to any one with- 

 in a radius of several miles, and the great 

 present extension of this radius, and the 

 high probability that we shall be able to 

 talk across the Atlantic in a very few years, 

 does not meet appreciation to correspond 



* An address read at the dedication exercises of 

 Palmer Hall, Colorado College, February 22, 1904. 



