760 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XIX. No. 489. 



The second paper, by A. H. Taylor, on ' Kes- 

 onance in Aerial Systems,' was a discussion 

 by the author of some recent advances in wire- 

 less telegraphy; it was illustrated and showed 

 the fourfold tuning necessary for the trans- 

 mission of large amounts of energy. The 

 sender, the two aerials and the receiver were 

 successively attuned, enough energy being 

 transmitted several meters to light three small 

 incandescent lamps. Victor Lenher, 



Secretary. 



THE ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY OF 

 THE UNn'ERSITY OF NORTH C.UtOLINA. 



The 154th meeting was held in the Physics 

 Lecture Room, Tuesday evening, April 12. 

 The following papers were presented: 



Professor C. L. Kaper : ' The World's Produc- 

 tion and Consumption of Coal.' 



Professor H. V. Wilson : ' Grafting in Verte- 

 brate Embryos.' 



Professor R. H. Whitehead : ' Protozoa in 

 Smallpox.' 



A. S. Wheeler, 

 Recording Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



SCIENCE, NATURE AND CRITICISM. 



There appeared in a recent number of 

 Science a somewhat unscientifically savage 

 attack upon William J. Long and his books 

 by Mr. William Morton Wheeler. The at- 

 tack, which was ostensibly made on scientific 

 grounds, was speedily followed by another and 

 more personal one, written by Mr. Frank M. 

 Chapman, and by a third by Mr. W. F. Gan- 

 ong, who, on the principle that ' any stick will 

 do to beat a dog with,' sent in an old criticism 

 that was first published and answered in a 

 St. John newspaper. The first object of the 

 present article is to examine these attacks, 

 and see what truth underlies them. 



Very obviously there are two questions here, 

 a question of animals and a question of ani- 

 mus. With the latter we have nothing what- 

 ever to do, except to deplore it. The original 

 Atlantic attack upon the books in question, 

 which was quoted and commended, can hardly 

 be regarded as scientific, so far as this means 

 a calm, dispassionate sifting of facts and evi- 



dence; and the writers, in following their 

 leader, have been, perhaps, too much influ- 

 enced by the great Frenchman's maxim that 

 ' among wolves one must howl a little.' But, 

 laying all that aside, the readers of Science 

 have undoubtedly asked, how much truth is 

 there in these animal stories, which have not 

 only been called in question but have been 

 denounced as falsehoods and inventions? 



I take the most incredible of all, the case 

 of the woodcock that set his broken leg in a 

 clay cast, which was ridiculed by Mr. Wheeler 

 in Science of February 26. Now, forgetting 

 all the ridicule and misrepresentation and 

 facetiousness of the article, what evidence 

 have we for believing the story as recorded? 

 For myself, having seen the incident, it has 

 passed beyond the realm of opinion or belief 

 into the realm of fact. Nevertheless, I pass 

 over this, and also over the strong supplemen- 

 tary testimony of my friend, who might be 

 considered as partial, to submit other evidence 

 of which there can be no reasonable doubt as 

 to its truth or disinterestedness. 



Soon after the surgery article first appeared 

 in The Outlook, the editors of that magazine 

 received a letter from a lady in Gallon, Ohio, 

 who told of finding a woodcock that had set 

 its broken leg in a clay cast in a way precisely 

 similar to that recorded in the article on 

 ' Animal Surgery.' When the attack of Mr. 

 Wheeler, in Science, was called to my atten- 

 tion, I wrote to the lady, asking her to send 

 me any supplementary details of her observa- 

 tion and the names of any other reputable 

 people who might know of the circumstances. 

 Here is the result — and I have submitted all 

 documents and letters to the editor of Science 

 that there may be no question as to their 

 genuineness : 



My dear Dr. Long : 



The eireumstanees in regard to the woodcock 

 are just as my father writes (see following letter), 

 but I send a few facts in addition to those he has 

 given. A short time before my father shot the 

 bird we had read that the woodcock can put its 

 own leg into a clay cast, but this hardly seemed 

 credible. I was cleaning the game and had cut 

 off the legs of the woodcock before I noticed that 

 one leg had upon it a lump of dried mud. Im- 

 mediately what I had read flashed through my 



