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, December 15, 1905. 



CONTENTS. 



Resemblances and Differences among Ameri- 

 can Universities: Pkesident Charles W. 

 Eliot 76'.) 



Scientific Books : — 



Recent Books on the Physics of the Elec- 

 tron: Professor R. A. Millikan. Wundt's 

 Principles of Physiological Psychology : 

 Professor R. S. Woodworth 785 



Scientific Journals and Articles 790 



Societies and Academies: — 



TJie Convocation Week Meetings of Scien- 

 tific Societies. The Association of Teach- 

 ers of Mathematics 790 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Relations 'of Museums to Experts and 

 .Systematists who are engaged in Working 

 up and Naming Collections: Dr. W. J. 

 Holland. A Lecture Experiment in 

 Hydraulics: Professor W. S. Franklin. 

 The First Discovery of Fossil Seals in 

 America: Dr. F. W. True. A Blazing 

 Beach: Professor D. P. Penhallow. ' The 

 Collapse of Evolution ' : E. T. Brewster. . . 792 



Special Articles: — 



A New Miocene Artiodactyl: Professor 

 Erwin Hinckley Barbour. Note on the 

 Functions of tlie Fins of Fishes: A. Duges. 

 Laboratory Experiments loith CS. to deter- 

 mine the Least Amount of Gas and the 

 Least Time required to kill Certain Insects: 

 Dr. F. L. Washburn. A Note on the Calcu- 

 lation of Certain Probable Errors: Dr. 

 Raymond Pearl 7^7 



Botanical Notes: — 



HaUier's Natural System; The American 

 Forest Congress; More Plant Cell Studies: 

 Professor Charles E. Bessey 803 



The American Chemical Society 804 



Railway Rates for the New Orleans Meeting 805 



Scientific Notes and News 8()6 



University and Educational News 808 



MSS. intended for publication aud books, etc., intended 

 tor review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Gam- ' 

 soa-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



RESEMBLANCES AND DIFFERENCES AMONG 

 AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES."^ 



The American colleges and universities 

 seem to the public and to their own con- 

 stituencies to be very different; but as a 

 matter of fact they are much alike, and 

 what is more, they exhibit in a striking 

 degree the same tendencies. In durable 

 institutions tendency is quite as important 

 as actual condition. It is my purpose in 

 this lecture, first, to point out the funda- 

 mental similarities among the higher insti- 

 tutions of learning in the United States, 

 and then to indicate briefly the nature and 

 probable outcome of the differences they 

 exhibit. (I ought to premise, however, 

 that my remarks will have no application 

 to the group of American institutions 

 which derive from the Roman Church their 

 form of government, their discipline and 

 their program of studies. This firmly es- 

 tablished group of colleges, which are 

 chiefly under the control of the Society of 

 Jesus, breathe the American atmosphere, 

 and are not wholly inaccessible to the spirit 

 of modern science; but being essentially 

 ecclesiastical in structure and methods, 

 they bear little resemblance to the ordinary 



^ An address given by President Eliot, of Har- 

 vard University, at Yale University, on Novem- 

 ber 15. Last year a graduate of Harvard Uni- 

 versity gave anonymously to Yale University a 

 fund of $10,000, the income of which is to be 

 devoted to the promotion of friendly relations 

 between the two universities. The Yale author- 

 ities decided to appropriate the income for a 

 series of lectures from representatives of Harvard 

 University. President Eliot's address was the 

 first of that series. 



