286 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 582. 



Simply that when in the course of events 

 an investigator is given great opportunities, 

 it should be assumed that he is a heaven- 

 born Lucifer, and will act accordingly. 

 Should he prove unequal to the trust re- 

 posed, and his ways be ways of darkness— 

 not of light— another must be entered in 

 his place, but a truce to half-way measures. 

 Eesearch with a string to it suffers too 

 many drawbacks. 



Yet, even with freedom and right intel- 

 lectual surroundings, we as investigators 

 can hardly lay too much emphasis on the 

 frame of mind in which we approach the 

 problems that confront us. By our com- 

 mon methods, and even by our metaphors, 

 we too often seem to advance upon the 

 undiscovered country a,s though the chief 

 desire were to reclaim it anyhow and any 

 way, so that it were done rapidly and before 

 others could arrive. This is a notion bor- 

 rowed from the creed of economics, but it 

 does not fit research. The endowment of 

 research can foster more than this. Just 

 as the frontier is not only the locality of 

 active advance, but also the place where 

 strong frontiersmen grow, so the chief gain 

 coming from those stationed on the boun- 

 -daries of science is not the mere reclama- 

 tion of the wilderness, but far more, the 

 improvement of the scientific breed, for as 

 Tve advance the problems become rapidly 

 anore difficult, and it is only the abler men 

 "who can push on the work. For us then 

 it becomes a privilege, if not a duty, to so 

 work together that in this country the en- 

 dowment of research shall be adjusted to 

 preserve the intellectual stimulus and the 

 scientific freedom which the universities 

 afford, while it removes some of the draw- 

 backs 'thereunto appertaining,' and so ad- 

 ministered that in stimulating scientific 

 activity, it shall do this not only and not 

 mainly for the sake of immediate returns, 

 but also, and even more, for the sake of the 

 effect which the experience must have on 



those who do the work— aiming to develop 

 the better man to meet the greater problem. 

 Henry H. Donaldson. 



AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOB THE AD- 

 VANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. 

 SECTION E— GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY} 



The section was called to order by Pro- 

 fessor Eugene A. Smith, retiring vice-presi- 

 dent, who introduced and resigned the 

 chair to his successor. Professor William 

 North Rice. On motion Professor L. C. 

 Glenn, of Vanderbilt University, was 

 elected secretary pro tern, in the absence 

 of the regular secretary of the section, 

 B. 0. Hovey. President C. R. Van Hise 

 was elected a member of the council, Pro- 

 fessor E. H. Barbour a member of the 

 general committee and Professor L. C. 

 Glenn press secretary. Fifty-nine mem- 

 bers of the association were recommended 

 for promotion to fellowship, forty of them 

 on the basis of their membership in socie- 

 ties of high technical standing. 



The address of the retiring Vice-president, 

 Professor Eugene A. Smith, was on the 

 subject 'On some Post-Eocene and Other 

 Formations of the Gulf Region of the 

 United States,' and will be printed in full 

 in Science. Eleven other papers were 

 upon the program, six of which were read 

 in full by their authors. The other five 

 were read in abstract or in full by the 

 secretary pro tern, in the absence of their 

 authors. Abstracts of all the papers read 

 follow : 



On the Use of the Words Synclinorium 



and Anticlinorium : William North 



Rice. 



A technical term once introduced should 

 be retained in the original sense. If in 

 the progress of thought the concept which 

 a word expresses ceases to be useful, the 

 word may become obsolete, but should not 

 be used to express a totally different idea. 



' New Orleans meetine. 



