794 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 594. 



this aid! We must admire them; but how rare 

 they are! 



Of these marvelous and rare ones is David 

 Hilbert, the master of logical analysis in 

 mathematics. Gifted with brilliant logical 

 power of combination, he creates from out his 

 very self, entirely by generalization, by sepa- 

 ration, by union, by aggregation of mathe- 

 matical concepts, so that no outer stimulus, 

 dependent upon intuition, is recognizable. 

 Logical rigor and elegance of demonstration 

 are for him adequate requirements, and he 

 is convinced that logical precision — rightly 

 grasped — must lead, never to sterilization, but 

 constantly to fruitful further development of 

 mathematical ideas. He applies himself by 

 preference in his investigations to the most 

 difficult, long-unsettled problems, whose es- 

 sence he with marvelous penetration is able 

 so to seize, that his considerations not only 

 completely solve these problems, but often 

 bring to a final settlement also the whole 

 theory to which these problems pertain. 



Mention is then made, among many other 

 achievements, of the wonderful ' Grundlagen 

 der Geometric' which seems destined to fix 

 what men shall henceforth take as the axioms 

 of geometry, and to establish the criterion of 

 what shall be and shall not be elementary 

 demonstrative geometry. 



All hail! Poincare the supreme mathe- 

 matician, Hilbert the supreme logician, philos- 

 ophers, scientists both! 



George Bruce Halsted. 



Kenton College, 

 Gambiee, Ohio. 



THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



May 7. — Under a suspension of the rules, 

 House Resolution 18,435 to authorize the Sec- 

 retary of Commerce and Labor to cooperate 

 through the Bureau of the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey and the Bureau of Fisheries with the 

 Shell Fish Commissioners of the State of 

 Maryland in making surveys of the natural 

 oyster beds, bars and rocks in the waters with- 

 in the State of Maryland passed the House of 

 Representatives. 



May 7. — Under a suspension of the rules, 

 House Resolution 13,543 for the protection 



and regulation of the fisheries of Alaska, with 

 amendments, passed the House of Representa- 

 tives. 



May 10. — Mr. Perkins, of California, intro- 

 duced a bill (Senate 6,119) for the protection 

 of animals, birds and fish in forest reserves 

 of California. Referred to the Committee on 

 Forest Reservations and the Protection of 

 Game. 



A NEW BVILDINO FOR THE GEOLOGICAL 

 SURVEY. 



The need of the United States Geological 

 Survey for a new building in Washington, 

 D. C, is most pressing, as every one who visits 

 the survey in its present quarters must realize. 



This bureau gives permanent employment 

 to about 1,000 persons, and temporary field 

 employment, chiefly in summer, to nearly as 

 many more. Of this force about 600 are en- 

 gaged at times, and during all of every winter, 

 on office work in Washington. For their ac- 

 commodation two buildings are at present 

 rented, one at 1330 F Street, N. W., for gen- 

 eral office work, and one in the adjoining alley 

 for the exclusive use of the division of en- 

 graving and printing. The floor space occu- 

 pied, including basement, amounts to 105,670 

 square feet, which is quite inadequate. Even 

 the corridors have to be utilized for desk space 

 or map cases. It is necessary to supply quar- 

 ters for some employees in the National Mu- 

 seum and Smithsonian Institution and others 

 are permitted for lack of proper office accom- 

 modations to work at home. 



A large part of the survey office work is of 

 such character as to demand much more space 

 than that sufficient merely for the desks and 

 chairs of employees. Chemists, physicists, 

 photographers, petrographers, draftsmen, en- 

 gravers, lithographers and other specialists 

 must have room for their instruments, appa- 

 ratus, maps, working specimens, drawings, 

 lithographic stones, presses, etc. There is no 

 doubt but that the degree of crowding to 

 which the office force is now subjected dimin- 

 ishes the quantity and depreciates the quality 

 of their work. 



Even though the buildings now occupied by 

 the survey were sufficiently commodious, they 



