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, Febbuary 14, 1908 



co'nte'nts 



Some Present-day Problems of Biological 

 Chemistry: Pkofessob Russell H. Chit- 

 tenden 241 



The American Society of Vertebrate Pale- 

 ontology: Professor F. B. Loomis 254 



The New Education in China: President 

 Charles F. Thwing 256 



Scientific Books: — 

 Howell's Text-book of Physiology: Pro- 

 fessor W. B. Cannon. Hamausek on The 

 Microscopy of Technical Products: Dr. 

 Henry Kraemee. Archiv fur Optik: M. 

 B. S 262 



Scientific Journals and Articles 265 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Biological Society of Washington: Dr. 

 M. C. Marsh. The Torrey Botanical Club : 

 Dr. C. Stuart Gager 266 



Discussion and Correspondence; — 



The Temperature of the Sun: Dr. Frank 

 vV. Very. The Fauna of Russian River, 

 California, and its Relation to that of the 

 Sacramento: Dr. J. O. Snyder. The Moth- 

 proofing of Woolens: Adele M. Fielde. 

 Pink Katydids : J. Stanford Brown 267 



Special Articles: — 



Right-handedness and Peripheral Vision: 

 Dr. H. C. Stevens. Tertiary Deposits of 

 Northeastern Mexico : E. T. Dumble 272 



Anopheles Breeding in Sea-water: Dr. L. O. 



Howard 274 



Scientific Notes and News 275 



University and Educational News 280 



Mas. iutended for publication and booka, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudaon. N. Y. 



SOME OF THE PRESENT-DAY PROBLEMS 

 OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY* 

 During the past few decades there has 

 been gradually developing in the biological 

 world a clearer recognition of the impor- 

 tance of a study of function, coupled with 

 a fuller appreciation of the great diversity 

 of the processes characteristic of life. It 

 has come to be the fashion for naturalists 

 — who up to comparatively recent times 

 were content mainly to study form and 

 structure — to turn their attention to ob- 

 servation of function, to learn how and 

 why certain things are accomplished. 

 Each decade has witnessed a broadening 

 of the point of view; in botany, zoology, 

 paleontology and geology new methods of 

 investigation have been gradually applied, 

 new relationships have been established, 

 and the study of life, past and present, 

 has taken on a new and broader signifi- 

 cance. The Mendelian law and the present 

 theories of genetics; the facts of modern 

 cytology and the theories of heredity con- 

 sequent thereto; the present-day experi- 

 ments in breeding and variation with the 

 conclusions to be drawn therefrom; the 

 modern methods and theories of physiology 

 in general; are the natural outcome of a 

 progressive scientific activity where the 

 study of function has come to occupy a 

 prominent position and where the experi- 



* Address of the president of the American 

 Society of Biological Chemists and chairman of 

 the Biological Section of the American Chemical 

 Society, at the joint meeting in Chicago, January 

 1, 1908. 



