954 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 703 



Yice-president and Chairman of the Section — 

 E. B. Wilson, Columbia University. 



Secretary — C. Judson Herrick, University of 

 Chicago. 



Mernber of the Council — C. H. Eigenmann, Indi- 

 ana University. 



Mernber of the General Committee — 6. E. Cog- 

 hill, Denison University. 



Sectional Committee — E. B. Wilson, vice-presi- 

 dent, 1908; E. G. Conklin, vice-president, 1907; 

 0. Judson Herrick, secretary; Frank Smith, one 

 year; W. E. Hitter, two years; A. W. Bleile, three 

 years; A. L. Treadwell, four years; C. C. Nutting, 

 five years. 



At the business session of the Central 

 Branch of Zoologists the following officers 

 were elected: 



President — ^E. A. Birge, University of Wisconsin. 



Vice-president — M. F. Guyer, University of Cin- 

 cinnati. 



Secretary-Treasurer — H. H. Newman, Univer- 

 sity of Michigan. 



Member of the Executive Committee for Three 

 Years — C. M. Child, University of Chicago. 



The following were elected to member- 

 ship in the Central Branch: Oscar Riddle, 

 V. E. Shelford, W. S. Miller, A. W. Meyer, 

 James A. Nelson, C. J. Herrick. 



Thomas G. Lee, 



Secretary 

 Univebsitt of Minnesota 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



A First Course in the Differential and Integral 

 Calculus. By William F. Osgood, Pro- 

 fessor of Mathematics in Harvard Univer- 

 sity. Pp. XV + 423. New York, The Mac- 

 millan Company. 190Y. 



First Course in Calculus. By E. J. Town- 

 send, Professor of Mathematics in the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, and G. A. Goodenough, 

 Associate Professor of Mechanical Engi- 

 neering in the University of Hlinois. Pp. 

 X + 466. New York, Henry Holt and Com- 

 pany. 1908. 



A Course in Mathematics for Students of 

 Engineering and Applied Science. By 

 Frederick S. Woods and Frederick H. 

 Bailey, Professors of Mathematics in the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 



Vol. I. Pp. xii -f 385. Boston, Ginn and 

 Company. 1907. 



Graphic Algehra. By Arthur Schultze, As- 

 sistant Professor of Mathematics, New 

 York University, and Head of the Depart- 

 ment of Mathematics, High School of Com- 

 merce, New York. Pp. viii + 93. New 

 York, The Macmillan Company. 1908. 

 A Treatise on the Integral Calculus founded 

 on the Method of Bates. By William 

 Woolsey Johnson, Professor of Mathe- 

 matics at the United States Naval Academy, 

 Annapolis, Maryland. Pp. v + 440. New 

 York, John Wiley and Sons. 1907. 

 People who have to do with mathematics 

 fall temperamentally into three classes. 

 There are the theorists. These are interested 

 in doctrines as doctrines. They find their joy 

 in the construction and the understanding of 

 them, and have but little personal interest in 

 applications and utilities, or none at all. The 

 theorist is a lover of logic, of the abstract and 

 the recondite, of pure creations of the intel- 

 lect. For him a mathematical doctrine is a 

 work of art, of art that is supersensuous, and 

 a theory is valuable in proportion as it is 

 beautiful. In sharpest contrast with the 

 theorists stand the practicians. These despise 

 theory as such, sometimes denying the fact, 

 sometimes admitting it and occasionally 

 avowing it even boastfully. They look upon 

 mathematics as a mere tool, as a spade or a 

 wheelbarrow. The practician is not a man of 

 science, strictly speaking, and he is not an 

 artist. He is an artisan, not an artisan of 

 high type, indeed, nor yet entirely useless. He 

 is allied to the theorist very much as the 

 splitter of rails or the painter of a barn is 

 allied to a sculptor, a creative musician or a 

 master of color and design. The theorist and 

 the practician are organically antagonistic in 

 temperament. The former comprehends the 

 latter as the greater includes the less. The 

 theorist contemns mere practise and avoids it, 

 but he does so deliberately from a knowledge 

 of values and relative worths. The prac- 

 tician hates theory and avoids it, but he does 

 so from necessity, by the " virtue of im- 

 potence." The differences between them, be- 



