SCIENCE 



Friday, August 26, 1910 



CONTENTS 

 Our Universities and Research: Da. Alfbed 

 GOLDSBOBOUGH JIayer 257 



The Sheffield Meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science 260 



The Association of Official Agricultural Chem- 

 ists : Db. H. W. Wiley 270 



Scientific Notes and iv ews 270 



Vniversity and Educational News 273 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



Schmiedeknecht on the Parasitic Hymen- 

 opt era of the Family Chalcidce: De. A. 

 AbsSne Gibault. The Population of the 

 United States : Fbank Gilman 273 



Quotations : — 

 The Salaries of Professors 277 



Scientific Books: — 



Coles-Finch on Water, its Origin and Use: 

 Dk. F. p. Gullivee. Jongmans's Atmual 

 Bihliography to Paleontology : Edwaed W. 

 Bebby 278 



Botanical Notes: — 



All Experience and a Suggestion; The Ac- 

 tion of the Brussels Congress: Pbofessoe 

 Chables E. Bessey 280 



A Note on Traule's Theory of Osmosis and 

 " Attraction-pressure " : Db. F. H. Gabei- 

 SON 281 



Special Articles: — 



The Luminosity of Comets: Pbofessoe 

 Wm. L. Dudley 286 



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

 reyiew should be se2t to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudaon, N, T, 



OUR UNIVERSITIES AND RESEARCH 



In early colonial days there was but one 

 course of study for all who entered an 

 American college, and at its completion the 

 candidate for a degree was required to 

 translate the bible interchangeably into 

 Hebrew, Latin, Greek or English. The 

 culture of a long-past age was the sole con- 

 cern of the college, and it heeded not the 

 problems of the commonplace world beyond 

 its walls. Its atmosphere was quite uncon- 

 genial to research, and the men of science 

 of colonial times and of the several decades 

 thereafter were commonly unconnected 

 with the colleges. 



Without aid or substantial recognition 

 from our colleges, Harriot, Byrd, Clayton, 

 Rittenhouse, Franklin, "Wilson, Audubon, 

 Rumsey, Fulton and Stevens strove or 

 wrote. Indeed, of all the scientific worth- 

 ies of those days John Winthrop, of Har- 

 vard, and Samuel Mitchill, of Columbia, 

 were almost the only ones of note who 

 labored within the shelter of the college. 



With the birth of the republic, however, 

 the most progressive of our colleges began 

 to give courses in the sciences, and it was 

 then that the spirit of research, which had 

 already been fostered into being by men of 

 culture of the outer world, made its first 

 timid entrance within the college walls. 



The efforts of its votaries attracted little 

 or no official action on the part of the col- 

 leges for the expense involved in the prose- 

 cution of research in those early days was 

 so slight that the professors themselves, 

 small as their salaries were, could readily 

 afford to meet them. Simple apparatus 

 mainly the design of their own skilled 

 hands, served Franklin and Henry for 



