SCIENCE 



Friday, January 27, 1911 



CONTENTS 

 The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 The Method of Science: Peofessob 



CHABtES S. MiNOT 119 



The Formation of Carbohydrates in the 

 Vegetable Kingdom: Peofessob Wiixiam 

 McPhebson 131 



The American Museum of Natural History 142 



The Carnegie Institution 142 



Scientifio A otes and News 143 



University and Educational News 146 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Careless Criticism: Peofessob Chas. H. 

 Heety 146 



Scientifio Books: — • 



Reichert and Broicn on the Crystallography 

 of Eemoglobins: De. Leo Loeb. Theobald's 

 Monograph of the Culcidce: Db. E. P. Felt 147 



Special Articles: — 



New Phenomena of Electrical Discharge: 

 Peofessob Fbancis E. Nipheb 151 



Joint Meeting of Mathematicians ami Engi- 

 neers at Minneapolis: Peofessob H. E. 

 Slaught 153 



The American Phytopathological Society: 

 De. C. L. Sheae 155 



Societies and Academies : — 



The New York Academy of Sciences, Sec- 

 tion of Biology: De. L. Hussakof. New 

 York Section of the Amerioam, Chemical 

 Society: C. M. Joyce. The Biological So- 

 ciety of Washington : D. E. Lantz 157 



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

 eview should be se2t to the Editor of Sciebcb, CrarriBon-on- 

 n. N. Y. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOB THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



^ THE METHOD OF SCIENCE ' 

 Science governs human life by deter- 

 mining the conditions of existence and by 

 furnishing the means of civilization. Re- 

 ligion prescribes the motives, government 

 formulates the customs of mankind, sci- 

 ence fixes what we can do and how. If, at 

 the present meeting, we appropriately em- 

 phasize the role of science, it does not im- 

 ply that we belittle the ethical or social 

 factors of civilized life, but answers the 

 demand for a more just and general recog- 

 nition of the actual importance of pure 

 science. 



"We are so accustomed to the practical 

 advantages that have followed from ab- 

 struse science, that we connect them with 

 their source only by a distinct mental ef- 

 fort. The wonders of practical science 

 have been recited so often, that their re- 

 iteration has become tedious, and we no 

 longer feel strongly impelled to felicitate 

 mankind on the parlor match, the tele- 

 phone and the antitoxines, although we 

 indulge at present in an unsubdued excited 

 anticipation of wonders to come, especially 

 in the domain of medicine. Are we not all 

 on the watch for the announcement of the 

 cure for cancer, and vaguely for other new 

 and astounding reliefs from disease ! Such 

 concentration of interest upon novel prac- 

 tical results is not wholly favorable to 

 science. 



It is true that a large amount of investi- 



' Vice-presidential address delivered before the 

 Section of Physiology and Experimental Medicine 

 of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, at Minneapolis, December 29, 1910. 



