574 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 850 



closer accuracy, just what deviation from ideal 

 truth any great set of historical records con- 

 tains. 



Such researches give promise of at last fur- 

 nishing the long-sought correct method of pen- 

 etrating the tangled and perplexing jungle 

 known as philosophy of history. This domain 

 of thought is to-day in poor esteem among 

 those who, as historians of the modern school, 

 seek in documentary sources to reconstruct the 

 past around some central theme, some indi- 

 vidual age or nation. No wonder these care- 

 ful investigators have become disgusted with 

 the a priori dogmatism, the partizan spirit, the 

 free generalizations from half truths, and the 

 eternally conflicting conclusions. Historical 

 philosophers, in their desire to explain every- 

 thing at once, have been content to formulate 

 theories and then pick from the totality of 

 history, selected facts to support them. With 

 naethods highly subjective, and carrying a 

 large personal equation they could not help 

 but find exactly what they wished. The ways 

 of inductive science may be slow at first, but 

 even a small nucleus of collected and coordi- 

 nated facts soon grows with astonishing rapid- 

 ity; and every objectively established piece of 

 work makes it, with accelerated speed that 

 much easier to progress along lines of cer- 

 tainty and exactitude. 



Frederick Adams Woods 



Massachusetts Institute 

 OP Technology 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 Lord Curzon will succeed Major Leonard 

 Darwin as president of the Eoyal Geograph- 

 ical Society. 



Ti-iE Bessemer gold medal of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute, London, will, this year, be 

 .awarded to Professor Henri Le Chatelier, the 

 French metallurgist. The Andrew Carnegie 

 .:gold medal for 1910 will be awarded to M. 

 Felix Robin, of Paris. 



A COMPLIMENTARY dinner was given on 

 March 29 by former students of King's Col- 

 lege Hospital to Sir David Ferrier, M.D., 

 F.R.S., to congratulate him on receiving the 

 ihonor of knighthood. 



Dr. Lucius L. Hubbard has been appointed 

 regent of the University of Michigan. He has 

 been instructor in mineralogy at the State 

 Mining School at Houghton, Mich., and was 

 state geologist from 1893 to 1899. 



Mr. George Henry Livens, B.A., has been 

 elected to a fellowship at Jesus College, Cam- 

 bridge. His subject is mathematics. 



Dr. Edna Carter, instructor in physics at 

 Vassar College, has been awarded the Sarah 

 Berliner research fellowship for women. She 

 will continue her work in physics at Cam- 

 bridge under Professor J. J. Thomson, and in 

 the laboratory of Professor Wein, of Wiirz- 

 burg, where she received her doctorate. 



The annual awards of the Eoyal Geograph- 

 ical Society are announced as follows : The 

 two royal medals have been awarded, the 

 Founder's to Colonel P. K. Kozloff, and the 

 Patron's to Dr. J. Charcot. The Victoria Re- 

 search Medal has been given to Captain H. G. 

 Lyons, the Murchison Bequest to Dr. Wilfred 

 Grenfell, the Gill Memorial to Captain G. E. 

 Leachman (Royal Sussex Regiment), the 

 Back Bequest to Dr. Arthur Neve, and the 

 Cuthbert Peek Fund to Mr. R. L. Eeid. 



Dr. H. F. Moore, of the U. S. Bureau of 

 Fisheries, has sailed for Rome where he will 

 represent the Bureau at the fifth International 

 Fishery Congress to be held May 26-31. Be- 

 fore returning he will visit the coast of Al- 

 giers for an examination of the sponge fisher- 

 ies. 



An expedition under Mr. Homer B. Dill, of 

 the State University of Iowa, has left San 

 Francisco for Laysan Islands in order to 

 study the bird life and bring back specimens 

 for an extensive group to be placed in the 

 museum. 



Professor F. E. Lloyd, of the Alabama 

 Polytechnic Institute, is planning a trip into 

 the Arizona Desert this summer, in order to 

 continue his botanical researches in desert 

 plant life. 



According to the Bulletin of the American 

 Mathematical Society, Professors E. R. Hed- 

 rick, of the University of Missouri, and J. I. 

 Hutchinson, of Cornell University, have been 



