SCIENCE 



Friday, June 2, 1911 

 contents 



Profitable and Fruitless Lines of Endeavor 

 in Public Health Work: Peofessob Edwin 

 O. Jordan 833 



The Engineering School Graduate — his 

 Strength and his Weakness: Professor 

 Henry P. Talbot 839 



Christian Archibald Herter: Dk. Graham 

 LusK 846 



Scientific Notes and News 847 



University and Educational News 851 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Test of Vitalism: Walter S. Nichols. 

 A Plea for the Use of References and Ac- 

 curacy therein: De. F. Alex. MoDermott. 

 A Trematode Epidemic among English 

 Sparrows: Dk. Leon J. Cole. The Re- 

 formed Calendar: Dr. W. J. Spillman . . . 851 



Quotations : — 



The Science Museum and the Natural Sis- 

 tory Museum 854 



Scientific Books: — 



Southall's Geometrical Optics: Professor 

 F. R. Moulton. Bingham and White's 

 Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Chem- 

 istry: J. E. U. A Naturalist in the Ba- 

 hamas : Professor Bashford Dean 856 



Three Formicid Names which have been over- 

 looked : Pbopessok W. M. Wheeler 858 



Oh Muscoid and especially Tachinid Syn- 

 onymy: Dr. Charles H. T. Town send .. 860 



Special Articles: — 



Metamorphosis without Parasitism in the 

 Vnionidce: Professors George Lepevre 

 and Winterton C. Curtis. The Scales of 

 the Albulid Fishes: Professor T. D. A. 

 Cockerell. The Significance of Lead Ar- 

 senate Composition : W. H. Volck 863 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Washington Academy of Sciences: 

 Dr. W. J. Humphreys. The Botanical 

 Society of Washington: Dr. W. W. Stock- 

 BEEGER. The Association of Teachers of 

 Mathematics in the Middle States and 

 Maryland : H. F. Hart 870 



MSS. intended lor publication and booKs, fttc., j-ntendeG^ tm 

 review should be sert to the Editor oi '6cisncs^ Garrisom-oiS' 

 Hudson. N. Y. 



PROFITABLE AND FRUITLESS LINES OF 

 ENDEAVOR IN PUBLIC HEALTH WORK > 



It is in accord with the spirit of this 

 Congress to consider public health ques- 

 tions either from the point of view of things 

 already accomplished by the application of 

 the scientific method or from that of things 

 to be done. I have chosen to speak espe- 

 cially of "the saving of waste and increase 

 of efSciency ' ' still to be expected when pub- 

 lic health problems are approached in a 

 scientific spirit. 



It is well recognized to-day by many ex- 

 perts that while some of the ordinary ac- 

 tivities of municipal health departments 

 are of unquestionable value in conserving 

 the health of a community, others are rela- 

 tively ineffective or possibly worthless. 

 One well-known writer- has thus expressed 

 himself on this point: 



I boldly assert that if every case of com- 

 municable disease were promptly reported to the 

 proper local board of health and as promptly 

 placed under effective sanitary control and so 

 kept until danger of infection had passed, all the 

 other present-day activities of boards of health, 

 whether local, state or national, with the excep- 

 tion of those directed against certain causes of 

 infant mortality, and the possible further excep- 

 tion of some food and drug inspection, might be 

 dropped with no appreciable effect upon the gen- 

 eral health or mortality of any of our states or 

 most of our cities. 



In all fairness it must be admitted that 

 a part of the energy of almost every munic- 

 ipal health department in this country 



' Paper presented before the Congress of Tech- 

 nology, Boston, April 10, 1911, to commemorate 

 the fiftieth anniversary of the granting of the 

 charter to the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology. 



' M. N. Baker, chairman Committee on Municipal 

 Health and Sanitation, National Municipal League. 



