SCIENCE 



Peiday, June 9, 1911 

 contents 



Alexander Agassis — Sis Life and. Scientific 

 Worlc: Sm John Murray 873 



Charles M. Scammon : Dr. W. H. Dall .... 887 



Scientific Notes and News 887 



University and Educational News 891 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Academic and Industrial Efficiency: Pro- 

 fessor C. H. Handschin. The Director 

 versus Newton: Charles Eobertson. An 

 English Course for Engineering Students: 

 De. Charles Washburn Nichols. A 

 Kinetic Theory of Gravitation: Professor 

 E. S. Manson, Jr 892 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



Fischer on (Edema: Professor W. B. Can- 

 non. Foullc's Quantitative Chemical An- 

 alysis and Ferlcin's Qualitative Chemical 

 Analysis: E. E. Publications of the As- 

 tronomical and Astrophysical Society of 

 America: Professor Henry Norris Eus- 

 SELL 895 



Special Articles: — 



The "Dilute" Forms of Yellow Mice: C. 

 C. Little. Dimorphism of the Gametes of 

 (Enothera: Walter T. Swingle. Studies 

 in Arteriosclerosis: Dr. Oscar Klotz. The 

 Presence of Arsenic in Fruit sprayed with 

 Arsenate of Lead: P. J. O'Gara 896 



The American Philosophical Society: Pro- 

 fessor Arthur W. Goodspeed 901 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Washington Academy of Sciences: 

 De. W. J. Humphreys. The Philosophical 

 Society of Washington: E. L. Faeis. The 

 New YorJc Section of the American Chem- 

 ical Society: C. M. Joyce. The Torrey 

 Botanical Club : B. O. Dodge 909 



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

 review should be seat to the Editor d ScimtcK, GarrisoB-on' 

 HodaoB. K. Y. 



ALEXANDER AGASSIZ : SIS LIFE AND 

 SCIENTIFIC WOEK^ 



Alexandeb Agassiz, our distinguished 

 alumnus and my friend, died at sea in 

 mid-ocean on board the S. S. Adriatic on 

 Easter morning, March 27, 1910. "When 

 this information was received in England 

 by wireless message, it was believed that 

 some mistake had been made, for only a 

 few days previously he had parted with 

 scientific friends in London apparently in 

 most excellent health. The sad news was 

 too speedily confirmed. A few days later 

 I had occasion to speak before an assem- 

 blage of scientific men and oeeanographers, 

 and I said his death was a great loss to 

 American science, to the science of ocean- 

 ography, and to all people who take an 

 interest in the progress of natural knowl- 

 edge. On this occasion I propose to show 

 that this statement was fully justified, and 

 that a truly great man passed from the 

 world when Alexander Agassiz died. 



Alexander Agassiz was the only son of 

 the famous naturalist, Louis Agassiz, by 

 his first wife, Ceeile Braun, and was born 

 at NeiTchatel in Switzerland on December 

 17, 1835. His school days were spent at 

 his birthplace and at the Burger School at 

 Freiburg, in Baden, Germany, where his 

 maternal uncle was a professor in the uni- 

 versity, where his mother and sisters then 

 resided, and where he also came under the 

 influence of a great biologist. Professor 

 Theo. von Siebold. Here were laid the 

 foundations of an education in the French 



* Memorial address delivered in Sanders The- 

 ater, Cambridge, Mass., March 22, 1911, at the 

 request of the president and fellows of Harvard 

 College. Eeprinted from the Bulletin of the Mu- 

 seum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. 



