December 4, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



807 



One corollary may be drawn from this main 

 proposition. From the point of view o£ its 

 function, neither the hand as a whole nor any 

 of its parts which become of any real signif- 

 icance can be regarded as a unit character. 

 In the inception of the character there must 

 have been some changes in the nutrition of the 

 tissues — some change in the chemical mechan- 

 ism of coordination — rendering such a depar- 

 ture possible, and such a change in a chemical 

 system seldom arises without some associated 

 change in conditions, near or remote. And 

 when the character has developed to a stage at 

 which it becomes significant, it acquires this 

 significance only because it may enter into 

 correlated or coordinated activity with other 

 parts of the organism through the medium of 

 chemical or nervous mechanisms, or both. It 

 is difficult for a physiologist to regard any one 

 portion of the body as an isolated mechanism 

 acting without reference to any other mechan- 

 ism. The tendency to regard a mechanism as 

 an isolated mechanism has often led into error. 

 And the attempts by experimental methods 

 completely to isolate any mechanism so that 

 it acts independently of every other has proved 

 to be a difficult and for the most part impos- 

 sible process under present laboratory condi- 

 tions. In the living animal under its various 

 conditions of existence, coordination is an in- 

 dispensable process. And since the processes 

 of evolution are concerned with living animals 

 rather than dead ones, the mechanisms of 

 coordination become the important factors in 

 evolution. For it is these internal factors 

 which modify in greater degree than any 

 others the growth and development of the 

 organism in any environment in which life is 

 possible. 



That Gaskell clearly recognized the impor- 

 tance of coordination and insisted upon it is 

 clear from the extract quoted above. To recog- 

 nize clearly amid the multiplicity of confus- 

 ing detail the fundamental factors in organic 

 evolution regarded from its functional side, 

 is a noteworthy achievement. And to state 

 the problem in terms of biological phenomena 

 rather than in metaphysical terms is to give 

 to other biologists a fruitful working hypoth- 



esis. It is with a poignant sense of a personal 

 as well as a scientific loss that many of us 

 have read the recent announcement of his 

 death. A kindly, sturdy, clear-eyed Briton, 

 England need have little fear for the future of 

 its science if she can produce more of his like. 

 F. H. Pike 

 Department op Physiology, 

 Columbia University 



THE PEILADELPSIA MEETING OF THE 

 AMEBIC AN ASSOCIATION FOB TEE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 

 AND AFFILIATED SO- 

 CIETIES 



The preliminary announcement for the 

 meetings of the American Association and 

 those of the Affiliated Societies which will meet 

 with it at Philadephia during the coming con- 

 vocation week has now been sent to members. 

 The arrangements for the meeting are well 

 under way and a strong local committee has 

 been appointed, of which Provost Edgar F. 

 Smith is chairman. Dr. J. H. Pennimann is 

 vice-chairman. Dr. Philip P. Calvert is secre- 

 tary, and Dr. George D. Eosengarten is chair- 

 man of the finance committee. 



The first meeting of the council will be held 

 on Monday, December 28, at 9 a.m. in the 

 council room at Houston Hall. Registration 

 will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at 

 headquarters in the Houston Club. The sec- 

 tions will meet for organization at 10 a.m. on 

 Monday and will continue their sessions during 

 the week. 



The first general session will be held in 

 Weightman Hall, university gymnasium, at 

 8 P.M. on Monday, December 28. The meeting 

 will be called to order by retiring president 

 Edmund B. Wilson, of Columbia University, 

 who will introduce the president of the meet- 

 ing, Dr. Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard. Ad- 

 dresses of welcome by the provost and the 

 governor-elect will be replied to by President 

 Eliot, after which retiring President Wilson 

 will deliver his address on "Some Aspects of 

 Progress in Modern Zoology." 



There wiU be two public lectures, compli- 

 mentary to the citizens of Philadelphia and 



