February 11, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



193 



journals where it is fully described, and all 

 improvements to date. If it was desired to 

 produce a low vacuum, all the ImowTi meth- 

 ods and the limitations of each would be at 

 once found in such an encyclopedia. If one 

 wished to measure low pressures, the en- 

 cyclopedia would call his attention, with 

 references, not only to the McLeod gauge 

 but also to the recently devised molecular 

 gauge which might give more accurate re- 

 sults in those particular measurements. If 

 one wished to maintain a constant tempera- 

 ture at several successive points from the 

 temperature of solid carbonic acid to that 

 of liquid air, he might spend a long time in 

 devising an apparatus, but the encyclopedia 

 would at once refer him to the methods 

 that have been successfully employed. 

 Such a publication would add much to efS- 

 cieney, and the cost would be small com- 

 pared to the great service rendered to 

 science. 



We also need a journal of scientific in- 

 struments, in English, devoted entirely to 

 the description of new methods and instru- 

 ments. 



I have often felt the need of both such 

 publications, and I am sure that much 

 energy now wasted would be conserved, and 

 on the whole more worthy contributions to 

 science produced. "When once accustomed 

 to such necessities we should wonder how 

 we managed to do without them. 



We are entrusted with the responsibility 

 of solving some of the greatest and grand- 

 est problems confronting the race. It is 

 our plain duty to be improving conditions 

 for individual and general efficiency. We 

 must point out the needs of science in defi- 

 nite and concrete terms, and must not hesi- 

 tate to urge upon society that it supply aU 

 real physical needs for the proper prosecu- 

 tion of its scientific work. 



Anthony ZeijEny 

 Uniyirsitt op Minnesota 



PSYCHOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL 



INTERPRETATIONS FOR 



CULTUREi 



The mere fact that we have in Section H 

 a joint segregation of anthropology and 

 psychology would seem to imply some close 

 functional relation between these sciences. 

 However, the most probable explanation of 

 the phenomenon is to be found in the dis- 

 tinctly anthropological conception of his- 

 torical association. If one may be par- 

 doned the diversion, I would say that most 

 likely this association is due to the shrewd- 

 ness of some one in finding a chance to 

 smuggle psychology into the scientific 

 camp. Yet, if one recalls the various 

 annual programs of the section, there comes 

 to mind a considerable number of papers 

 and addresses professing to authoritatively 

 interpret cultural phenomena by the aid of 

 psychological conceptions. So far as I 

 know, the authors of these papers have all 

 been psychologists, rarely has an anthro- 

 pologist ventured to set the psychologists 

 right. Many of these psychological dis- 

 cussions of anthropological problems have 

 struck the anthropologists as a bit naive 

 and I have not the least doubt but that for 

 once, the psychologists will in turn get a 

 naive reaction, because I propose to pre- 

 sent reasons for doubting the validity of 

 such psychological explanations for cul- 

 tural phenomena. 



We have a considerable bibliography 

 under the heads of psychology of religion, 

 psychology of art, psychology of sex, and 

 psychology of society. Of these the pro- 

 fessional psychologists have the first two 

 almost entirely to themselves, but share the 

 others with the sociologists. In the devel- 

 opment of their subjects, the psychologists 



1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of 

 Section H, Anthropology and Psychology, Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Columbus meeting, December, 1915. 



