312 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1079 



to suffer from a want of recreation and lack 

 of sleep. " 



The problem before the western institution 

 is quite different from that whieli confronts 

 the older eastern institutions. The western 

 institutions are in a state of flux and develop- 

 ing with the country. They are dependent 

 upon the legislatures for part of their income. 

 The legislatures are, as a rule, generous, but 

 frequently the funds available for appropria- 

 tion are not sufficient to meet all demands and 

 some one must suffer. The difficulty of finance 

 is one not characteristic of western institu- 

 tions but nation wide. It thus happens that 

 funds for investigation requiring elaborate 

 apparatus and equipment are not always avail- 

 able. Such conditions can not be laid at the 

 door of the administration which, as a rule, 

 does the very best it can under given condi- 

 tions. 



Considerable space was devoted to the prom- 

 inence of extension work and the popular 

 place it occupies in the institutions' activity. 

 It is true that extension work occupies an im- 

 portant position, but in no sense does it over- 

 shadow the research worker. The two go 

 rather hand in hand. The extension lecturer 

 should be a man possessing the research spirit 

 if his extension work is to be of any educa- 

 tional value. Extension work is a legitimate 

 function of a university in that it extends the 

 truth, for no amount of exploration for truth 

 is worth the effort it costs but extension be the 

 ultimate end. 



Undoubtedly your correspondent's case is a 

 bona fide one, but to assert that such condi- 

 tions which he cites are characteristic of our 

 western institutions is fallacious. There are 

 unquestionably institutions of the character 

 he describes but they are not localized in any 

 particular section of the country. No man 

 need affiliate himseK with such an institution, 

 for the report of the Federal Educational Com- 

 mission and other literature should give some 

 evidence in one way or another of such a con- 

 dition. 



Our western institutions can not entirely 

 disregard the research spirit, for they are look- 

 ing towards a wider recognition in the educa- 



tional world; and such recognition can come 

 only from the attainments of the individuals 

 composing the teaching staff. To suppress the 

 spirit of original investigation is to cast them 

 into, utter oblivion in the field of higher edu- 

 cation. 



The thing with which I particularly wish to 

 take issue in your correspondent's letter is the 

 statement that research is impossible in the 

 western university. The thing which I wish 

 to emphasize is that no such condition is char- 

 acteristic of the western institution, that 

 sporadic cases do exist I do not deny, but such 

 cases are not confined to the west but are scat- 

 tered nation wide. B. J. Spence 



University op Noeth Dakota, 

 Grand Forks, N. Dak. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 The Determination of Sex. By L. Doncaster, 



Cambridge University Press, 1914. New 



York, G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



Professor Doncaster's book gives a popular 

 account of recent work on sex determination, 

 avoiding as far as possible technicalities which 

 might embarrass the untrained reader. The 

 author has succeeded in his difficult task of 

 presenting a considerable body of matter, much 

 of it controversial, to a general audience. He 

 points out that determination of sex means 

 not the control of sex (i. e., the production of 

 sex at will) but the study of the causes that 

 lead to the appearance of males and females. 

 " We may discover the causes of storms or 

 earthquakes, and when our knowledge of them 

 is sufficiently advanced we may be able to pre- 

 dict them as successfully as astronomers pre- 

 dict eclipses, but there is little hope that we 

 shall ever be able to control them." 



Doncaster is not a little concerned that the 

 use of the word cause in connection with sex 

 determination be clearly understood. A factor 

 A may be invariably followed by a condition 

 E, but between the two there may be a chain 

 of events B, 0, D. Should 5 or C or D be 

 produced in some other way this would also 

 lead to E. Similarly for sex, a female results 

 when certain conditions are realized in the 

 egg, a male when other conditions prevail. 

 This general philosophical point of view wiU, 



