332 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1080 



sonal efforts, many others were helped by his 

 advice and assistance. 



Professor Putnam's influence has been great 

 in stiU other ways. He succeeded in having 

 anthropology recognized by Harvard Univer- 

 sity as a regular subject of instruction, with 

 the result that an ever-increasing number of 

 students became interested in this subject. 

 His influence as a lecturer was, however, not 

 as great as that of his personal contact with 

 students. Through his sympathy with the 

 personal interests of younger men, through his 

 eagerness to help them along on the arduous 

 path of the young scientist, he associated with 

 himself a large number of young anthropolo- 

 gists who were filled with that enthusiasm for 

 the unbiased collection of data that character- 

 ized his own work. The precedent set by Har- 

 vard University, and at the same time by 

 Clark University, and Professor Putnam's un- 

 ceasing agitation have done much to introduce 

 anthropology as a subject of study in our uni- 

 versities. Men who have grown up as his stu- 

 dents are now found in many American and 

 Canadian institutions. 



Professor Putnam's activities were not by 

 any means confined to the field of his own re- 

 searches, but he took a lively interest in the 

 advancement of scientific work in the whole 

 country. This quality, his genius as an or- 

 ganizer, and his sympathetic nature brought 

 him into prominence in the work of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, of which he was for many years perma- 

 nent secretary and which he made a most effi- 

 cient means of promoting and extending the 

 influence of science. It is a well-marked 

 period of scientific development that his in- 

 cumbency of the secretaryship represents : the 

 extensive and gradual deepening of scientific 

 interest. It covers the period preparatory to 

 the specialization of more modern times that 

 makes the American Association more an ad- 

 ministrative clearing house of special scientific 

 bodies than an agency that promotes popular 

 interest and that gives to the young scientist 

 the opportunity to gain his first laurels. 



Por several years Professor Putnam had 

 been ailing, but his robust nature withstood 



vigorously the attacks of an insidious disease. 

 On the occasion of his seventieth birthday his 

 many friends gave expression to their warm 

 feelings towards him by the publication of an 

 anniversary volume containing contributions 

 from almost all American anthropologists. 

 His influence, that of a sane and sober scien- 

 tist who values facts higher than fancies will 

 be lasting, and we honor and love one who has 

 helped to lay the foundations on which we are 

 permitted to build. 



Peanz Boas 

 Columbia University 



PAUL EEBLICEi 



Paul Ehrlich was a genius of the first 

 order. While he was still a student of medi- 

 cine, the problems presented by the affinity of 

 lead for certain tissues attracted his attention. 

 Prom speculating on the nature of this affin- 

 ity, his interest grew to include protoplasmic 

 affinities in general, and thus was determined 

 the direction his genius should take. 



Some of the notable results of his early in- 

 vestigations are discoveries in bacterial stain- 

 ing methods, which proved of great value to 

 Koch and which, ever since, have been in 

 daily use everywhere; the micro-chemical 

 differentiation of leukocytes, on which rests 

 the study of the blood for clinical purposes; 

 the development of the methylene blue reaction 

 of living tissues, and the formulation of that 

 unique conception of protoplasmic structure 

 and function on which he based the great side- 

 chain theory which he advanced to explain the 

 reactions in immunity and other phenomena. 



What might be termed the second phase of 

 Ehrlich's work concerned investigations in 

 immunity luider the guidance of the side-chain 

 conception. No better illustration of the prac- 

 tical usefulness of the imagination in creating 

 a successful working hypothesis can be given 

 than the results achieved by Ehrlich in the 

 field of immunity. Perhaps the usefulness is 

 seen most clearly in the standardization of 



1 From the Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation. 



