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SCIENCE 



[N. S, Vol. vXLII. No. 1088 



comes negative was that tlie pressure displaces 

 the layer of acid or any other substance which 

 may be responsible for the inner potential, and 

 replaces this substance by the juice pressed 

 out from some of the soft cells of the flesh of 

 the apple, but without altering the permeability 

 of the skin. 



Under these conditions the fact that the 

 active part of a tissue becomes negative to a 

 part at rest finds its simple explanation on 

 the assumption that in the active part of the 

 tissue substances are formed which temporarily 

 alter the potential at the inner surface in such 

 a sense as to make the outside on that spot ap- 

 pear more negative. There is no necessity for 

 assuming any increase in the permeability of 

 the skin. 



Jacques Loeb 



The Eockefeller Institute for 

 Medical Eesearch, 

 New York 



what is HELLENISM? 



It would usually be both foolish and un- 

 grateful to criticize the choice of illustrations 

 used by a lecturer in an attempt to make 

 clearer a worthy proposition. When, however, 

 the illustration is in very common use, though 

 more often in another manner, when it is sure 

 to remain in common use, and when moreover 

 it has great and positive value, its misuse is 

 dangerous enough to merit attention. The 

 address of Professor Harrison, published in 

 Science of October 23, 1914, urges us to make 

 science of practical value. We may all well 

 do what we can to share and spread the motive 

 and accomplish its aim. In this address. Pro- 

 fessor Harrison contrasts Hellenism and 

 Hebraism, apparently in the sense that Hellen- 

 ism tjTjifies clear thought, and Hebraism vigor 

 in practise. We are all familiar with the con- 

 trast of Greek and Hebrew culture, in which 

 the former represents reason, and the latter 

 faith, as the guiding principle of conduct. 

 Professor Harrison's contrast strikes me as 

 both novel and unsound. 



The Hellenic culture which has influenced 

 subsequent civilization was essentially the cul- 

 ture of Athens. The usual idea of Athenian 



culture is that it was characterized by marvel- 

 lous activity. As to the culture typical of 

 Athens, we can go back to the greatest Greek 

 historian, and as to Greek ideals, to the great- 

 est Greek philosopher, both of them men whose 

 works are still commonly regarded as pre- 

 eminent in their fields. The opinion of Thu- 

 cydides with regard to the Athenians is ex- 

 pressed over and over. In Chapter III. of 

 Book I., he puts his views into the mouth of 

 the envoy of Corinth, who is addressing an 

 assembly in Sparta: 



The Athenians are addicted to innovation, and 

 their designs are characterized by swiftness alike 

 in conception and execution; you have a genius 

 for keeping what you have got, accompanied by 

 a total want of invention, and when forced to act 

 you never go far enough. Again, they are adven- 

 turous beyond their judgment, and in danger they 

 are sanguine; your wont is to attempt less than is 

 justified by your power, to mistrust even what is 

 sanctioned by your judgment, and to fancy that 

 from danger there is no release. Further, there is 

 promptitude on their side against procrastination 

 on yours; they are never at home, you are never 

 from it: for they hope by their absence to extend 

 their acquisitions, you fear by your advance to en- 

 danger what you have left behind. They are swift 

 to follow up a success, and slow to recoil from a 

 reverse. Their bodies they spend ungrudgingly in 

 their country's cause; their intellect they jealously 

 husband to be employed in her service. A scheme 

 unexecuted is with them a positive loss, a success- 

 ful enterprise a comparative failure. The defi- 

 ciency created by the miscarriage of an undertak- 

 ing is soon filled up by fresh hopes ; for they alone 

 are enabled to call a thing hoped for a thing got, 

 by the speed with which they act upon their reso- 

 lutions. Thus they toil on in trouble and danger 

 all the days of their life, with little opportunity 

 for enjoying, being ever engaged in getting: their 

 only idea of a holiday is to do what the occasion 

 demands, and to them laborious occupation is less 

 of a misfortune than the peace of a quiet life. To 

 describe their character in word, one might truly 

 say that they were bom into the world to take no 

 rest themselves and to give none to others. 



The ethics of Aristotle represents happiness 

 as the goal of human effort, and work as abso- 

 lutely indispensable to happiness. No single 

 quotation would give an adequate idea of the 



