SCIENCE 



Friday, November 19, 1915 



CONTENTS 



Biological Sesearch: The Value and the 

 Danger: Peofessoe Samuel S. Maxwell. 701 



The Errors in Precise Leveling due to Irregu- 

 lar Atmospheric Sefraotions : William 

 Bowie 712 



Sessey Sail at the University of NebrasTca: 

 Chancellor S. Avert 718 



The Columhus Meeting of the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science. 719 



Scientific Notes and News 721 



and Educational News 724 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Puhlication of New Species: Junius 

 Henderson. The Effect of Cyanide on the 

 Locust-horer and the Locust-tree : Wesley 

 P. Flint. A New Mitotic Structure: Dk. 

 E. GOLDSCHMiDT. Protozoa for Laboratory 

 Vse: J. B. Parker 725 



Science in National Affairs 727 



Scientific Boolcs: — 



De Morgan's A Budget of Paradoxes: Dr. 

 Louis C. Karpinski. The Scottish Na- 

 tional Antarctic Expedition: Dr. Wm. H. 

 Ball 729 



Special Articles: — 



The Calculation of Total Salt Content and 

 of Specific Gravity in Marine Waters: Dr. 

 EoDNEY H. True. On Cell Penetration hy 

 Acids : W. J. Crozier 732 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-Hudson. N. Y. 



BIOLOGICAL BESEABCH; TBE VALVE AND 

 THE DANGERS 



I SEIZE with avidity the opportunity fur- 

 nished me as your retiring president to dis- 

 cuss a subject which I am anxious should 

 have your earnest consideration. I am 

 aware that the title which I have announced 

 is ambiguous, but I think that before I am 

 through there will be no lack of under- 

 standing as to what I have in mind. Bio- 

 logical research includes many things. I 

 mean to limit myself to those phases of it 

 which require the experimental use of liv- 

 ing animals. And I grasp this opportunity 

 because I feel that our colleagues in other 

 fields of scientific effort do not always fully 

 perceive the value of the knowledge at- 

 tained by this means ; and that they do not 

 at all appreciate the danger that freedom 

 of research in these lines may be seriously 

 hampered by hostile legislation or mis- 

 directed public opinion. 



You who are engaged in very various 

 lines of research will appreciate the fact 

 that the immediate application of a dis- 

 covery is no fair measure of its value ; the 

 ultimate results of the knowledge obtained 

 may become extremely far-reaching. It is 

 in the creation of a background of knowl- 

 edge and experience that the greatest good 

 is to be obtained. Often we point to certain 

 noteworthy achievements and at the same 

 time fail to perceive that they have become 

 possible only through the accumulation of 

 a multitude of small details, the results at- 

 tained by the humdrum plodding of patient 

 mediocrity. 



The creative imagination of genius is 



1 President's address before the California Chap- 

 ter of the Sigma Xi, April 28, 1915. 



