SCIENCE 



Friday, Septembee 15, 1911 



CONTENTS 



The Sritish Association for the Advancement 

 of Science: — 



The Characteristics of the Observational 

 Sciences: PROrEssoK H. H. Turner 321 



Samuel Bubbard Scudder: Professor T. D. 



A. COCKERELL 338 



Scientific Notes and News 342 



University and Educational News 345 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 

 M. Cossmann on the Phylogeny of Cerith- 

 ium : Elvira Wood. A New Bach for Indi- 

 vidual Towels : W. D. Fkost 346 



Quotations : — 

 Thought-transference 348 



Scientific BooTcs:^ 



TchirwinsTey on the Composition of Gran- 

 ites and Gneisses: Dr. George F. Kunz. 

 Geerligs on Sugar-cane Culture: De. F. G. 

 WiECHMANN. Soss On the Seduction of 

 Domestic Mosquitoes: Professoe John B. 

 Smith 348 



Scientific Journals and Articles 351 



Special Articles: — • 



The Origin of the Great Plains: Professor 

 Charles E. Keyes 352 



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

 review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



TBE BMITISS ASSOCIATION FOR THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



TSE CHABACTEBISTICS OF TBE 



OBSEBVATIONAL SCIENCES'- 



It will doubtless startle my audience to 

 hear that this section has only once in its 

 history been addressed by an astronomical 

 president upon an astronomical topic. I 

 hasten to admit that I am not using the 

 term astronomical in its widest sense. 

 Huxley once declared that there were only 

 two sciences, astronomy and biology, and it 

 is recorded that "the company" (which 

 happened to be that of the Royal Astronom- 

 ical Society Club) "agreed with him." 

 One may agree with the company in assent- 

 ing to the proposition in the sense in which 

 it is obviously intended without losing the 

 right to use 'the name astronomy in a more 

 restricted sense when necessary; and at 

 present I use it in its classical sense. At 

 Brighton, in 1872, Dr. De La Rue addressed 

 Section A on "Astronomical Photog- 

 raphy" in words which are still worthy of 

 attention, though they are all but forty 

 years old; and this is the only instance I 

 can find in the annals of the section. There 

 have, of course, been occasional astronom- 

 ical presidents such as Airy, Lord Rosse 

 and Dr. Robinson, but these presided in 

 early days before the address existed, or 

 when it was brief and formal ; and the only 

 allusions to astronomical matters were the 

 statements, by Robinson and Airy, of what 

 the association had done in subsidizing the 

 reduction of Lalande 's observations and the 

 Greenwich lunar observations. In 1887 

 Sir Robert Ball occupied this chair, but he 



^Address of the president to the Mathematical 

 and Physical Section. Portsmouth, 1911. 



