SCIENCE 



Friday, November 3, 1911 



CONTENTS 

 Electrical Engineers and the Puilic: Peo- 



FESSOR. DUGALD C. JACKSON 577 



Twenty-five Tears of Osmotic Pressure in the 

 Medical Sciences: Professor H. J. Ham- 

 burger 583 



The College Man in the Fublic Service: 

 William S. Washburn 589 



Concerning Botanical Investigation in Col- 

 leges : Professor Bruce Pink 593 



The " Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut filr physikal- 

 ische Chemie und EleMrochemie " : William 

 D. Harkins 595 



The General Education Board 597 



Scientift,e Notes and News 598 



University and Educatiohal News 602 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Needs of Meteorology : Professor C. 

 Abbe. More Botanical Errors: Professor 

 M. A. Chrysler. ' ' Washington Science ' ' : 

 Industrlal Engineer. The Methods of 

 American Ethnologists: Eobert H. Lowde 602 



Quotations : — 

 Beform in College Entrance Requirements 605 



Scientific Boolcs:—- 

 Adams and Layby's Investigation of the 

 Botation Period of the Sun by Spectroscopic 

 Methods: J. S. Plaskett. Beetham's Pho- 

 tography for Bird Lovers: Professor 

 Francis H. Herbick. Schoepf's Travels 

 in the Confederation: Dr. George P. Mer- 

 rill 606 



The Intercollegiate Geological Excursion: E. 

 H. and A. C. L 611 



Special Articles: — 



A New Minnow from Colorado: Professor 

 T. D. A. Gockerell. a Bacterial Gummosis 

 of Cherries: F. L. Griffin 614 



MSS. intended fot publication and boots, etc., intended for 

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

 :Hudson, N. Y. 



ELECTEICAL ENGINEEBS AND THE 

 PUBLIC 1 



Members of tlie American Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers are pleased to refer 

 to electrical engineering as a profession, 

 and to the Institute itself as a professional 

 society. When this occurs as a thoughtless 

 repetition of fine-sounding words, it has 

 little meaning, since mere repetition of an 

 alleged truth does not make it a real truth, 

 and it can be established as a real truth 

 only by tracing it to some adequate f otinda- 

 tion. But when those statements arise 

 from a ripe understanding that the word 

 profession means more than a mere organ- 

 ized vocation for earning one's bread, it has 

 a high and commendable meaning. The 

 word profession "implies professed attain- 

 mer's in special knowledge, as distin- 

 guished from mere skill; a practical deal- 

 ing with affairs, as distinguished from mere 

 study or investigation; and an application 

 of such knowledge to uses for others, as a 

 vocation, as distinguished from its pursuit 

 for one's own purposes." This sets the 

 professional man in a position which de- 

 mands from him an attitude of service and 

 of leadership. He must have a masterly 

 knowledge, in addition to skill in a voca- 

 tion. He must deal practically in the af- 

 fairs or needs of men. His duties must be 

 performed with a touch of disinterested 

 spirit in addition to the vocational spirit of 

 earning his livelihood. Such men have a 

 duty to the public ; and in the performance 

 of that duty they must exert their influence 

 on that thought and practise of the day 



^ President 's address of the American Institute 

 of Electrical Engineers, delivered at the annual 

 com'ention, Chicago, June 27, 1911. 



