SCIENCE 



Friday, August 8, 1913 



CONTENTS 



The Interpretation of Nature: Professor 

 Wm. T. Sedgwick 169 



The Fitness of Organisms from an Embryo- 

 legist's Viewpoint: Professor B. F. 

 KlNeSBURT 174 



The Final Examin-ation of Seniors in American 

 Colleges: Professor Gregory D. Walcott 17!) 



William McMurtrie: Professor Edward 

 Hart 185 



Publications of the Department of Agriculture 187 



Scientific Notes and News . 188 



University and Educational News 192 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Three Ice Storins: Charles P. Brooks. 

 A Phlebotomus the Practically Certain 

 Carrier of Verruga: Dr. Charles H. T. 



TOWNSEND 193 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



Thresh on the Examination of Waters and 

 Water Supplies: Professor George C. 

 Whipple. Arber's Herbals, their Origin 

 and Evolution: Professor Charles E. 

 Bessey. Jordan's Vergleichende Physiol- 

 ogic Wirbelloser Tiere\ De. Otto Glaser. 

 Giildi on Die sanitarisch-pathologische Be- 

 deutung der Inselcten und verwandten 

 Fliedertiere : Dr. Charles T. Brues 195 



Scientific Journals and Articles 200 



Branch Movements Induced by Changes of 

 Temperature : J. G. Geossenbacher 201 



Special Articles: — 



" Yellow" and "Agouti" Factors in Mice: 

 C. C. Little. Antigravitation-al Gradation: 

 De. Charles E. Keyes 205 



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

 rcTlew sbould be sent to Frofesaor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-Hndson, N. Y. 



TBE INTEBPBETATION OF NATURE AND 

 TSE TEACHING LABOBATOBY^ 



There is a universal tendency among mankind 

 to conceive all beings like themselves and to 

 transfer to every object those qualities with which 

 they are familiarly acquainted. — David Hume, 

 1817. 



In all ages human conduct has been 

 largely determined by contemporary opin- 

 ion, and contemporary opinion by current 

 interpretations of nature. When, for ex- 

 ample, the Greeks held that the sun was a 

 god, driving a chariot of fire daily across 

 the sky, it was natural for them to worship 

 and revere the sun as the great giver of 

 light and life. For us moderns, holding, 

 as we do, that the sun is a flaming globe of 

 gas, to do likewise is impossible. Savages, 

 believing that disease is due to demoniacal 

 possession, naturally employ charms for 

 prevention and incantations for cure, while 

 we, holding as we do, that typhoid fever 

 comes only by microbes discharged by an- 

 tecedent cases of that disease, invoke for 

 prevention disinfection of excreta and pro- 

 tective inoculation, and for cure reinforce- 

 ment of the -vital resistance of the patient. 

 In all cases conduct is determined, con- 

 sciously or unconsciously, by contemporary 

 interpretations of nature, and we shall find 

 it instructive as well as helpful to review 

 briefly some of those accepted interpreta- 

 tions of the past which for longer or shorter 

 times have occupied the minds of men. 



And first we must touch upon those sav- 

 age and barbarous interpretations character- 



' An address at Bates College on the dedication 

 of the Carnegie Laboratories of Physics and Biol- 

 ogy, January 14, 1913. 



