SCIENCE 



Friday, Septembee 12, 1913 



C01^{TENTS 



The British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science: — 



The Place of Pure Mathematics: Dk. H. 



F. Baker 347 



TTorlc going on at Kilauea Volcano: Geo. 

 Caekoll Curtis 355 



Scientific Notes and News 358 



University and Educational Nejvs 361 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Peculiar Dermal Element in Chimccroid 

 Fishes: T. D. A. Cockebell. Labeling 

 Microscopic Slides: Ernest Shaw Eey- 

 . HOLDS. Upon the Distribution of Eho- 

 dochytrium : John G. Hall 363 



Scientific Books: — 



il/«Ji)! on the Teaching of Physics: Pko- 

 EESSOR F. E. Kester. Baker on Thick 

 Lens Optics; Thorington on Prisms: Dr. 

 P. G. Nutting 365 



Special Articles: — ■ 



A Parasite of the Chinch-bug Egg: James 

 W. McCOLLOCH. Some Observations on the 

 Sexuality of Spirogyra: Dr. Harlan H. 

 York 367 



The Society of American Bacteriologists : — 



Systematic and Physiologic Bacteriology; 

 Dairy Bacteriology: Dr. A. Parker 

 Hitchens 369 



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

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

 On-Hudson, N. Y. 



THE BBITISH ASSOCIATION FOB THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 

 THE PLACE OF PUBE MATHEMATICS^ 

 It is not a very usual thing for the open- 

 ing address of this section to be entrusted 

 to one whose main energies have been de- 

 voted to what is called pure mathematics; 

 bvit I value the opportunity in order to try 

 to explain what, as I conceive it, the justifi- 

 cation of the pure mathematician is. You 

 will understand that in saying this I am 

 putting myself in a position which belongs 

 to me as little by vocation as by achieve- 

 ment, since it was my duty through many 

 years to give instruction in all the subjects 

 usually regarded as mathematical physics, 

 and it is still my duty to be concerned with 

 students in these subjects. But my experi- 

 ence is that the pure mathematician is apt 

 to be regarded by his friends as a trifler 

 and a visionary, and the consciousness of 

 this becomes in time a paralyzing dead- 

 weight. I think that view is founded on 

 want of knowledge. 



Of course, it must be admitted that the 

 mathematician, as such, has no part in those 

 public endeavoi-s that arise from the posi- 

 tion of our empire in the world, nor in the 

 efforts that must constantly be made for 

 social adjustment at home. I wish to make 

 this obvious remark. For surely the scien- 

 tific man must give his time and his work 

 in the faith of at least an intellectual har- 

 mony in things ; and he must wish to know 

 what to think of all that seems out of gear 

 in the working of human relations. His 



'Address of the president to the Mathematical 

 and Physical Science Section of the British Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, Birming- 

 ham, 1913. 



