SCIENCE 



Friday, September 26, 1913 



CONTENTS 



The British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science: — 

 Continuity. II. : Sir Olivee Lodge 417 



The Teaching of College Biology: Dr. A. 

 J. GOLDFAKB 430 



MexicoM Archeology and Ethnology 436 



The American Fisheries Society 437 



Chemistry at the Atlanta Meeting of the 

 American Association 438 



Scientific Notes and News 438 



University and Educational News 441 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



A Bit of History: Db. Marcus Benjamin. 



The Law of Priority: Thos. L. Casey . . . 441 



Scientific Boohs: — 

 Percival's Geometrical Optics: Professor 

 W. Le Conte Stevens. Bamaley and 

 Griffin on the Prevention and Control of 

 Disease: Dk. E. L. Opie 443 



Special Articles: — 



On Inducing Development in the Sea- 

 Vrchin, with Con^derations on the Initia- 

 tory Effect of Fertilization: Dr. Otto 

 Glaser 446 



The Society of American Bacteriologists. 

 III.:— 

 Pathologic Bacteriology ; Immunity Bac- 

 teriology: Dr. a. Parker Hitchens 451 



M8S. Intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 MTlew Bhould be sent to Professor J. MoKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-Hu^son, N. Y. 



CONTINUITY.'^ II 



The so-called non-Newtonian mechanics, 

 with mass and shape a function of velocity, 

 is an immediate consequence of the elec- 

 trical theory of matter. The dependence of 

 inertia and shape on speed is a genuine dis- 

 covery and, I believe, a physical fact. The 

 principle of relativity would reduce it to a 

 conventional fiction. It would seek to re- 

 place this real change in matter by imag- 

 inary changes in time. But surely we must 

 admit that space and time are essentially 

 unchangeable: they are not at the disposal 

 even of mathematicians; though it is true 

 that Pope Gregory, or a daylight-saving 

 bill, can play with our units, can turn the 

 third of October in any one year into the 

 fourteenth, or can make the sun south 

 sometimes at eleven o'clock, sometimes at 

 twelve.^ 



But the changes of dimension and mass 

 due to velocity are not conventions, but 

 realities ; so I urge, on the basis of the elec- 

 trical theory of matter. The Fitzgerald- 

 Lorentz hypothesis I have an affection for. 

 I was present at its birth. Indeed I as- 

 sisted at its birth; for it was in my study 

 at 21 Waverley Road, Liverpool, with Fitz- 

 gerald in an arm chair, and while I was 

 enlarging on the difficulty of reconciling 



' Address of the president of the British Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, Birming- 

 ham, 1913. 



" In the historical case of governmental inter- 

 ference with the calendar, no wonder the populace 

 rebelled. Surely some one might have explained to 

 the authorities that dropping leap year for the 

 greater part of a century would do all that was 

 wanted, and that the horrible inconvenience of 

 upsetting all engagements and shortening a single 

 year by eleven days could be avoided. 



