884 



SCIENCE 



[X. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 990 



steeper. A student reporter thought it to be 

 his duty to announce to the newspaper world 

 that a new law of physics had been discovered, 

 and the importance of the discovery seems to 

 have increased with each successive announce- 

 ment. 



This experience reminds me of a similar 

 one which happened to me years ago. At the 

 time when reporters everywhere were rushing 

 to physics laboratories in order to learn some- 

 thing of X-rays, a reporter came to me. He 

 found me experimenting with Hertz waves. 

 By means of a large double-convex lens of 

 wax, the waves were being brought to a focus 

 upon a photographic plate enclosed in a 

 wrapping of black paper. For several weeks 

 I had been trying to produce a shadow picture 

 upon the plate. The reporter seemed inter- 

 ested, and he seemed to have some intelligence. 

 He could appreciate the evidence that the lens 

 caused a refraction of the rays. Although he 

 was informed in the most emphatic manner 

 that this was not a refraction of X-rays, the 

 public announcment was made that I had suc- 

 ceeded where others had failed, in the refrac- 

 tion of X-rays. 



It seems to be impossible to quench a dis- 

 turbance of this kind when it has once been 

 emitted from a news-agency. Scientific read- 

 ers have probably had enough of such experi- 

 ence to see the importance of keeping, in an 

 accessible place, a few grains of salt. 



Francis E. Nipher 



the industrial fellowships at pittsbdrgh 

 To THE Editor of Science: The industrial 

 fellowship project, originated in the University 

 of Kansas by Professor Robert K. Duncan and 

 now in flourishing operation under his direction 

 in the University of Pittsburgh under the name 

 of the ■' Mellon Institute of Industrial Re- 

 search and School of Specific Industries," has 

 been more than once subjected to the criticism, 

 which found a place in an otherwise favorable 

 reference in the presidential address of Mr. 

 Arthur D. Little to the American Chemical 

 Society at its recent meeting at Rochester :"■ 

 1 Science, November 7, 1913, p. 652. 



While some doubt may reasonably be expressed 

 as to the possibility of close individual supervision 

 of so many ividely varying projects, the results ob- 

 tained thus far seem entirely satisfactory to those 

 behind the movement. 



When first made this criticism had, I think, 

 some validity. But to any one who has come 

 into touch with the Mellon Institute, even as 

 a visitor, it must be evident that the difficulty 

 has been squarely met by "those behind the 

 movement." The endowment of the fellow- 

 ships is now so liberal as to permit of the em- 

 ployment of investigators of experience, who 

 do not require " close individual supervision." 

 In consequence, the relations of the Director 

 and the Fellows are rather comparable to those 

 of a university president and his corps of pro- 

 fessors and instructors than to those of a uni- 

 versity professor and his class of graduate stu- 

 dents. Furthermore, the director is now 

 assisted in the work of supervision by an asso- 

 ciate director and an assistant director. Thus 

 the services of three advisers are at the com- 

 mand of each Fellow, who may, moreover, 

 obtain help from his colleagues without 

 divulging the secrets of his own research. 



If one acquainted with the project merely as 

 an onlooker might venture an opinion upon 

 the qualifications most essential to the success 

 of the director of such an institute, it would 

 be that a wide and sound general knowledge 

 of scientific principles, a broad sympathy en- 

 abling one to appreciate the widely differing 

 viewpoints of business men and of investi- 

 gators and inventors, an active but disciplined 

 scientific imagination and a strong, firm will 

 are of more importance than an encyclopedic 

 acquaintance with details. J. F. Snell 



Macdonald College 

 Quebec, Canada, 

 November 18, 1913 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



TJntersuchungen ueher Chlorophyll. Methoden 

 nnd Ergebnisse von Richard Willstaettee 

 und Arthur Stoll. Ein Bd., pp. 424, mit 

 16 Text-figuren und 11 Tafeln. Verlag von 

 Julius Springer, Berlin. 1913. M. 18.00, 

 geb M. 20.50. 



