Friday, December 26, 1913 



CONTENTS 



Henri Poincare as a Mathematical Physicist: 

 Peopessob Arthur Gordon Webster .... 901 



University Organization: Professor J. B. 

 Johnston 908 



The Fur-Seal Census for 1913: George Archi- 

 bald Clark 918 



Edwin Klehs : Dr. F. H. Garrison 920 



Scientific Notes and Neivs 921 



University and Educational Neios 924 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A New Type of Bacterial Disease: Dr. Er- 

 wiN F. Smith. The Manus of Trachodont 

 Dinosaurs: Barnum Brown. Agrodogma- 

 tology: E. Mead Wilcox 9-6 



Scientific BooJcs: — 



Jelliffe and White's Nervous and Mental 

 Disease Monograph Series: Dr. E. S. Wood- 

 worth. Loeb on the Venxim of Heloderma: 

 Dr. John Van Denburgh 927 



Special Articles: — 



Anatomy as a Means of Diagnosis of Spon- 

 taneous Plant Hybrids: B. Holden 932 



The Ohio Academy of Science: Professor Ed- 

 ward L. EiCE 933 



The American Physical Society: Professor 

 A. D. Cole 936 



The Convocation Weelc Meeting of Scientific 

 Societies 936 



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

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

 on-Hudson, N. Y. 



HENRI POINCABE AS A MATHEMATICAL 

 PHYSICIST^ 



When I was asked by the secretary to 

 contribute a paper of general interest be- 

 fore this section I was overwhelmed with 

 the sense of my inability to do so, but when 

 he suggested that I should take as a sub- 

 ject the work of Henri Poincare as a mathe- 

 matical physicist, I consented, because, 

 however slight might be my capability, 

 the subject was a most congenial one. The 

 great Frenchman whose untimely death 

 at the age of 58 the whole scientific world 

 deplores was a man of extraordinary ver- 

 satility, while his productiveness is meas- 

 ured by the fact that the total number of 

 separate contributions from his pen reaches 

 nearly the sum of a thousand. France has 

 always known how to honor her great men, 

 even if she does not understand them, and 

 the impression produced by the death of 

 Poincare on the whole country was pro- 

 found. The news was communicated to me 

 in London at the celebration of the Royal 

 Society by his friend and distinguished 

 colleague, Emile Picard, who in a voice 

 choked with emotion pronounced the words, 

 "Poincare est mort!" 



While there can be no doubt that the 

 greatest work of Poincare consisted in his 

 work in pure analysis, we must not forget 

 that for ten years he filled the chair of 

 mathematical physics of the Faculte des 

 Sciences. During this time he touched 

 every conceivable part of the subject and it 

 may be truly said that he touched nothing 

 that he did not adorn. Fourteen volumes 



1 Kead before Section A of the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science, De- 

 cember 31, 1912. 



