September 9, 1898.] 



SCIENCE, 



323 



universe and, suspending our judgment, as- 

 sume an agnostic position. But the human 

 mind, even when rigidly scientific and logi- 

 cal, is so constituted that few of us are satis- 

 fied to stop here. He who is most capable 

 of daring speculation in the realm of physi- 

 cal or biological or philosophic thought can- 

 not refrain from inquiring into the nature of 

 the first or moving cause, and how the pres- 

 ent order of things has been brought about. 



As a mere working hypothesis, we are, 

 -at least many of us, compelled to assume 

 that the present order of things, material 

 and immaterial, is not self-evolved, but is 

 the result of an Infinite Intelligence and 

 Will giving the initial impulse and domi- 

 nating as well as guiding and coordinating 

 the progressive changes, whether cosmical, 

 geological or biological. The fact of the 

 survival of the fittest, of the extinction of 

 the unfit, the conclusion that throughout 

 the universe order has arisen from chaos or 

 the undifferentiated, the specialized from 

 the generalized, that the good and beautiful 

 and true have in the past overcome and 

 will continue to outweigh what is unfit and 

 «vil in matter, mind and morals, at least 

 strongly suggests that the First Cause is 

 not only omnipotent but all-wise and bene- 

 ficent. For evolution tends to optimism. 

 Few working biologists are pessimistic. 

 And thus, while science as such is concerned 

 with facts and their relations, we can at the 

 ■end of this century of scientific effort afl&rm 

 that it need not be, and is not, opposed to 

 whatever is noble, exalted, hopeful and in- 

 spiring in human aspirations, or to the 

 yearnings of the soul for a life beyond the 

 present, for there certainly are, in the facts 

 ■of the moral and spiritual evolution of our 

 race, intimations of immortality, and sug- 

 gestions, where absolute proof is naturally 

 wanting, of a divinity that shapes the 

 course of nature. 



Alpheus S. Packard. 



Brown University. 



BEPOBTS OF COMMITTEES OF THE AMERICAN 



ASSOCIATION FOB THE ADVANCEMENT 



OF SCIENCE. 



SIXTEENTH ANNUAL EEPOET OP THE COMMIT- 

 TEE ON INDEXING CHEMICAL LITEKATUEE. 



The Committee on Indexing Chemical 

 Literature respectfully presents to the 

 Chemical Section its sixteenth annual re- 

 port, covering the twelve months ending 

 August, 1898. 



Works Published. 

 A Bibliography of the Metals of the Platinum 

 Group, Platinum, Palladium, Iridium, 

 Ehodium, Osmium, Ruthenium, 1748- 

 1896. By Jas. Lewis Howe. Smithso- 

 nian Miscellaneous Collections, 1084. 

 City of Washington, 1897. 8vo. Pp. 318. 

 This fine volume forms one of the most 

 valuable and comprehensive indexes to an 

 important field of chemical literature pro- 

 duced under the auspices of the Committee 

 since its appointment in 1882. It shows on 

 every page evidence of conscientious and 

 critical skill ; the author- and subject-in- 

 dexes, with which the book concludes, are 

 important features. Its workmanship and 

 the method of presentation of data in type 

 make Dr. Howe's volume a model. 

 Reference to the Literature of the Sugar-Beet, 

 exclusive of works in foreign languages. 

 By Claribel Ruth Barnett. U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture. Library Bul- 

 letin, June, 1897. 4to. Pp. 9. 

 This carefully edited contribution to the 

 bibliography of a subject interesting to the 

 chemist as well as to the scientific farmer 

 manifests the activity of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in its Library. 

 A Chemical Bibliography of Morphine 1875— 

 1896. By H. E. Brown, under the direc- 

 tion of A. B. Peescott, Completed in 

 Pharmaceutical Archives, Vol. 1, No. 3. 

 A supplement carries the literature 

 through 1897. The separates contain an 

 index of authors. 



