SCIENCE 



Editorial Committee : S. Nbwcomb, Mathematics ; E. S. Woopwaed, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickering 



Astronomy; T. C. Mendbnhall, Physics; R. H. Thukston, Engineering; Ira Rbmsen, Chemistry; 



J. Le Conte, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. Marsh, Paleontology; W. K. Brooks, 



C. Hart Merriam, Zoology; S. H. Scudder, Entomology; C. E. Bessey, N. L. Britton, 



Botany; Heney F. Osboen, General Biology; C. S. Minot, Embryology, Histology; 



H. P. Bowditch, Physiology; J. S. Billings, Hygiene; J. McKeen Cattell, 



Psychology; Daniel G. Beinton, J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Friday, December 30, 1898. 



CONTENTS: 



Reform in Medical Education : PROFESSOR H. P. 



Bowditch 921 



On the Increasing Importance of Inorganic Cliemis- 



try : Professor Harry C. Jones 927 



The Tailless Batrachians of Europe: Dr. Theo. 



Gill 932 



Skeleton Leaves : Albert F. Woods 938 



Problems of Physiography concerning Salinity and 



Tempm-attcre of the Pacific Ocean: A. Likden- 



KOHL 941 



Tlie Storing of Pamphlets: Professor Charles 

 S. Minot 944 



Notes on Inorganic Chemistry : J. L. H 945 



Current Notes on Meteorology : — 



Upsala Cloud Obsei-vations ; Recent Anemometer 

 Studies; San Francisco Rainfall; Frequency of 

 Rainy Days in the British Isles : E. DeC. Ward.. 947 



Current Notes on Anthropology : — 



Man and the Monkey ; The Native Tribes of Costa 

 Rica ; The Chronology of Arehseology ; Ethnog- 

 raphy of German East Africa: Professor 

 D. G. Beinton 948 



Scientific Notes and News 949 



University and Educational News 952 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



Tlie Origin of Mammals: PROFESSOR O.C. Maesh. 

 Zoological Bibliography : De. W. H. Dall. Leh- 

 man and Hansen ' on the Telepathic Problem :' PRO- 

 FESSOR William James 953 



Sciintitle Literature : — 



Jordan^ s Footnotes to Evolution : PROFESSOR A. S. 

 Packard. Geikie on Earth Sculpture: PRO- 

 FESSOR John C. BeANNEE. Story's Photog- 

 raphy: E. L... 956 



Scientific Journals 959 



Societies and Academies : — 



The Philosophical Society of Washington : E. D. 

 Preston. Boston Society of Natural History : 

 Samuel Henshaw. Section of Astronomy and 

 Physics of tlie New York Academy of Sciences : E. 

 GOEDON 959 



New Books 960 



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

 for review should be sent to tlae responsible editor. Profes- 

 sor J. McKeen Cattell, Garnson-oi-Hudson, N. Y. 



REFORM IN MEDICAL EDUCATION* 

 The choice of a physiologist as the pre- 

 siding officer of the Society of American 

 Naturalists might, perhaps, have justified 

 me in selectijig some of the problems con- 

 nected with experimental physiology as the 

 subject of my remarks this evening, but, as 

 questions of this sort are wont to awaken 

 but a languid interest except among those 

 who are themselves engaged in physiolog- 

 ical research, I have thought it better to 

 allow my choice of a subject to be guided 

 by the fact that we are nearly all of us 

 actively engaged in teaching as well as in 

 studying our sciences, and to address you 

 this evening upon some topic connected 

 with education. 



My own experience of 27 years as a pro- 

 fessor of physiology and of 10 years as 

 Dean of the Harvard Medical Faculty nat- 

 urally inclines me to discourse upon the 

 subject of medical education and, since the 

 great profession of medicine demands from 

 its practitioners a certain familiarity with 

 the fundamental truths of all tlie natural 

 sciences, it can surely not be inappropriate 

 to ask the representatives of those sciences 

 to consider witli me how far the progress 

 of medicine and of the allied sciences lias 

 made it desirable to revise our methods of 

 imparting medical instruction. 



*Afidress of the President, delivered before the 

 American Society of Naturalists at the New York 

 meeting, December, 1898. 



