SCIENCE 



A WEKKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Editoeiai. CoMMiXTBK : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodwaed, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickeeing, 

 Astronomy ; T. C. Mendbnhall, Physios ; K. H. Thdbston, Engineering ; Iba Eemsen, Chemistry ; 

 Chaelks D. Walcott, Geology ; W. M. Davis, Physiography ; Heney F. Osboen, Paleon- 

 tology ; W. K. Beooks, C. Haet Meeriam, Zoology ; S. H. Scijddbe, Entomology ; C. E. 

 Bessey, N. L. Beitton, Botany ; C. S. Minot, Embryology, Histology ; H. P. Bow- 

 ditch, Physiology ; J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; William H. Welch, 

 Pathology ; J. McKeen Catiell, Psychology. 



Friday, January 23, 1903. 



CONTENTS: 



The Universe as an Organism: Pkofessoe S. 

 Newcomb 121 



Plans of the New Buildings for the National 

 Bureau of Standards: Pbofessok E. B. 

 EoSA 129 



American Philosophical Association: Pro- 

 fessor H. N. Gardiner 140 



Scientific Books: — 



Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and 

 Psychology, Vol. II.: Professor Frank 

 Thillt 143 



Scientific Journals and Articles 145 



Societies and Academies: — 



Ohio State Academy of Science: Professor 

 E. L. MosELEY. North Carolina Academy 

 of Science: F. S. Northeastern Section of 

 the American Chemical Society: Arthuk M. 

 COMEY. Torrey Botanical Club : W. A. 

 Cannon; Professor Edward S. Burgess. 

 Columbia University Geological Journal 

 Club : H. W. Shimer 145 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



First Record of the Pollack Whale {Balosn- 

 optera borealis) in the Western North At- 

 lantic: Frederick W. Tktje. A Second 

 Bishop's Ring around the Sun and the Re- 

 cent Unusual Twilight Glows : Henry Helm 

 Clayton 150 



Shorter Articles: — 



Some Corrosions found on Ancient Bronzes: 

 Waldemae Koch. Note on the Circular 

 Swimming of Sand-dollar Spermatozoa: G. 

 M. WiNSLOw 152 



Notes on Entomology : Nathan Banks 154 



Botanical Notes: — 



Pharmacognosy ; Amateur Systematic Bot- 

 any: Professor Charles E. Bessey 156 



Recent Zoopaleontology : H. F. 157 



Scientific Notes and News 158 



University and Educational News 160 



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

 for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Pro- 

 fessor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



THE UNIVERSE AS AN ORGANISM.* 

 If I were called upon to convey, within 

 the compass of a single sentence, an idea 

 of the trend of recent astronomical and 

 physical science, I should say that it was 

 in the direction of showing the universe 

 to be a connected whole. The farther we 

 advance in knowledge, the clearer it be- 

 comes that the bodies which are scattered 

 through the celestial spaces are not com- 

 pletely independent existences, but have, 

 with all their infinite diversity, many at- 

 tributes in common. 



In this we are going in the direction of 

 certain ideas of the ancients which mod- 

 ern discovery long seemed to have contra- 

 dicted. In the infancy of the race, the 

 idea that the heavens were simply an en- 

 larged and diversified earth, peopled by 

 beings who could roam at pleasure from 

 one extreme to the other, was a quite 

 natural one. The crystalline sphere or 

 spheres which contained all formed a com- 

 bination of machinery revolving on a single 

 plan. But aU bonds of unity between the 

 stars began to be weakened when Coper- 

 nicus showed that there were no spheres, 

 that the planets were isolated bodies, and 

 that the stars were vastly more distant 

 than the planets. As discovery went on 

 and our conceptions of the universe were 



* Address before the Astronomical and Astro- 

 physical Society of America, December 29, 1902. 



