SCIENCE. 



EniTORiAL Committee : S. NEWCom, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodward, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickering, As- 

 tronomy ; T. C. Mexdenhall, Physics ; R. H. Thfrston, Engineering ; Ira Remsen, Cliemistry ; 

 Joseph Le Coxte, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. Marsh, Paleontology; W. K. 

 Beooks, Invertebrate Zoology ; C. Hart Merriaji, Vertebrate Zoology ; N. L. Brittoit, 

 Botany ; Henry F. Osbors, General Biology ; H. P. Bowditch, Physiology ; 

 J. S. BiLLlXGS, Hygiene ; J. McKeex Cattell, Psychology ; 

 Daniel G. Brixton, J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Friday, February 8, 1895. 



CONTENTS: 



An Hisloriial Stirre!/ of the Science of Mechanics: 

 R. S. Woodward 141 



The Fire Sooks of Hislon/ : J. W. Powell 157 



Unity of Xomenclaturc in Zoology and Botany: 

 C. Hart Merriam 161 



Scientific Literature : — 162 



Can an Organ inm icilhoiit a Mother he Bom 

 from an Egg ! W. K. B. Sc?torleinmcr' s Bise 

 ami Development of Organic Chemistry : Edgar 

 F. Smith. 



Notes and News : — 164 



Hygiene; Physien ; Anatomy; C4irniroroiis 

 Plants; Toads on the Seashore ; General. 



Societies and Academies : — 166 



Nctc I'ork Academy of Sciences, Section of Bi- 

 ology ; Biological Society of Washington. 



Scientific Journals 168 



New Books 168 



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

 for review should be sent to the responsible editor. Prof. J. 

 McKeen Cattell, Garrison on Hudson, N. Y. 



Subscriptions ( five dollars annually ) and advertisements 

 ■faould be sent to the Publisher of Science, 41 East49tb St., 

 New York, or Lancaster, Pa. 



AN HISTORICAL SUR VEV OF THE SCIENCE OF 

 MECHANICS.* 

 Olk age is at once the age of excessive 

 specialization and the age of excessive popu- 

 larization of science. Every smallest field 

 of scientific activity lias its gleaners and 

 classifiers and builders of technical termin- 

 ology. The workers in each field proceed, 

 as a rule, without much regard to the iuter- 



*Ad(lress delivered by Professor R. S. Woodward, 

 at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences, 

 November 26, 1894. 



ests and objects of the workers in adjoining 

 fields, and it may easily happen that the 

 precise and lucid, if not romantic, literature 

 current in one field will be wadl-nigh uuiii- 

 telligible in another. So far, indeed, lias 

 this specialization gone that the various 

 classes of specialists have but little common 

 ground on which to meet, and it is some- 

 times difficult, if not impossible, for them to 

 dwell together in peace and harmony. In 

 a general scientific assembly, for example, 

 the naturalists feel great uneasiness in lis- 

 tening to a paper from a mathematician or 

 physicist, while the latter are almost certain 

 to seek relief in the open air from the de- 

 pression induced in them by the wealth of 

 terminology essential to the descrij)tiou of a 

 new species. The general public, on the 

 other hand, busy tliough it be with multi- 

 farious aSairs, is tpiick to appreciate the re- 

 sults of science and eager to know liow thej' 

 have been attained. To meet this legiti- 

 mate demand for information, scientific and 

 pseudo-scientific men have given us a flood 

 of popular literature explaining almost ev- 

 ery discovery, principle. theoiy,and specula- 

 tion known to .scientific thought. Nay more, 

 and worse, tliis popularization has gone so 

 far that many have come to tliink that 

 the royal road to learning has been found ; 

 tliat it is only necessary, in fact, to acquire 

 a little of the technical terminology, to read 

 a few books, and to witness a few pjTOtech- 

 nic experiments to come into pos,session of 



