922 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. TV. No. 103. 



Lower Cretaceous beds, whicli are left out of the 

 geologic column, A great break in the sedi- 

 mentary sequence would still exist between the 

 Wealden and Dakota. In the light of the tes- 

 timony of structure and paleontology, the cur- 

 rent hypothesis that land conditions prevailed 

 in Jurassic time makes a much more harmoni- 

 ous and acceptable geologic record. 



Personally, while differing with Prof. Marsh, 

 the writer feels grateful that he has reopened 

 this question, for we believe it will result in a 

 more thorough understanding and appreciation 

 of the Lower Cretaceous epoch and its influ- 

 ence in the making of our continental history. 

 In conclusion, however, we must confess our 

 inability to see that Prof. Marsh has submitted 

 sufficient proof to maintain his proposition or 

 to upset the accepted results of the minute geo- 

 logic research throughout the Atlantic Coastal 

 Plain. To prove these beds Jurassic by moving 

 the boundary between periods is not an alto- 

 gether satisfactory method, nor in harmony 

 with geologic usage. Neither will the testi- 

 mony of a few vertebrates in beds abounding in 

 Cretaceous-like plants and invertebrates be of 

 sufficient weight to upset the accepted nomen- 

 clature, especially when the time position of 

 these vertebrates in the European standard to 

 which they are referred is unknown. 



Inasmuch as the evidence contrary to Prof. 

 Marsh's position has all been brought out in 

 accepted scientific literature, and he, as yet, 

 has presented no detailed evidence to maintain 

 his unique position, it is difficult to appreciate 

 his statement that the burden of proof ' belongs 

 upon those who hold contrary opinions' to 

 himself. It appears instead that he is submit- 

 ting data which may be used to advantage by 

 those who might believe in the Cretaceous age 

 of the beds which he has so long called Juras- 

 sic E. T. H. 



PROFFESSOR WILSON'S ADDRESS AT THE PRINCE- 

 TON SESQUICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



The concluding part of Professor Woodrow 

 Wilson's oration at the Princeton sesquicenten- 

 nial celebration has been received with general 

 applause by literary and religious journals. The 

 occasion of its delivery made it more than an 

 individual utterance, for the speaker and the 



hearers must have understood it to present a pro- 

 gram for Princeton University. Men of science 

 should, therefore, read Professor Wilson's words 

 in order that they may know of the exist- 

 ence of a point of view which they may have 

 thought obsolete. 



Professor Wilson holds that the scientific spirit 

 of the age is 'doing us a great disservice, working 

 in us a certain great degeneracy, ' that the limi- 

 tations of science are known to its own masters, 

 who * have eschewed sense and confined them- 

 selves to sensation.' He is indeed prepared to 

 acknowledge certain achievements of science, 

 but for him ' the scientist ' seems to be the man 

 who invents the steam engine or the sewing 

 machine. The practical applications of physical 

 science have, it is true, reformed the world. 

 They have answered with facts Professor Wil- 

 son's predecessor whose a priori arguments 

 claimed that population must increase more rap- 

 idly than the means of subsistence. They have 

 made possible a civilization in which each man 

 may have not only physical well-being, but also 

 time and means for thought and culture. But 

 I believe that science has done more than this ; 

 it has not only given opportunity for education 

 and culture ; it also offers the best means of cul- 

 ture and the truest standpoint from which to 

 view the world. Keats might see no beauty in 

 the rainbow after its causes had been explained 

 to him, and Professor Wilson may think Phoebus 

 and his horses a nobler conception than those of 

 modern astronomy. But the man of science 

 does not find that the beauty of the world be- 

 comes less, as he learns more of its order. 



Scepticism, pessimism and the like are much 

 older than the present century; they do not result 

 from scientific study, as Professor Wilson claims, 

 but are rather literary products. It is not the stu- 

 dent of science, but Professor Wilson, who 'cow- 

 ers' 'in an age of change, ' If, as Professor Wil- 

 son says, classical studies make a boy a gentle- 

 man, scientific studies may make him a man. 

 The present winter does not undervalue classical 

 studies, but finds the difficulty to be that in a 

 college such as Princeton the work with gram- 

 mar and dictionary is a somewhat trivial science 

 and the student does not go on far enough to 

 appreciate classical literature and art or to un- 

 dertake the scientific study of the causes of the 



