SCIENCE 



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



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Friday, September 30, 1904. 



CONTENTS: 

 2'he Unity of Physical Science: Professor 

 R. S. Woodward 417 



Micro-organisms of Soil and Human Welfare: 

 Professor T. J. Burrill 426 



Scientific Books: — 



Eendle on the Classification of Floicering 

 Plants : Professor Charles E. Bessey .... 434 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Currents of the North Pacific: Dr. Wm. H. 

 Dall 436 



Special Articles: — 



On the Pupation of Ants and tlie Feasibility 

 of Establishing the Gautemalan Kelep or 

 Cotton-Weevil Ant in tJw United States: 

 Dr. William Morton Wheeler 437 



Current Notes on Meteorology: — 



General Circulation of the Atmosphere; 

 ■Japanes Meteorological Observatory ; Vi- 

 enna Meteorological Observatory ; Mountain 

 Sickness : Professor R. DeC. Ward 440 



Notes on Inorganic Chemistry: — 



Condition of Eelium in Pitchblende ; He- 

 lium in Minerals from Greenland; Con- 

 ductivity of Radium Solutions; Metals in 

 Mineral Waters; Action of Metals on Fer- 

 mentation; Biochemical Reactions for Tel- 

 lurium a/nd Selenium; Source of Normal 

 Arsenic in the Body: J. L. H 441 



Botany at the Cuban Experiment Station: 

 Dr. F- S. Earle 444 



The International Congress of Arts and Science 445 



Scientific Notes and Neics 446 



University and Educational News 448 



MSS. inteudedfor publication and books, etc.. Intended 

 for review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Qarri- 

 son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



THE UNITY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE* 

 There is a tradition, still tacitly sanc- 

 tioned even by men of science, that there 

 have been epochs when the more eminent 

 minds were able to compass the entire range 

 of knowledge. Amongst the vanishing 

 heroic figures of the past it seems possible, 

 indeed, to discern, here and there, a 

 Galileo, a Huygens, a Descartes, a Leibnitz, 

 a Newton, a Laplace or a Humbolt, each 

 capable, at least, of summing up with great 

 completeness the state of contemporary 

 knowledge. Traditions, however, are gen- 

 erally more or less mythical, and the myth 

 in this case seems to be in flat contradiction 

 with the fact that there never was such an 

 epoch, that the great masters of our dis- 

 tinguished predecessors Avere, after all, 

 much like the masters of to-day, simply the 

 leading specialists of their times. But 

 however this may be, if we grant the pos- 

 sibility of the requisite attainments, even 

 in a few individuals at any epoch, we shall 

 speedily conclude that there never was an 

 epoch so much in need of them as the im- 

 mediate present, when the divisional speak- 

 ers of this congress are called upon to ex- 

 plain the unities which pervade the ever- 

 widening and largely diverse fields of their 

 several domains. 



The domain of physical science, concern- 

 ing which I have the honor to address you 

 to-day, presents peculiar and peculiarly 

 formidable difficulties in the way of a sum- 

 mary review. While we may not be dis- 



* Address before the Division of Physical Sci- 

 ence, International Congress of Arts and Science, 

 St. Louis, September 19-25, 1904. 



