70 



this amount shall be he'd to include any disbursements by him 

 for clerical assistance. 

 The motion was carried. 



Resignations were read and accepted from Mr. Macy Carhart 

 and Mr. Gifford Pinchot. 

 Adjourned. 



Percy Wilson, 



Secretary. 



OF INTEREST TO TEACHERS*! 



The Scientific Spirit 



Under "Practical Science" Professor John M. Coulter dis- 

 cusses {Science, June lo, 1910) the scientific attitude of mind or the 

 scientific spirit. He describes three of its useful characteristics: 

 First, that it is a spirit of inquiry, and in connection with this 

 he makes the statement that it "is not the spirit of unrest, of 

 discomfort, but the evidence of a mind whose every avenue 

 is open to the approach of truth from every direction. For fear 

 of being misunderstood, I hasten to say that this beneficial 

 result of scientific training does not come to all those who 

 cultivate it, any more than is the Christ-like character developed 

 in all those who profess Christianity. I regret to say that even 

 some who bear great names in science have been as dogmatic 

 as the most rampant theologian. But the dogmatic scientist 

 and theologian are not to be taken as examples of 'the peaceable 

 fruits of righteousness,' for the general ameliorating influence 

 of religion and of science are none the less apparent." 



Second, it is a "spirit which demands that a claimed cause 

 shall be demonstrated. It is in the laboratory that one first 

 really appreciates how many factors must be taken into the count 

 in considering any result, and what an element of uncertainty 

 an unknown factor introduces. Even when the factors of some 

 simple result are well in hand, and we can combine them with 

 reasonable certainty that the result will appear, we may be 

 entirely wrong in our conclusion as to what in the combination 

 has produced the result. For example, the forms of certain 



* Conducted by Miss Jean Broadhurst, Teachers College, Columbia University. 



