114 Scientific In telligence. 



7. British Association for the Advancement of Science. — The 



next meeting of the British Association will be held in Australia 

 during the month of August. The presidential addresses will be 

 divided between .Melbourne and Sydney and the sectional addresses 

 between these cities and also Adelaide and Brisbane. The mem- 

 bers going from England are expected to number about 400; 

 numerous interesting excursions have been planned. 



8. A Theory of Interest ; by Clarexce Gilbert Hoag, 

 A.M. New York, 1914 (The Macmillan Co.).— This book is an 

 attempt at an original solution of the problem of interest. In 

 many ways the method of approach is new and striking. It is 

 doubtful, however, if the presentation offered brings us any nearer 

 to a final solution of the problem than we were before. 



Perhaps the most characteristic feature of the book is the way 

 of defining "principal." The principal of a loan is commonly 

 supposed to be an equal amount lent at one time and repaid at 

 another. The interest is an addition to the principal and is 

 reckoned as a per centage of it. This equalit}^ of the principal is 

 defined by the author of A Theory of Interest as equality of 

 " nominal value." The thought is, that the present sum and the 

 future sum (minus interest) are equal, not from the viewpoint of 

 the present, for they are not, the future principal being subject 

 to discount in present valuation ; but that the equality is equality 

 to a changing market. The future sum has as high a value to its 

 time as the present sum has now. It is as satisfactory, however, 

 and perhaps clearer to the average man, to think of the principal 

 as a fixed number of money units, e. g., dollars, which are 

 assumed to remain constant in general purchasing power during 

 the period of the loan. 



In the working out of his theory the author introduces interest- 

 ing geometrical diagrams and algebraic formulae, but the theory 

 set forth is essentially that of Fisher, less fully elaborated. In 

 particular, the discussion of the influence of productivity on the 

 rate of interest goes no further than to repeat in other w r ords 

 Fetter's and Fisher's criticisms of Bohm-Bawerk. 



Considered as a restatement, in original form, of a theory 

 of interest held by not a few economists, the book has much to 

 commend it. But it cannot be regarded as offering a theory 

 which is new in anything but phraseology. H. g. brown. 



9. Franklin Institute award of the Elliott Cresson Medals. — 

 Under date of May 20, 1914, the Secretary of the Franklin Insti- 

 tute announces that acting through its Committee on Science and 

 the Arts, it has awarded its Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, the high- 

 est award in the gift of the Institute, to the following gentlemen : 

 Prof. Edgar F. Smith, Dr. Orville Wright, Prof. Dr. Josef Maria 

 Eder, Prof. Dr. Karl Ritter von Linde. 



10. The Science Reports of the Tdhoku Imperial University^ 

 Sendaa, Japan, Second Series (Geology). — Nos. 4 and 5 of the 

 firs! volume, recently issued, contains the following interesting 

 papers : Mezozoische Pfianzen von Omoto von H. Yabe. 



