68 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. -iXI. No. 524. 



Deflections may be due to irregularity of 

 density within the earth or to attraction of 

 parts of the earth above the surface of the 

 mean spheroid. By an ingenious method, 

 partly graphical, the author had found it prac- 

 ticable to take account of the influence of all 

 known topographical features on the plumb- 

 line at more than 200 stations; it is usually 

 necessary to consider all the land-masses with- 

 in 2,500 miles of the station. When these 

 computed deflections from known causes are 

 combined with the deflections found from 

 geodetic measurements, the quantities to be 

 accounted for by irregularities within the 

 earth's surface are usually much greater than 

 had been supposed heretofore. 



Charles K. Wead, 



Secretary. 



MICHIGAN ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



The Michigan Ornithological Club held its 

 last quarterly meeting for 1904 at the Detroit 

 Museum of Art on December 2. The follow- 

 ing program was presented : 



P. A. Taverner: 'Re Kirtland's Warbler.' 



A. W. Blain, Jr. : ' Some Phases of the Life 

 History of the House Wren.' 



J. Wilbur Kay: 'Remarks on the Cowbird.' 



Dr. p. E. Moody: 'Nesting of the Blue-gray 

 Gnat-cateher in Wayne and Oakland Counties, 

 Michigan.' 



J. Claire Wood : ' Notes on a Great Horned Owl 

 in Captivity.' 



A. B. Klugh : ' Summer Birds of Puschlinch, 

 Lake Ontario.' 



The following were presented by title: 



Professor Walter B. Barrows : ' Birds of the 

 Beaver Islands, Michigan.' 



Dr. ^Iorris (Jibhs: ' Bird's Nesting.' 



Wm. H. Dunham: 'A Preliminary List of the 

 Birds of Kalkaska County, Michigan.' 



I'hofeshor Frank Smith : ' An Unusual Flight 

 of Sparrow Hawks in Michigan in 1904.' 



Chas. C. Adams : ' A Natural History Expedi- 

 tion to Northern Michigan.' 



The next meeting of the socict.y will be held 

 on March 3, 1905. A. W. Blain, Jr. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



INTKRESTING AND IMPORTANT FACTS. 



In Powell's ' Truth and Error ' a philo- 

 sophic distinction is made by giving special 



definitions to the terms property and quality. 

 A property is an essential characteristic con- 

 sidered in itself; a quality is a characteristic 

 considered in relation to man. Thus the 

 ductility of iron is a property; its utility a 

 quality. The form and coloration of a tree 

 are properties; its beauty or ugliness is a 

 quality. Iron's property of ductility, when 

 thought of in connection with human needs, 

 is a factor of its quality of utility; and the 

 properties of the tree, when viewed from the 

 standpoint of man's esthetic sense, are quali- 

 ties. This simple distinction is of far-reach- 

 ing application, because properties are the 

 domain of science and qualities the domain 

 of art. Pure science (with a reservation in 

 respect to anthropology) is not at all con- 

 cerned with qualities, and when the investi- 

 gator deals with them he passes into the field 

 of applied science, or the arts. Failure to 

 recognize this distinction leads to much con- 

 fusion of thought and expression. 



One of the milder or less harmful, but at 

 the same time most conspicuous, manifesta- 

 tions of this confusion is connected with the 

 word interesting. Not unfrequently an essay 

 ostensibly and mainly scientific will contain 

 the statement that an object, or relation, or 

 other phenomenon is ' interesting,' the context 

 indicating that interest is supposed to inhere 

 in the phenomenon. As a matter of fact, 

 interest is a mental attitude of the observer, 

 and the adjective ' interesting,' though ap- 

 plied to the phenomenon, describes only the 

 observer's relation to it. There are, of course, 

 many legitimate uses of the adjective, and 

 some of these occur in scientific writings. 

 When an author, for example, declares that 

 the insect habits he is about to describe are 

 interesting to students of the ps.vchology of 

 the Bombocoreidse, it is clear that he does not 

 deceive himself by supposing that he has 

 named a property of the phenomena. 



Something similar may be said of important, 

 valiiahlc. etc., when employed in scientific de- 

 scription. In common with novel, pertinent, 

 significant , and the like, the.y indicate the rela- 

 tions of phenomena to the condition of human 

 knowledge. Just as each observed fact has at 

 some time, temporarily, the quality of novelty. 



