AmNo°vUr i92iarm' }  Chemical  Elements  of  Living  Matter.  745 
habitation  ?  When  Joseph  Leidy  noticed  and  questioned  what  might 
be  the  white  specks  in  the  ham  served  for  his  luncheon,  his  mind 
opened  the  way  to  the  discovery  of  the  parasite  disease  in  pork, 
against  the  eating  of  which,  as  told  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus,  the 
Jews  had  blindly  enacted  laws  centuries  before.  The  large  majority 
of  us  are  of  the  cog  and  ball-bearing  type  of  mind.  Specialization 
today  is  begun  so  early  that  the  foundations  of  knowledge  and  philo- 
sophical thinking  are  very  narrow.  The  question  of  moment  to 
American  educators  is  whether  our  schools  and  colleges  are  devel- 
oping the  greatest  number  of  observers  possible,  or  whether  the 
ordinary  student  is  constrained  to  tread  the  beaten  paths  with  never 
a  look  to  right  or  left  and  never  an  impulse  to  inquire  into  the  mys- 
teries that  lie  near  by.  The  man  of  the  bush  who  first  used  ash  or 
hickory  for  his  axe  handle  was  a  greater  observer  than  the  college 
man  who  thought  cork  came  from  Ireland.  A  man  with  an  inquir- 
ing mind  is  what  Edison  calls  a  "live  wire,"  interesting  and  inter- 
ested ;  and  in  no  way  does  this  interfere  with  his  being  a  highly 
specialized  technical  expert  in  any  line  he  may  be  engaged  in.  Is  our 
system  of  education  making  for  or  against  this  mind  development? 
It  is  not  whether  a  man  can  answer  correctly  all  these  questions, 
but  whether  he  is  asking  these  and  similar  questions  of  himself  when 
he  meets  them  in  his  daily  reading  and  conversation.  It  was  mind 
exercise  and  not  mere  knowledge  that  enabled  the  Greeks  to  initiate, 
in  physics,  geometry,  literature,  art  and  on  through  a  long  list,  the 
foundations  on  which  we  build  today.  So,  "back  to  the  Greeks," 
who  taught  us  observation,  general  and  specific,  with  philosophical 
deductions.  Concentration  has  its  advantages ;  but  unless  the  object 
is  held  at  sufficient  distance,  the  observer  looks  cross-eyed  and  loses 
his  sense  of  proportion. —  {Jour,  of  the  A.  M.  A.,  Aug.,  1921.) 
ORIGINAL  PAPERS 
THE  CHEMICAL  ELEMENTS  OF  LIVING  MATTER. 
By  Ingo  W.  D.  Hackh, 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  San  Francisco. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  relatively  small  number  of  elements 
enter  into  the  composition  of  living  matter,  whether  of  vegetable  or 
animal  nature.    Naturally  the  elements,  excepting  oxygen,  enter  the 
