rected to a particular group of phenomena peculiar to the science of his choice. This group lies in the field of his direct vision, so to speak, but surrounding this lies the field of indirect vision, the field of universal knowledge, where objects are less distinctly seen. Between these two fields there is, as already stated, no logical boundary. To be sure our ideas of universal knowledge must be imperfect and vague for any achievement of universality can be but partial. Yet although we may not possess the mind "which is a mirror or glass, capable of the image of the universal world, and joyful to receive the impressions thereof as the eye joyeth to receive light,'' yet some effort so to do must be made as our response to this ideal of universality. Besides this finiteness of man which limits our universality there is another limitation which when it exists is fortunately more amenable to amelioration. It is a certain reluctance to reflect broadly. We live in an age of enforced and minute specialization. Each one of us is anxious to shine in his chosen sphere but also correspondingly reluctant to appear as a dilettante in any other field. We feel, however much we may regret it, that we have no time for mere culture. Ultimately we may even become like coal miners devoting their lives to sending their laden trucks up to the surface of a world they know not of. This is of course contrary to what I conceive to be the university ideal, and furthermore it is pedagogically undesirable. For I do not think that it can be denied that students would suffer from contact with men who are wilfully limited in horizon. I say "wilfully" because, to the student, contact with aspiration may be as inspiring as contact with achievement. In 14 Francis Bacon, "Advancement of Learning," Bk. 1, pgf. 6. an atmosphere of limitation the student becomes a specialist also, not in one field but in several. He may study Latin and sociology and music and physiology and become at least for a time a miniature specialist in each, for between these subjects there are to the student's mind no obvious connection. They form no part of a universal scheme of things. Called on to construct such a scheme he would be as helpless as the ancient geographers who in Afric maps With savage pictures filled their gaps, Place elephants for want of towns.15 At length he is permitted to depart from our institutions of learning, taking with him his compartmental knowledge, the more compartmental the more closely he has devoted himself to his studies, whether prescribed or chosen. How fond we all are of the quotation that Sophocles "saw life steadily and saw it whole. 1916 Our veneration of Sophocles rests upon the fact that from necessarily limited data he made a great synthesis, a great induction, and the example of Sophocles commends itself to us as appropriate to set before aspiring young men. But it may be (and that chiefly through our own fault) that few of our students have ever learned that any synthesis, however crude, is possible, much less that it is expected of them. Should not the student take with him from his alma mater the vision of such a synthesis not as a finite act to be performed but as a process continuing all through his intellectual life and evolving as it goes his picture of truth as he sees it? PERCY M. DAWSON UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 16 Matthew Arnold, "Sonnet to a Friend." 15 Jonathan Swift, "On Poetry, a Rapsody," pgf. 10, 1733. SCIENTIFIC EVENTS NEW EASTERN NATIONAL FORESTS PRESIDENT WILSON has issued a proclamation establishing three new national forests in the East-the White Mountain, in Maine and New Hampshire, the Shenandoah, in Virginia and West Virginia, and the Natural Bridge, in Virginia. Proclaiming the forests is the final step in carrying out the law for building up eastern national forests through the purchase of lands in the mountains. Ever since the law was passed in 1911 the government has been engaged in acquiring lands about the headwaters of the principal rivers, both in New England and in the southern Appalachians. As the lands are bought or contracted for, they are put under administration as "Purchase Areas" pending the time when their accumulation has reached a point justifying the proclamation which gives the lands their final status. Pisgah National Forest, in North Carolina, and the Alabama National Forest, in Alabama, are the only eastern areas which had received this status before the new proclamations were issued. The The White Mountain National Forest is located in Grafton, Carroll and Coos counties, N. H., and Oxford county, Me. The government has actually taken title to about 267,000 acres and in addition about 124,000 acres more have been approved for purchase, making a total of about 391,000 acres under federal protection. This forest protects in part the watersheds of the Androscoggin, Saco, Connecticut and Ammonoosuc rivers. The White Mountain region has great value not only for the protection of streamflow and the production of timber but also as a public playground. The Shenandoah National Forest is situated in Rockingham, Augusta, Bath and Highland counties, Va., and Pendleton county, W. Va. The government has acquired to date slightly in excess of 100,000 acres, and an additional area of approximately 65,000 acres has been approved for purchase, making a total of approximately 165,000 acres under federal protection. The forest is for the most part on the watershed of the Shenandoah River and it also protects a portion of the watersheds of the Potomac and the James. The Natural Bridge National Forest is situated in Rockingham, Nelson, Amherst, Botetourt and Bedford counties, Va. The federal government has actually acquired title to a little over 73,000 acres, and an additional area of approximately 29,000 acres has been approved for purchase. The forest, which protects a portion of the watershed of the James River, does not include the Natural Bridge, but this scenic feature is within three or four miles of the boundary. ALASKA FISHERY ANd fur proDUCTS IN 1917 The Fisheries Service Bulletin states that although final figures showing the value of the fishery products of Alaska in 1917 are not yet obtainable, the statistics are practically complete so that a reasonably accurate statement of production can now be made. Compilations indicate that the total value of such products was $51,405,260 in 1917. Of this amount 93 per cent., or $47,778,081, represents the value of the salmon products which consist of 5,947,286 cases of canned salmon, valued at $46,304,090, and 16,347,367 pounds of mild-cured, pickled, dry-salted, fresh and frozen salmon, valued at $1,473,991. The halibut fisheries rank second with an output of products valued at $1,120,226. In the order of production, the herring fisheries come next, with a yield of products valued at $767,729. The value of the cod products was $744,976. Whaling operations returned products worth $653,852. The production of miscellaneous fishery products including clams and other shellfish aggregated $340,396 in value. This unprecedented yield of fishery products in Alaska at a time when the world is in need of food is called an achievement for which the country may justly feel gratified. The fur products of Alaska are also of considerable importance and value, as evidenced by the fact that in the year from November 16, 1916, to November 15, 1917, shipments from that territory reached an aggregate value of $1,031,638, exclusive of fur-seal skins and fox skins shipped by the government from the Pribilof Islands. In the calendar year 1917 the government shipped from the Pribilof Islands fur-seal skins valued at $274,291 and fox skins valued at $35,680. BOTANICAL ABSTRACTS A MEETING of editors of botanical publications was held at Pittsburgh, on December 28, 1917, to consider the desirability of undertaking the publication of an abstracting journal for botany. After a long discussion the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, that we, as a group of botanists interested, invite each botanical society to appoint a committee of two to meet with committees of other societies and with the members of this group to formulate a program for a journal of botanical abstracts, botany to be interpreted in its broadest sense. In case action of any society is delayed, the President and Secretary of such society are invited to represent it. A meeting is called for 10 A.M., December 30, at Parlor 140, Fort Pitt Hotel. At this augmented meeting of December 30, after informal discussion it was voted that the 26 botanists present proceed to formal organization under the name "Temporary Board of Control of Botanical Abstracts." Donald Reddick was elected chairman and Forrest Shreve secretary. On motion it was voted that the board provide for its perpetuation in the following way: 1. That the following botanical organizations be asked to elect two members each: American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Genetic Association, American Microscopical Society, American Phytopathological Society, American Society of Agronomists, American Society of Naturalists, American Conference of Pharmaceutical Facul ties, Botanical Society of America, General Section, Botanical Society of America, Physiological Section, Botanical Society of America, Taxonomic Section, Ecological Society of America, Society of American Bacteriologists, Society of American Foresters. 2. That in the election of members to the Board of Control of Botanical Abstracts each society be asked to name one man for a short term of two years and one man for a long term of four years, and that a member be elected biennially thereafter or as required. On motion the Temporary Board of Control elected by ballot an Executive Committee of Ten on Organization, to act for one year with power to make arrangements for editorial management and publication. This committee is constituted as follows: J. H. Barnhart, Henry C. Cowles, B. M. Duggar, C. Stuart Gager, R. A. Harper, Burton E. Livingston, F. C. Newcombe, Donald Reddick, C. L. Shear and Forrest Shreve. The Executive Committee of the Temporary Board of Control selected B. E. Livingston for editor-in-chief and the following as associate editors in charge of the sections as indicated: Agronomy and Soil Technology, Bacteriology, H. J. Conn, Botanical Education, C. Stuart Gager, Ecology and Plant Geography, Henry C. Cowles, DR. ABRAHAM JACOBI, the distinguished New York physician, who is still in active practise, received many congratulations on the celebration of his eighty-eighth birthday, which occurred recently. THE honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has been conferred on Major Harvey Cushing, of the United States Medical Service, on leave of absence from Harvard University. DR. JOEL E. GOLDTHWAIT, director of military orthopedics with the American Expeditionary Force in France, has been made a lieutenantcolonel. MAJOR ROGER I. LEE, chief medical officer of the Harvard surgical unit which sailed a year ago, has been appointed commanding officer in place of Colonel Patterson. DR. FRANK D. ADAMS, dean of the faculty of applied science and professor of geology, McGill University, has left for England and France to take up work in connection with the organization of the "Khaki University for Canadian Soldiers Overseas." MR. H. FOSTER BAIN has been appointed assistant director of the U. S. Bureau of Mines and is in the office of the bureau at Washington. DR. GEORGE V. N. DEARBORN has been commissioned a first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps. DR. R. B. TEACHOUT, instructor in psychology in the University of Oregon, has entered the psychological service of the national army and is now stationed at Camp Lewis, American Lake, Washington. IN accordance with the recommendation of Professor Ruthven, director of the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan, Mr. Calvin Goodrich, editor of the Detroit Journal, has been appointed to the honorary position of associate curator of Mollusca. WILLIAM P. STUDDERT has been appointed fishery expert on the steamer Albatross. DR. ROBERT G. CASWELL has resigned as assistant professor of chemistry at Colby College, to accept a position as one of the re search chemists for the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company of Wilmington, Del. DR. C. H. SHATTUCK, professor of forestry at the University of California in charge of range management, has accepted a position for the summer as technical adviser to the field parties now engaged in classifying the public domain lands of the west, which are now open for settlement under the 640-acre Homestead Act. Four parties are at present being organized in Montana, who will report on the grazing value of large bodies of this land. S. F. HILDEBRAND, director of the Beaufort Biological Laboratory of the Bureau of Fisheries, is engaged in cooperation with Dr. C. W. Stiles, of the Public Health Service, in the campaign for the control of mosquitoes in the environs of Camp Hancock, near Augusta, Ga. PROFESSOR HAROLD HEATH, of Stanford University, who has made a number of visits to the seal islands as an assistant of the Bureau of Fisheries, has been engaged to go there this year for the purpose of making special investigations, assisting in the annual census, and advising the agents regarding various matters connected with the animal life on the islands. THE Journal of the American Medical Association states that Dr. Charles W. Young, dean of the Union Medical College, Peking, China, has gone to Shansi, taking with him Dr. Chang of the staff of the college, who has had experience in work with the plague in Tientsin. His mission is educational, and he hopes to persuade the governor of the province to stop traffic on the Hwang-Ho River which flows through Saratsi where pneumonic plague is very prevalent. In one town north of the Great Wall, it is said that 1,000 persons died from the disease in five days. Ar a meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute on May 3 awards of £100 from the Carnegie Research Fund were made to Mr. George Patchin, of London, an associate of the Royal School of Mines, and formerly head of the metallurgical department of Birkbeck College, to enable him to pursue research on Semi steel and its heat treatment"; to Mr. J. N. Kilby, of Sheffield, for research work on "The basic open-hearth process of steel making in all its branches"; to Mr. Samuel L. Hoyt, U. S. A., to enable him to study "The foreign inclusions in steel, their occurrence and identification"; and to Professor J. A. Van den Broek, of the University of Michigan, for research work on "The elastic properties of steel and alloys." THE University of Michigan chapter of Sigma Xi, on May 28, initiated thirty new members, all of whom had been actively engaged in research. Professor A. F. Shull delivered the annual address, on the subject "Heredity and the fate of the warring nations." DR. SIDNEY D. TOWNLEY, professor of applied mathematics at Leland Stanford University, gave a lecture before the science club of the University of Oregon on May 13, on the subject "The recent earthquake at San Jacinto, California." DR. MARTIN H. FISCHER, Eichberg professor of physiology in the University of Cincinnati, delivered the second Sigma Xi lecture of the 1917-18 series at the University of Missouri on May 15. His subject was "The general physiology of water absorption in the living organism." The lecture was open to the public. Dr. Fischer also lectured to the Medical Society of the University of Missouri on May 16, on "Principles of treatment in nephritis." On the evening of the same day he addressed the Missouri Chapter of Sigma Xi in connection with the annual initiation on "Emulsion chemistry and some of its applications." IT is announced that arrangements have been made for a series of special lectures at Cambridge University for the summer meeting, beginning August 1, when the main subject will be the United States of America. Among the lecturers are Professors George H. Nettleton, Henry S. Canby and Henry A. Bumstead, of Yale; Professor J. W. Cunliffe, of Columbia; Professor Santayana, formerly of Harvard, and Sir William Osler, formerly of Johns Hopkins and now of Oxford. A NATIONAL union of scientific workers is being formed in Great Britain. Norman Campbell, the secretary, writes to Nature: "There is a general agreement that it is imperative for the best interests of science that those who pursue it should possess greater political and industrial influence. The founders of our union believe that they can attain that influence only by adopting the form of organization which has proved effective in experiThat organization involves the formation of a union including, so far as possible, every professional scientific worker, and governed in a completely 'democratic' fashion. It is such a union that we are trying to form." ence. WE have been requested to state that the book "A Year of Costa Rican Natural History," by A. S. and P. P. Calvert, reviewed in SCIENCE for March 1, 1918, was published by the Macmillan Company, New York, 1917. KNUD RASMUSSEN, the Danish explorer, according to an Exchange Telegraph despatch from Copenhagen, has reached Long's Firth with his Arctic expedition and has charted all the Firths of northern Greenland. Important scientific results, the explorer says, have been attained. Rasmussen and his second Thule expedition left Denmark in April, 1916. Reuter's Copenhagen correspondent transmits a telegram from Rasmussen in which the explorer says his advance was attended with the greatest difficulties. Two companions, Hendrik Olsen and Dr. Wulff, perished. Olsen's death, says the explorer, 66 After we started on our homeward journey and reached land on August 24, at Cape Agassiz in a bad plight, without provisions, having eaten all the dogs." The explorer says he and his companion walked to Etat, whence they despatched sledges with provisions for the rest of the party, but that the relief arrived too late to save Dr. Wulff. A MEDICAL school for French Africa has been founded at Dakar. This school will be under the authority of the director of the Service de Santé, inspector general of the sanitary and medical services of French West Africa, and will have for its mission the training of native physicians and midwives. The |