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year and at some other point in the state on alternate years. Usually the attendance is larger when the meetings are held in Lincoln as so many members are connected with the university and the Lincoln colleges. When held outside of Lincoln, there are usually interesting field trips and the smaller number makes possible a closer personal contact.

On Friday evening, the members were served the evening meal by the domestic science class. For the other meals, tables were set apart for the academy members at the college dining hall.

Following is the program:

Friday, 1:30 P.M.

Notes on the anatomy of Okapia johnsoni: H. V. VON W. SCHULTE.

The two classes of sperm in Rotifers: D. D. WHITNEY.

The use of the aeroplane in studying vegetation: P. B. SEARS.

Equisetum gametophytes in Nebraska; A new species of Obedokonium: EDNA R. WALKER. Root systems of cereal crops in the grassland formation: J. E. WEAVER.

Dissemination of fungi with special reference to that of Sphærobolus and related forms: LENA B. WALKER.

Pioneer tales from southeastern Nebraska. A sketch of Nebraska's early newspapers: UNICE HASKINS.

More western traditional songs: LOUISE POUND and ELEANOR BURKETT.

Racial elements in Nebraska population: A. E. SHELDON.

A scientific study of Czechoslovakia: ROSE B. CLARK.

The psychological clinic in practice: G. W. A.

LUCKEY.

6 P.M.

Banquet and social hour.

8 P.M.

President's annual address, climate and evolution (illustrated.)

Saturday, 9 A.M.

Business Session.

10 A.M.

Some lessons in fuel conservation: J. C. JENSEN. Some investigations in the transmission of heat through boiler tubes: JILES W. HANEY.

Development of the telephone: V. L. HOLLESTER, Light and gravitation: H. H. MARVIN.

At the business meeting final action was taken to affiliate with the A. A. A. S. and plans made to better organize the science work of the state. The following officers were elected:

OFFICERS

DR. ELDA R. WALKER, President.
PROFESSOR A. J. MERCER, Vice-President.
PROFESSOR W. F. HoYT, Secretary.
DR. G. W. A. LUCKEY, Treasurer.
Lincoln Academy of Medicine.
DR. E. G. ZIMMERER, Secretary.

The executive committee held a meeting in Lincoln on August 28 and planned a campaign for membership. Members of the A. A. A. S. and of the N. A. S. will be invited to come in under the affiliated membership plan if they have not already done so. The final arrange

ments were made for the affiliation of the Lincoln Academy of Medicine with the N. A. S. The president announced the following appointments for sectional vice presi dents:

SECTIONAL VICE-PRESIDENTS

Biological and Medical Science, DR. R. A. LYMAN.

Mathematical and Physical Science, PROFESSOR J. C. JENSEN.

Ethnology and Folklore, DR. LOUISE POUND. Engineering, PROFESSOR GEORGE R. CHAT

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THE RESEARCH SPIRIT IN EVERYDAY LIFE OF THE AVERAGE MAN1 RESEARCH has been considered generally as a phase of effort quite distinctly set off from the natural course of human interest. It is my purpose to discuss the spirit or attitude of investigation as normally involved in the everyday working plans of the average person.

Of the significance of research in all fields of our endeavor the extraordinary advances and applications of science in the recent war have not left the world in doubt. For nearly half a century Germany had been known as a nation given to investigation in a great variety of little explored subjects, and governed in considerable measure in accordance with the results of such researches. The strength of German military organization, backed by scientific and economic interests welded into one powerful instrument, brought to all the Allied Powers full realization of the need for a supreme effort of intellect in many kinds of scientific and economic operation previously unknown. The result of this reaction was a stupendous contribution to application of research. Incidental failures, due to unpreparedness and to lack of organization, may not detract from the importance of what was thus produced.

No less clear is now in post-war reconstruction the evidence of need for entirely new views of old knowledge, for immediate answer to old questions not yet solved, and for quick results of investigation on problems of construction never before encountered. As had been predicted, we find ourselves to-day going forward to new plans of human organization, but more unsatisfactorily prepared for the complex situations of the new era than we

1 Delivered as the address of the retiring president of the Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science at Seattle, Washington, June 17, 1920.

were for the more narrowly limited and clearly defined issues precipitated by sudden climax of war. Conflict such as that through which we have just passed intensified interest and brooked no delay in judgment. Reconstruction under peace conditions sets no precise time limits for its decisions. Therefore, we face to-day the settlement of great questions upon which the future of the world depends, but without that definite intention of judgment called forth by the immediate urgency of war-time crises. Our need for solving present vital problems requires a clear understanding of what the questions are and a determination of the responsibility for their solution. While we may assume that this responsibility rests more heavily upon some than it does on others, it is my purpose to call attention to the part which all thinking people have in the movement to bring these great issues to settlement.

In order that there be no misconception of the views presented, it should be clear that the interpretation of research in this discussion comprises not merely the detailed investigations of fundamental scientific principles, but with this includes all inquiry which may be included within the range of thought leading to constructive action. The mere acquisition of knowledge does not contribute unless it is carried on in such a relation that it leads ultimately to the process of building. On the other hand, construction can not go on without the process of investigation, as each new building operation involves an individual problem to be solved.

Some one has said that much of researchwith the accent on the "re"-may be so called because after completion it becomes necessary with much labor to search it out again when real opportunity for use appears. Work of an investigational nature carried on with the right spirit, and with proper organization, should be planned to find its place without great loss of energy or time, or at least be located where, with other building materials, it lies at hand ready for use as required.

The research spirit represents a reaching

out to understand and use all that lies about us. Its expression is as natural to a thinking mind as hunger is to stomachs. Its origin is by some compared to an awakening-in which we recognize the world of things about us but have come as yet only partially to know it. I prefer to think of it as identified with the growth tendency inherent in biological organisms, which may carry us on and on without limit, as our powers and range increase from age to age. Constructive work is inseparably a part of the living of intellectual life.

Much of misunderstanding that arises generally regarding the function and place of research relates itself to false conceptions, first of the limits of the broad field of knowledge, and second of the degree of stability in nature and in man as an outgrowth of the natural world.

An astonishingly large percentage of the human family conceives of available knowledge as comprising nearly all that may be known, and including much not worth knowing. Such views are not limited to uneducated persons, but have been found among scientific men accepting as final all present fundamental theories of the nature of matter, origin of the earth, relationship of life forms, and other equally critical interpretations of the natural universe. It has required the shock of many recent discoveries in physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology to make clear the fact that our understanding of much that is nearest to us is only imperfectly formulated; and that in the present period we can be assured of a field of the unknown, but not unknowable, about us so vast that realization to our ignorance makes us look only with humble pride upon past accomplishment. To such a field for endeavor as I have remarked for science there may be compared similar regions in the economic, governmental, and cultural subjects, toward which not only the student but the man of business and of affairs looks out with strong desire for attainment of much in knowledge that has not yet been reached. In our day the research of business on scientific lines bulks large in comparison with non-applied science, and present accom

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