It will be observed that ordinary masses are just in the center of our list of physical units. Shall we go back to the old notion that we are the natural center of the universe, or shall we regard this as a mere appearance, due to the fact that it is more and more difficult for us to have experience with those units which are more and more remote from us in the physical scale? We are at the center, because the center is everywhere. Two atoms of gold seem just alike because we are not very familiar with atoms of gold, and two electrons seem to be identical merely because of our profound ignorance. Supergalaxies exist though we have had no experience with them at all; likewise, hyper-super-galaxies,37 and so on indefinitely. Things do not cease to exist merely because we are ignorant. We should beware of the tacit postulate, which often crops out, "Only those things exist with which we have had experience." Nature is much broader than experience, and we must have plenty of room for expansion.

(9) The phenomena of nature occur always in such a way that certain relations remain invariant.

This postulate asserts merely that science is possible, and the main purpose of science is to ascertain

these invariants.

(10) Every physical situation is definite and determined, both as to its extensions in space and its sequential states in time; or, in simple language, nature is never in doubt.

The value

This is not the case in mathematics. of a function at a point may be quite indeterminate, and the limit of the function as we approach a point may depend upon the mode of approach. Imagine all space filled with matter uniformly distributed. (I am speaking mathematically now), and that Newton's law of gravitation holds. What is the resultant acceleration on any given particle. Let p be the particle and let O be a point at a distance R from p. Let S be the sphere with center at O which passes through p, so that R is its radius. Then the attraction of this sphere upon the particle p is directed towards O and its magnitude is proportional to R. Take a second sphere S, with its center at O and its radius R1> R. Then the resultant attraction of, the spherical shell between S and S, upon the particle p is zero however great R, may be. We conclude that the resultant attraction of the matter in all space upon the particle p is the same as the attraction of the sphere S1, which is proportional to R and directed towards 0. But as the point 0 is arbitrary, both as to distance and direction, the resulting attraction is completely undetermined. This is the Neumann-Seeliger proposition. Similarly, the attraction of a thin 37 This word is due to Moulton.

1

disk upon one of its own points is completely undetermined. But these are mathematical situations. According to the postulate, such situations do not arise in nature.

(11) In every region of space, however small, there exists at least one physical unit. The postulate denies the existence of empty space, and asserts on the contrary that every portion of space is infinitely complex.

(12) The energy within a region of space does not increase or decrease, unless there is a corresponding decrease or increase in some other region of space.

This is the doctrine of the conservation of energy to which physicists were led about the middle of the last century. It possesses some quality that appeals to the esthetic sense, for it has been adopted, almost universally.

(13) The universe does not change always in any one direction. Using figurative language the universe is not like a stream which flows steadily from one unknown region to another. It is like the surface of the ocean, never twice alike and yet always the same. At the same time that the physicists were formulating the doctrine of the conservation of energy, which is sometimes called the first law of thermodynamics, they also formulated the second law of thermodynamics, which has been stated in various ways, but the essential idea is that energy is constantly being degraded into the form of heat and radiated away; the energy available for useful work is always diminishing, or in modern terms, the entropy is always increasing. Physicists and chemists have been very successful in predicting phenomena by means of this law, and it has a thoroughly reputable standing. Nevertheless, it has always met with violent opposition and dislike. It is out of harmony with the idea contained in postulate 13, and therefore it is unpopular. As I see it, the second law of thermodynamics is similar to the statement that under natural conditions water always flows down hill. This is true enough, but if it were the whole truth one could not avoid wondering why the water had not all gotten to the bottom of the hill long ago. The statement is true of water in the liquid state. but in the state of vapor it is equally natural for water to rise. We shall see later that the second law of thermodynamics states only one half of the complete process.

WILLIAM D. MACMILLAN

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

(To be continued)

THE JOHN SCOTT MEDAL FUND THE following is an extract from Power of Attorney to carry out certain provisions in the will of John Scott dated April 2, 1816.

And now, this nineteenth day of February, A.D., 1919, the Report of the Master having been duly filed and no exceptions having been taken thereto, it is adjudged and decreed that the same be confirmed, and that the Board of Directors of City Trusts having in charge the trust created under the will of John Scott, deceased, be authorized and directed in the administration of said fund to distribute the income arising from the fund as it stands with its accumulations as of the date of this decree, in premiums to be distributed among ingenious men and women who make useful inventions, but no one of such premiums to exceed Eight Hundred Dollars ($800) in value (increased under Decree of Court, dated November 29, 1921, to $2,000); and along with such premium shall be given a copper medal with this inscription "To the most deserving' comformably to the tenor of the will of the said testator.

It is further ordered and decreed that in the selection of the recipients, the said trustees shall be at liberty to make such rules and regulations for enabling them to make a wise selection of beneficiaries either by the selection of an advisory board or otherwise, as they may deem best. The premiums shall be awarded for useful inventions which shall include any inventions that will be useful to mankind in the advancement of chemical, medical or any other science or in the development of industry in any form; the test being that the invention is, in the judgment of the trustees, definitely accomplished, and that it may add to the comfort, welfare and happiness of mankind.

The following resolution has been adopted by the Board of Directors of City Trusts:

RESOLVED that the award of medals under the John' Scott Medal Fund be made hereafter upon the recommendation of an Advisory Board, to consist of five persons, to be appointed by the Board of Directors of City Trusts; three to be nominated by the National Academy of Sciences, one by the University of Pennsylyania, and one by the American Philosophical Society; all of said nominees to be acceptable to the Board of Directors of City Trusts; the recommendations of the Advisory Board to be made on a majority vote:

Personnel of the Advisory Committee:

National Academy of Sciences:

H. H. Donaldson,

Theobald Smith,

W. B. Scott.
University of Pennsylvania:

Arthur W. Goodspeed. American Philosophical Society: Samuel M. Vauclain.

Awards of the John Scott medal with prizes of $1,000 have been made as follows:

William G. Houskeeper, E.E., Research Physicist, Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.

For the invention of a method for sealing through glass metals having widely different expansion coeffi cients. It is popularly known as "the copper-glass"’ seal and is gas-tight.

This work has made possible in a fundamental way the practical use of vacuum seals in general between glass and metals. The process is very valuable in the construction of high power electron tubes and other similar devices used in engineering in recent years.

Charles H. Norton, Inventor and Engineer, Worcester, Mass.

For the development of grinding and the invention of apparatus for precision grinding.

To Mr. Norton is due the development of grinding as a distinct manufacturing process with or without the preliminary use of other cutting tools.

The design of special machine tools effectively to apply these principles to manufacture on a large scale. The Norton processes have revolutionized production in many industries, notably in one of our largest-the automotive. Ross G. Harrison, Ph.D., M.D., professor of comparative anatomy, Yale University.

For devising and developing the method and apparatus by which he was the first able to grait together whole bodies of vertebrates of the parts and organs of different individuals and even of different species and for inaugurating the method of "Tissue Culture," by which parts removed from the living animal may be kept alive and studied under the microscope, for months or years.

In Roux's Archiv für Entwicklungs Mechanik, Vol. 7, 1898, he published results of his work on grafting the tail of one species of tadpole onto the body of another species and the resulting regeneration of various tissues and organs. Such grafted forms were reared to adult life; the anterior part of the body preserving the characteristics of one species, the posterior part that of the other species. From 1902 to 1919 he continued such grafting experiments on limbs which were taken from one individual or species and transplanted to another, devoting particular attention to the regeneration of nerves in the transplant. In later years (1915-21) he continued such work with reference to the symmetry of transplanted limbs. All of this work opened a field for surgical transplantation of organs and limbs of higher animals which bids fair in time to be of great value to mankind.

A second line of work of even greater present importance, which was first inaugurated by Dr. Harrison, is that known as "Tissue Culture." In 1907 (Anatomical Record, Vol. 7), he first studied the growth and development of a living developing nerve fiber. This paper was followed in 1908-14 by other important contributions in which he described in detail this new method of research

and demonstrated its unique value in the study of different kinds of living cells. Dr. Harrison's pioneer work in this field has been recognized by election to honorary membership in various foreign scientific societies and by the award of the gold medal of the Australian Zoological and Botanical Society in 1914.

Marshall Albert Barber, Ph.D., expert in malaria research, U. S. Public Health Service, jointly with Robert Chambers, Ph.D., professor of microscopic anatomy, Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Barber-for his invention of the pipette method and the apparatus for its control; used for the isolation of single micro-organisms and the injection of substances into single living cells.

Dr. Chambers-for his improvements in the microdissection apparatus, the extension of its use to the anatomy of single cells and the determination of the physical structure of protoplasm.

The micro-dissection apparatus consists of a device for the delicate movement and control of a pipette or needle in three planes.

The apparatus is attached to the stage of a microscope and the object, which is in a hanging drop of fluid under a glass slip, is manipulated by the observer as he views the field.

The needles have diameters of 1/25400 of an inch or less. The pipettes are about 4 times as large. By their use single cells can be removed, cut, dissected—or injected with various fluids. This apparatus, and the technique which has grown up with it, permit an extension of anatomical studies to the details of living cells. Through these studies important contributions to our knowledge of the living substance-protoplasm-have been made. This apparatus has thus opened a new field for investigation.

Orville Wright.

He was a pioneer in the art of aviation; was the first to experiment with wing warping; invented the system of control used in all flying machines to-day and built a motor-driven aeroplane in which the first flight in history was made.

From 1910 to date he has been at work in designing and testing aeroplanes, automatic stabilizers, wind tunnel research and research in every line pertaining to aviation.

His inventions in the field of aviation are universally used and his contributions are primarily responsible for the great advance in this art.

GILBERT VAN INGEN (1869-1925) PROFESSOR GILBERT VAN INGEN, since 1903 a member of the faculty of geology of Princeton University, died at his home in Princeton on July 7. He was

born on July 30, 1869, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where his father was professor of art in Vassar College. He was of Dutch descent, both his parents having been born in Holland in families many of whose members had been gifted artists, sculptors and musicians. He received his early education in a private school in Poughkeepsie and, while still a boy, acquired from his father a dexterity in the use of the pencil and brush which was to prove of great use to him in after life. He inherited a keen interest in art, but early developed an even deeper interest in botany and zoology, and spent much of his spare time in the fields and woods of the beautiful countryside around his native town, studying the plants and animals which he found there. When ready to enter college in 1886, he had fully decided to become a botanist and went to Cornell University to study toward that end. He was interested in all branches of natural history, however, and in his first year at Ithaca attended Professor H. S. Williams's lectures on geology and paleontology. He was so deeply impressed by Professor Williams's personality and lectures and by the interest of these subjects that he abandoned his plan of becoming a botanist and determined to devote his life to the study of stratigraphy and paleontology. He studied geology and paleontology under Professor Williams and Professor C. S. Prosser during the college years 1886-87 and 1887-88, and acted as assistant to Professor Williams in field work in the spring and summer of 1889. He was then appointed assistant geologist on the staff of the U. S. Geological Survey and spent most of the year 1890 and the early part of 1891 in a study of the subcarboniferous rocks of Missouri, under the direction of Professor Williams and Dr. G. K. Gilbert. In the fall of 1891 he returned to Cornell as assistant to Professor Williams, and when the latter went to Yale in the following year, he went with him and spent the academic year 1892-93 at that institution, studying paleontology under Professor Williams and zoology under Professor A. E. Verrill. He did not receive a degree at either Cornell or Yale, but got an excellent training in field and laboratory methods of research and valuable experience in teaching. In 1893 he went to Columbia as assistant in paleontology and remained there for eight years, being appointed curator of the geological collections in 1895. While at Columbia he did much to help Professor J. F. Kemp build up the geological and paleontological collections which are so valuable a part of the present department of geology of that university.

While in New York he served as editor of the Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences and of the paleontological department of the New International Dictionary. In his summer vacations he carried on field work on the Paleozoic rocks of

eastern North America, visiting the region about St. John, New Brunswick, under the guidance of Dr. G. F. Matthew and Dr. W. D. Matthew in the summer of 1894, the shores of Lake Champlain in 1893, 1895 and 1899, the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys in 1897 and western New York in 1898. The summer of 1896 he spent in field work on the Silurian rocks of the Batesville region, Arkansas, a district which he visited again in 1905. In 1901 he joined the staff of the New York Geological Survey as assistant paleontologist, and for two years worked on Paleozoic problems in that state, notably on the Potsdam and Ordovician of the Lake Champlain region and the Silurian and Devonian of the vicinity of Kingston, in the Hudson Valley.

In 1903 Professor Van Ingen married Miss Harriet Galusha, of Rochester, New York. In the fall of that year he was called to Princeton as assistant in geology and curator of invertebrate paleontology. He remained at Princeton for the rest of his life, being made assistant professor of geology in 1908 and associate professor in 1921. The fourteen years from 1903 to the outbreak of the World War in 1917 were the most fruitful years of his life. He came to Princeton with a training and experience which, combined with his energy and enthusiasm, made him an invaluable addition to the department of geology; and he came, too, at a time when the opportunities for constructive work in the department were as great as were this energy and enthusiasm. The rapid growth of the university and the expansion of its scientific departments which took place during President Woodrow Wilson's administration required much wise constructive planning and a tremendous amount of work by the faculty. The department of geology outgrew its quarters, and plans were made for a great modern laboratory which should be ample for the department's needs for years to come. No such laboratory as this had ever been built in America. There was no model which could be copied; the building had to be planned literally from the ground up. Professor Van Ingen was appointed one of a committee of three to advise and assist the architect in drawing up plans; and to him is due in a very large measure the fact that Guyot Hall became, as it yet remains, one of the best-planned and best-equipped natural science laboratories in the world. The added facilities of the new building and the additions to the teaching staff and endowment which came with them led a large number of students to enroll in the courses in geology and paleontology and caused a notable increase in the number of graduate students specializing in those sci

laboratory and the field; above all, they called for an immense amount of work by the secretary of the department of geology. This work Professor Van Ingen undertook with a whole-hearted enthusiasm and an indefatigable zeal which earned for him the gratitude of the university and the affection of his colleagues and students. He was especially interested in the work of the graduate students, and gave unstintingly of his time and energy to their instruction. He took them into the field in the Paleozoic districts of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania at every opportunity. When he first came to Princeton he found that he could conveniently extend the field of his studies of Paleozoic stratigraphy and paleontology from New York into New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland; and he combined research with the field instruction of his students in those states and New York, visiting many localities and gathering large and very valuable collection of fossils. In 1912 he organized and led an expedition to southeastern Newfoundland. The results were so gratifying that other expeditions to the same region went out under his leadership in 1913 and 1914. Many interesting problems were studied and thousands of fossils and rock specimens were collected. Four of the students who were members of the expeditions later published doctorate theses based upon this field work.

Professor Van Ingen was an ideal field instructor, and his many students cherish memories of their days in the field with him. He was no less helpful and inspiring in the laboratory, being as much interested in his students' problems as were the students themselves; and nothing that would help one of his men in his research was too arduous or inconvenient for his attention. He was an expert and enthusiastic photographer, perhaps partly because of his artistic inheritance, and the advice and assistance which he gave to his students in the preparation of the illustrations for their theses was invaluable. He liked to have his students about him, and to many of them his house was almost a second home. He was generous to a fault; and, when he believed that the interests of the university or of his students would be advanced thereby, he gave of both effort and funds without thought of the future. Some of his students remember with deep gratitude the helping hand which he extended in the hard places of their early careers.

The entrance of the United States into the World War brought new and unaccustomed duties to many members of the Princeton faculty. The university, always famous as a center of patriotism, began training prospective army officers even before hostilities began, and offered all its facilities to the government as soon as war was formally declared. The campus became an armed camp, and its professors turned

from teaching the arts of peace to instructing in the art of war. With his characteristic energy, Professor Van Ingen began preparing himself, the younger instructors and the graduate students of his department to do efficiently what it seemed most probable that they would first be called upon to do give instruction in map-reading and interpretation to undergraduates and alumni of the university who were desirous of fitting themselves for commissions in the army. When the university actually began the training of these men, therefore, he was placed in charge of that branch of instruction. When the government asked the university to set up a school of military aeronautics for the preliminary training of candidates for commissions in the Air Service, he was chosen to be president of the academic board of the school, responsible for all the instruction given except the military drill. He organized the school and remained as its academic head until the end of the war. It was under the tremendous strain of this work that his health broke down. He suffered a nervous collapse, and later contracted a serious case of influenza, from the after-effects of which he never recovered.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

B. F. HOWELL

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

THE AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH

SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY1

AFTER nearly two years' effort, the Australian National Research Council has succeeded in its project for establishing a Commonwelth School of Anthropology, to be attached to the University of Sydney. In December 1923 the Commonwealth government expressed approval of a scheme submitted to it; in the following year, however, an officer selected by the British government to advise Australia in the matter of administration of territories, reported very strongly against the proposal to use such a school for the training of officials. In consequence, government interest flagged. Renewed efforts, supported by the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science and the universities, were made in September, and, largely as the result of a visit from Professor Elliot Smith, who brought unofficial word of warm American sympathy, the prime minister promised to provide £1,000 per annum towards the expenses of a chair. The estimated yearly requirement being £2,500, the respective states were then asked to contribute the balance of £1,500 between them on a population basis. New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania agreed to provide their shares, and South Australia 1 From Nature.

is practically certain to fall into line; Western Australia remains uncertain. The Research Council, therefore, has now asked the senate of the University of Sydney to consider the immediate appointment of a professor and the general arrangements for the new school. In doing so, it has laid emphasis on the following points: (a) The main work of the chair both in teaching and research should be in the field of social anthropology rather than on the physical or anatomical side, though provision should be made for this also. (b) In view of the training of students for government service in Papua and the Mandated Territories, and for specialized work in the Pacific, the professor chosen should have had actual field experience. (c) Though the routine work of the new chair will be under the control of the University of Sydney, it is urged that a permanent advisory committee, containing representatives of the commonwealth, states and research council, should be appointed, to assist in the organization of field research.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH UNDER THE

GOVERNMENT

REPRESENTATIVES of technical and scientific bureaus of the government met in the Interior Building on June 17 to formulate plans for the conduct of scientific research in the government service. General H. C. Smither, chief coordinator of the Budget Bureau, presided. The object of these conferences is to have frank, open discussion of the problems confronting the scientific worker, to the end that better cooperation and less duplication may result. According to a report in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, the government activities represented were:

Department of Agriculture

Bureau of Chemistry, W. W. Skinner

Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory, F. G. Cottrell Department of Commerce

Bureau of Standards, G. K. Burgess Bureau of Mines, D. A. Lyon Department of the Interior

Geological Survey, W. C. Mendenhall
Navy Department

Bureau of Engineering, M. A. Libbey
Bureau of Ordnance, A. C. Stott

Bureau of Navigation, E. T. Pollock and W. C.
Asserson

Naval Research Laboratory, Paul Foley
Bureau of Aeronautics, R. M. Parsons

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, G.
W. Lewis

Smithsonian Institution

A. Wetmore Treasury Department

Public Health Service, H. S. Cumming and G. W. McCoy