experimental investigation, quoted with respect by later physiologists. I should name, thirdly, the second part (Methodenlehre) of the "Logik" (1883 and later), which carries on the work of Mill and Jevons, but far outranks its predecessors in depth of insight and range of positive knowledge. I should name, fourthly, the highly characteristic "Psychologismus und Logizismus" of 1910; Wundt was at his best, constructively and historically, when he had been spurred into action by the success of what he thought a scientific heresy And I should name, last, the little "Einführung in die Psychologie" (1911), a book in which Wundt's consummate mastery of his subject and the sweep and freedom of his style bring him as near as he ever came to the popular conception of a genius. I have not included in this list the "Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie." Every one knows that Wundt founded, in 1879, the first laboratory of experimental psychology; and every one knows that the PP, as his students have dubbed it, is the standard work of reference for that science. The book was, no doubt, born of a great idea; and it is, without question, indispensable to the psychologist. But I do not think that it is a great book; that, in the very nature of the case, it could hardly be. Its one serious rival, Brentano's "Psychologie vom empirischen Standpuncte," which saw the light in the same year (1874), is great both in conception and so far as it goes it goes only half-way to its appointed goal-in execution; as late as 1907 Brentano had published only two minor corrections of his original text. But Wundt was attempting an impossible task, the welding of a highly imperfect nerve-physiology to a rudimentary experimental psychology. He approached it with full scientific equipment and with no small measure of literary skill; the result, none the less, was inevitably an encyclopedic handbook of the two disciplines rather than a single physiological psychology. So it comes about that Brentano's "Empirical Psychology" stands to-day as it stood nearly fifty years ago, while the PP has lumbered through edition after edition, hardly even aiming at system before the fifth (1902–3), and still badly needing system in the sixth and last (1908-11). The demand for these editions proves that the book is, as I said just now, indispensable to the working psychologist, and we can not be too grateful to Wundt for the time and labor spent upon the successive revisions. It would be a pity, however, if he were to be judged by a work which, characteristically thorough and painstaking as it is, still represents only one side, and that perhaps the least original, of his efforts on behalf of experimental psychology. The Wundt who organized the Leipzig laboratory, and who wrote or directed the investigations that fill the twenty volumes of the "Philosophische" and the ten of the "Psychologische Studien," is larger than the Wundt of the familiar book. The long series of editions proves, of course, that the PP has appealed to a far wider circle than that of the professional psychologists. Wundt, indeed, has always been singularly successful with his literary ventures. We expect that a class-text, if it survives the first crucial year, will be often reprinted; but we do not expect that three-volume works on ethics and logic, to say nothing of a "System der Philosophie" which expresses its author's personal convictions in highly abstract terms, will again and yet again demand revision and reissue during their writer's lifetime. Such, nevertheless, has been Wundt's fortune. Most astonishing of all is the career of a semipopular book, translated into English under the title "Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology": first published in two volumes in 1863, it achieved its sixth edition, as a single volume, in 1919. Not that there is any real reduction in size!-that has not been Wundt's habit. On the contrary: the lectures of the original edition that dealt with social psychology have simply been excluded, and their modern equivalent published separately, in the ten large volumes of the "Völkerpsychologie." So we are brought to this tremendous achievement of Wundt's old age. He published the first two volumes, on Language, in 1900, when he was already nearly seventy; he published the concluding volume, on Civilization and History, in 1920. The intervening volumes deal in turn with Art, Myth and Religion, Society and Law. The whole undertaking grew out of Wundt's early conviction that psychological experiment breaks down on the far side of perception and memory, so that the processes of thought and of constructive imagination must be studied by other than experimental means. Hence a "Völkerpsychologie" is, for him, the direct continuation and supplement of experimental psychology. We may dispute his standpoint: we may question whether experiment fails where he makes it fail, and we may question further whether his own social psychology is not rather an application of his individual psychology to the data of social anthropology than the path to a discovery of new psychological principles. We may doubt also whether the time is ripe for generalization, whether there is not more to be gained by intensive labor. But no one who reads the book can fail to pay his tribute of admiration to its unfailing vitality, to its masterful ordering of detail, to its theoretical consistency. The "Kultur und Geschichte" ends on a somewhat forced note of optimism, beneath which there sounds-as how should there not?-a steady undertone of strained perplexity. Yet it is only here and there that the attentive reader discerns a momentary lapse either of style or of logic; the intellectual freshness is maintained to the end. The significance of Wundt's whole work, if one tries to sum it up in a sentence, lies in the fact that he is the first considerable figure in the history of thought to attack the problems of science and philosophy from the psychological standpoint. Wundt was a born psychologist; and if others before him had a similar temperament, they had not the same opportunity. Wundt himself struggled into psychology, and never shook himself entirely free either of past philosophical systems or of the all-too-logical biology of the first Darwinian time. But he grew with the years: the last edition of the "Physiologische Psycho logie" is better psychology than the first. He has often been compared been compared with Herbert Spencer; he himself would prefer to be considered a modern follower of Leibniz. Neither comparison satisfies. Wundt was unique, and we shall not look upon his like again. EDWARD BRADFORD TITCHENER CORNELL UNIVERSITY ON THE DETERMINATION OF GEOCHRONOLOGY BY A STUDY OF LAMINATED DEPOSITS IN SCIENCE of September 24, 1920, a highly esteemed geologist1 has honored the Swedish expedition now studying some of the laminated clay deposits of North America with a discussion of its aims and work which seems to call for some reply. The main purpose of our expedition may be stated as being less the hope of making new discoveries than a first attempt to apply to the late Quaternary deposits in North America the theories that have been developed in Sweden by many years of extensive investigations. There by systematic measurements of certain periodically laminated layers of late Quaternary age we have succeeded in establishing a real, continuous and exact time scale and not merely determinations applicable to isolated localities. Of course many and serious difficulties have been met, and it has taken much time-more than forty years -to overcome them all. The latest and most important progress was my discovery, five years ago, that the variation in thickness of annual layers deposited at different places along the same ice border could be identified, even at the greatest distances from which measurements were obtained, local errors being absent. This indicated a common, general climatic cause. If it can be shown that similar annual variations occur on both sides of the Atlantic, as far as the extension of one and the same climatic zone [can be assumed], it means that the cause must be sought in 1 Fairchild, H. L., "Pleistocene clays as a chronometer," SCIENCE, N. S., Vol. 52, p. 284, 1920. variation in the amount of heat radiating from the sun. The premises advanced have not hitherto given rise to any other conclusion as to the cause of the Ice Age than that a solution of the problem, in its general nature, can be reached in this way. With respect to the method of overcoming the difficulties of the new branch of investigation the brief memorandum which I issued, which was intended mainly for specialists, could only refer to a somewhat more comprehensive statement of mine,2 which also gave a short historical review from 1878. From this review it may be learned that after publishing in 1884 my first plan of obtaining a geochronology, but before trying earnestly to follow it out, I was so impressed with the supposed difficulties of the task that it was not until 1904, or twenty years later, that I took the matter up seriously. Thus I am indeed well aware that it is not enough to be cautious, one must also be audacious. Having thus myself delayed for twenty years, it was just with a thought of the daring energy of my esteemed American friends that I gave myself the hope of trying by something like a spurt to regain some portion of the time which had been lost. As may be known by all who have followed this question, the investigations thus begun have been unexpectedly successful in results. On the present occasion I have appealed to the kind collaboration of my American friends for organizing with their aid the application on their continent of a method of investigation which already has been tested in a region, the nature of which from several points of view has a striking similarity with that of the formerly glaciated regions of North America. Yet, the glaciation of this. latter continent was much more extended than that of northern Europe. Certain parts of its highly interesting glacial geology, according to the admirable investigations of the 2 Gerard de Geer, "A geochronology of the last 12,000 years." Presidential address, Eleventh International Geological Congress, Stockholm, 1910Map and diagrams. Comptes Rendus, 1912. American geologists, showing a very complicated late glacial evolution, it seems highly probable that the introduction and use of a real time scale here will be of special interest and that comparisons with the conditions in Sweden and other parts of northern Europe will doubtless be very instructive in many respects. In the hope of a continued, fruitful collaboration I use this occasion to express my hearty thanks for the great hospitality and all the kind interest, which from so many sides, in the United States as well as in Canada, have been shown to the expedition, and especially so from the American Scandinavian Foundation, which never fails to support every initiative aiming at the evolution of our mutual relationships. SCIENTIFIC EVENTS DE GEER DEDICATION OF THE NEW LABORATORY AT the United States Fisheries Biological Station at Fairport, Iowa, the new laboratory building has been publicly dedicated in the presence of a large assemblage composed of representatives of various state universities, the pearl-button industry and the Bureau of Fisheries, together with the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and the member of congress from the Fairport district. The new laboratory, which is constructed of concrete, stone and brick, replaces a frame building destroyed by fire in 1917. The building is about 100 by 50 feet, with three stories and half basement; and is superior to the old structure in respect of serviceability, convenience and capacity. The laboratory accommodations for 16 investigators may be increased as circumstances require. A welllighted library, a chemical laboratory, a photographic room, a museum, a mess hall and kitchen, and tank and aquarium rooms in addition to offices are among the useful features of the building. The dedication exercises were as follows: Remarks by the chairman, Hon. Albert F. Dawson, former member of Congress from the district; presentation of the building to the Department of Commerce, by Professor James M. White, architect; acceptance of the laboratory on behalf of the Department of Commerce and delivery to the Bureau of Fisheries, by Hon. Edwin F. Sweet, assistant secretary of commerce, with address on "Federal and State responsibility for maintaining resources of interstate waters"; response by Dr. Hugh M. Smith, Commissioner of Fisheries; address on "Significance of the station to industries," by Hon. Harry E. Hull, member of Congress; address on "Aquiculture and science," by Dr. Edward A. Birge, president of the University of Wisconsin; address on "The spirit of cooperation in the Bureau of Fisheries," by Professor Frank R. Lillie, University of Chicago; address on "The fisheries biological station in relation to the universities," by Professor George Lefevre, University of Missouri; and address on "The station as an aid to pure science," by Professor Charles C. Nutting, University of Iowa. On the day following the dedicatory exercises there was held in the laboratory building a conference regarding the application of science to the utilization and preservation of the resources of interior waters. The chairman of the conference was Professor S. A. Forbes, University of Illinois, and the principal address was by Professor James G. Needham, Cornell University, on "The biological resources of our inland waters." THE CHICAGO MEETING OF THE AMERICAN THE history of science is to be a part of the field covered by the new Section L (Historical and Philological Sciences) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A temporary committee to have charge of the organization of this aspect of Section L has been appointed by the President of the Association. The personnel of this committee is as follows: Dr. William A. Locy (chairman), Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.; Mr. Frederick E. Brasch (secretary), The John Crerar Library, Chicago, Ill.; Dr. Florian Cajori, University of California, Berkeley, Calif.; Professor A. P. Carman, University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill.; Professor Henry G. Gale, University of Chicago, Ill.; Dr. Charles Judson Herrick, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.; Dr. Felix Neumann, War Department, Washington, D. C.; Dr. George Sarton, Harvard University, Cambridge Mass.; Dr. William H. Welch, The Johns Hopkins University, Chicago, Ill. A program on the History of Science is being planned for the approaching Chicago meeting. In accordance with a recent action of the executive committee of the council of the American Association, the president of the association has appointed a special committee to cooperate with the officers of the new Section H (Anthropology), to organize the section and prepare a program for the Chicago meeting. The vice-president of the new section is Dr. A. E. Jenks, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. The secretary is Dr. E. A. Hooton, Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass. The special committee just appointed has the following personnel: Dr. Clark Wissler (Chairman), American Museum of Natural History, New York, N. Y.; Dr. G. G. MacCurdy (Secretary), Yale University, New Haven Conn.; Dr. Roland B. Dixon, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.; Dr. Aleš Hrdlička, U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C.; Dr. A. L. Kroeber, University of California, Berkeley, Calif.; Dr. F. G. Speck, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. One of the general-interest, evening sessions of the approaching Chicago meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will be devoted to an illustrated lecture by Dr. R. F. Griggs, of Ohio State University, on his exporations and studies in the volcanic region of Katmai, Alaska. The date and place of this lecture will be announced in the general program, which will be available before the opening of the meeting on December 27. SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES MEETING AT CHICAGO THE following national scientific societies will meet at Chicago during convocation week in affiliation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The name of the president is followed by the name of the secretary. American Mathematical Society: Dr. F. N. Cole secretary. Mathematical Association of America: Dr. David Eugene Smith, Dr. W. D. Cairns. American Astronomical Society: Dr. Frank Schlesinger, Dr. Joel Stebbins. American Physical Society: Professor J. S. Ames, Dr. Dayton C. Miller. American Meteorological Society: Dr. Robert DeC. Ward, Dr. Chas. E. Brooks. American Metric Association: Mr. Howard Richards, Jr., sec 'y. Optical Society of America: Dr. F. K. Richtmyer, Dr. P. D. Foote. Geological Society of America: Dr. I. C. Morgan, Dr. E. O. Hovey. Association of American Geographers: Dr. Herbert E. Gregory, Dr. Richard E. Dodge. National Council of Geography Teachers: Professor R. H. Whitbeck, Professor Geo. J. Miller. Paleontological Society of America: Dr. F. B. Loomis, Dr. R. S. Bassler. American Society of Naturalists: Dr. Jacques Loeb, Dr. A. Franklin Shull. American Society of Zoologists: Dr. Gilman A. Drew, Dr. W. C. Allee. Entomological Society of America: Dr. J. M. Aldrich, Sec'y. American Association of Economic Entomologists: Dr. Wilmon Newell, Mr. A. F. Burgess. American Microscopical Society: Professor T. W. Galloway, Dr. Paul S. Welch. Wilson Ornithological Club: Dr. R. M. Strong, Mr. Albert F. Ganier. Botanical Society of America: Dr. N. L. Britton, Professor J. R. Schramm, American Phytopathological Society: Dr. W. A. Orton, Dr. G. R. Lyman. Ecological Society of America: Dr. Barrington Moore, Professor A. O. Weese. American Society for Horticulture Science: W. H. Alderman, Dr. C. P. Close. Association of Official Seed Analysts: Edgar Brown, A. L. Stone. American Nature Study Society: J. A. Drushel, Mrs. A. B. Comstock. American Physiological Society: Professor W. P. American Society of Biological Chemists: Dr. American Society of Bacteriologists: Dr. Chas. American Anthropological Association: Dr. Clark Wissler, Dr. Alfred M. Tozzer. American Folk-Lore Society: Dr. Charles Peabody, Sec'y. American Psychological Association: Dr. Shepherd I. Franz, Dr. E. G. Boring. American Association of University Professors: Professor Edward Capps, Professor H. W. Tyler. Society of Sigma Xi: Dr. C. E. McClung, Dr. H. B. Ward. Gamma Alpha Graduate Fraternity: Dr. J. R. Musselman, Dr. A. H. Wright. Gamma Sigma Delta: Dr. C. H. Eckles, Dr. L. H. Pammel. Phi Kappa Phi Fraternity: Dr. J. S. Stevens, Dr. L. H. Pammel. CENTENARY OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI ON Saturday, November 6, the Medical College celebrated the centennial of its founding. One hundred years ago the Medical College of Ohio received its charter from the state with Dr. Daniel Drake, whose name is written deeply in the annals of American medical history, as its first president. The Medical College of the University was the first medical school established west of the Alleghenies and is the third oldest in the country, Harvard and Pennsylvania alone taking precedence. The college, then called the Medical College of Ohio, had its beginning in a little room above a drug store on Main street. Dr. Daniel Drake, the father of the college, graduated the first class of twenty-four students from this little room in 1821. In 1896 the Ohio College became the med |