Naturalists' Supplies We carry a stock for prompt delivery I. Collecting Utensils. II. Breeding Apparatus and Cages for Living III. Preparing and Preserving Utensils. V. Magnifiers, Microscopes and Accessories. VI. Botanists' Supplies. VII. Explorers' and Collectors' Camp Outfits. VIII. Miscellaneous Naturalists' Supplies. X. Aquaria. XI. Books and Publications. XII. Chemicals K-S Museum Cabinets of Glass and Metal New Illustrated Biological Catalogue will be sent free of charge upon application THE KNY-SCHEERER CORPORATION We have been handling Natural History Material of all kinds for the past fifty years, and so have accumulated a very complete stock. Our prices are as low as the quality of the specimens will permit. We are constantly preparing circulars and price lists covering our material in the different branches, which we will be pleased to send free of charge to the readers of Science. Some of our recent circulars: S-120 Special Minerals S-110 Complete Trilobites S-111 Jurassic Fossils S-119 Cretaceous Fossils CONCHOLOGY ¡GEOLOGY Ward's Natural Science Establishment College Ave. Rochester, N. Y. Marine Biological Laboratory Woods Hole, Mass. INVESTIGATION Entire Year INSTRUCTION July 2 to August 12, 1919 SUPPLY DEPARTMENT Open the Entire Year Facilities for reseach in Zoology, Embryology, Physiology and Botany. Seventy-six private laboratories, $100 each for not over three months. Thirty tables are available for beginners in research who desire to work under the direction of members of the staff. The fee for such a table is $50.00. Courses of laboratory instruction with lectures are offered in Invertebrate Zoology, Protozoology, Embryology, Physiology and Morphology and Taxonomy of the Algae. Each course requires the full time of the student. Fee, $50. A lecture course on the Philosophical Aspects of Biology and Allied Sciences is also offered. Animals and plants, preserved, living, andin embryonic stages. Preserved material of all types of animals and of Algae, Fungi, Liverworts and Mosses furnished for classwork, or for the museum. Living material furnished in season as ordered. Microscopic slidesin Zoology, Botany, Histology, Bacteriology. Price lists of Zoological and Botanical material and Micoscopic Slides sent on application. State which is desired. For price lists and alli nformation regarding material, address GEO. M. GRAY, Curator, Woods Hole, Mass. The annual announcement will be sent on application to The Office: 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City Director, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass. VACUUM COLLECTOR FOR BACTERIA AS USED IN U. S. ARMY MEDICAL SCHOOL 24694. Collector for Bacteria, Vacuum, as used in the Army Medical School for the convenient removal of pure cultures from the media on which they are grown in Kolle flask or other culture vessel. Air pressure is made in flask "B" by compression on rubber bulb "A". Then by pressing the upper valve at "D" the fluid in flask "B" is discharged upon the cultures in Kolle flask "K". Releasing the pressure on the upper valve at "D" shuts off this flow. The growth is then emulsified with the end of the collector and pressure on the lower valve at "D" permits the emulsion thus made to be drawn into the collecting flask "F" which is attached to suction by Tubing "G". By repeating this operation the culture can be repeatedly flushed with the salt solution and scraped off without withdrawing the collector from the flask. It is important that no air flows through the collector until the lower valve at "D" is compressed, thus avoiding air contamination. These collectors are usually sterilized in the autoclave, but they also will stand flaming during the course of the operation. With three end pieces for convenient use with different kinds of culture vessels, but without Kolle flask, rubber tubing connections, flasks "B" and "F", rubber bulb "A" or rubber stoppers...12.00 24695. Collector for Bacteria, Vacuum, as above, complete with rubber bulb "A", one liter flasks "B" and "F", rubber tubing connections, rubber stoppers and glass tubes, but without Kolle flasks.... .........15.00 24696. Collector for Bacteria, Vacuum, simple form, for withdrawal of culture where it is unnecessary to separate the bacterial growth by means of a continuous flow of salt solution. In the use of this collector the salt solution is poured into the Kolle flask or other culture vessel. With three end pieces but without other attachments Prices subject to change without notice ARTHUR H. THOMAS COMPANY IMPORTERS - DEALERS-EXPORTERS LABORATORY APPARATUS AND REAGENTS ....7.50 WEST WASHINGTON SQUARE PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT1 THE scientific spirit, while not easy to define, is a reality, differing from the artist spirit in some important elements and differing also from the usual spirit in philosophy. William James, to be sure, made philosophy almost an experimental science, and religion may be and is so treated by a few. Perhaps as good a concise statement of the scientific spirit as we have is from the pen of Paul of Tarsus, who wrote: "Prove all things and hold fast that which is good." I wish to discuss this injunction with you for a few minutes, to direct your attention to a number of conceptions and practises built into our present social system which do not successfully endure such scrutiny as Paul suggested, and finally we will refer briefly to the scientific spirit in relation to some deep issues of the war and some profound problems of the postwar period. Science versus tradition, experiment versus conformity to convention, scrutiny versus blind faith, reason versus custom. We are all creatures of habit, mental and physical. Indeed custom lies at the root of our whole social system, and necessarily so. Community life is dependent upon the dominance of social custom. A group of individuals each of whom went his own independent and unpredictable way would not form a real community. The conservative tendency in men, the habit of thinking and doing as their fathers thought and did, is essential in enabling them to live and work together as a cooperating society rather than be a mass of contending rival units. And one of the chief services this conservatism renders to human society lies in the difficulty which it presents to the 1 Address by the president of the Ohio Academy of Science, at the annual meeting of the academy, in Columbus, Ohio, May 29, 1919. entrance and adoption of new and strange conceptions or lines of conduct. The new, whether new in idea or merely new in emphasis, must fight and must find itself and prove itself in this initial struggle, before it can prevail. This struggle for existence among social ideas is the scientific experimental laboratory for society, and the whole social experimental method is dependent upon the natural human conservatism which causes and makes intense this struggle through which social ideas must pass to be accepted. But I wish to emphasize this evening another aspect of the matter, the value of having new conceptions to test, and the importance of an attitude of impersonal search for the truth, rather than a struggle for personal advantage. "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free," free from subservience to unwarranted custom and, especially, free from self-seeking. Is not the scientific spirit epitomized in each of these two injunctions, which are but different statements of the same ideal -"Prove all things and hold fast that which is good," "Know the truth and the truth shall make you free"? The ideal, the habit, of impersonal search for the truth is one of two essential foundations of worthy society. The other fundamental social ideal is more explicitly stated by the great Jewish teacher"As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even SO to them." Given the natural quality of conservatism in man, then the essentials to sound society are untrammelled thinking and unselfish action. Now both of these, untrammelled thinking and unselfish action, are part and parcel of the scientific spirit. In thought, truth for the joy of the knowing; in action, loyalty to truth so far as discerned. Are not these the core of the true spirit of science? Most social customs have had a long development. Nearly every one has had an embryological and larval and adolescent history and it is of keen interest to trace any such custom back through its successive periods to the germ from which it started. During the period of development and growth the custom is built into society and becomes almost a part of its organization. Changing it is like changing a physiological habit, removing it involves a surgical operation. It is not difficult to understand that such customs have the strongest hold upon society and upon most individual men. Yet it is surprisingly easy, if one cultivates the habit, to adopt a detached attitude and to view these customs as scientific phenomena to be observed and appraised without prejudice. It is still more surprising to see how many of our important social customs, when so viewed, are without scientific warrant, are indeed socially absurd. Let us instance a few such mistaken social customs in illustration. One of the most absurd of social economic conventions is the adoption of a single metal as a MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE, though this constantly fluctuates in value like any other product. An essential feature in a good medium of exchange is, of course, stability in value, so that debts will be paid in dollars of the same worth as the dollars or other consideration received when the debt was contracted.2 Society has made no attempt to secure such an unfluctuating medium, but has merely chosen the most precious metal which is found in sufficient abundance. Irving Fisher is now proposing that the government charge a varying seigniorage for the coinage of gold, less when gold is dear, more when it is cheap, and thus keep the gold dollar of constant value. This seems to be along the right line, for the usability of gold as a medium of exchange depends upon both its intrinsic value and its monetization, the latter giving it the necessary fluidity and so affecting its value apart from normal supply and demand. Fisher proposes to establish the amount of seignorage by comparing the value of gold from time to time with the then value of a composite group of natural products-grains, coal, metals, etc. There are but two sources of wealth, natural resources on the one hand, and human labor on the other. The medium of exchange should be of constant value with 2 Investments as well as debts should, of course, be here included. relation to both of these, and grains coal, metals etc., upon the market, are a combination of natural resources and human labor. Of course ultimately the medium of exchange should be determined and regulated internationally, not nationally. In merely taking our most valuable abundant metal as a medium of exchange, as now, we are following without effort an old custom and are making no attempt to have our medium of exchange conform to the needs of society. Instead of attempting to solve the problem, we are accepting failure, and almost all men, because accustomed to this unsatisfactory medium, accept it without question. Conservatism versus reason. The blunder involved is one of the serious financial mistakes in our socio-economic system. We can all realize in these days the difficulties that come when the value of the dollar and the value of other things part company, and the purchasing power of our incomes is decreased by a third or more. Another, more serious, economic error is the permitting of PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND AND OF NATURAL RESOURCES. There are two sources of wealth, natural resources and human labor, and the labor is wholly dependent upon the natural resources and can not exist without them. The foundation of life is therefore the Earth and its products. The absurdity of our present system is seen in the fact that it allows a Super-Rockefeller to own the whole Earth and in consequence to own its inhabitants, involving thus a super-form of slavery. There could be no greater economic blunder than this, for it involves the very foundation of human society. Fortunately the facts are recognized by some of our keener economists and somewhat hopeful attempts are being made to withdraw from this absurd plan of economic organization and get upon a basis that will recognize that the earth belongs to all men and must be preserved to them and for them. The fact that withdrawal from a false system involves the greatest difficulties is no sufficient reason for giving up the problem. Our economic life has become so complex that INDIVIDUALISM in large scale INDUSTRY is no longer reasonable. Over 90 per cent. of all men who engage in business fail at some time in their lives. The great percentage of failures shows the enormous risks in industry. Therefore the rewards to successful capital must be made proportionally great. Society pays dearly in the first place for the failures, and then she has to pay unreasonably for the successes. Capital can not be led to take the great risks without inducements adequate to the risks. The present industrial system is clearly unsatisfactory. Society must find some way to relieve industry from these great risks and must then organize the rewards upon a more reasonable basis. There are two most fundamental changes imperatively demanded in our economic system: the first is public control of land and natural resources for the benefit of all mankind; the second is such organization of essential industry as will allow society itself to carry at least the major part of the risks of failure. In this way the risk of failure would be greatly decreased, also the cost of industry, in the form of the returns to the successful, would be greatly reduced, and (probably most valuable of all) there would result a better balanced human community with less economic contrast between the extremes. It is futile to attempt to dodge solving this difficult problem. We must come to it eventually. Why not approach it now? The real problem here is to introduce into all social effort the same spirit of putting the job through for the sake of the country and the world, which we have seen so finely exemplified in the war effort of our soldiers and of our people at home. Not only we, but all of our allies, have thrilled with this spirit of devotion to country and to the service of all the world. The perpetuation and strengthening of this same spirit and its introduction into all the life of the people is the real goal in the social reorganization which we seek. Under the present system of industry labor is prone to feel it is working not for the general good, but for the profits of capital. A spirit of selfishness and unwholesome rivalry is thus encouraged. Society can never ap |