ton's remarkable contributions to science, nor would it be possible to do so. At first sight his work seems to be disconnected; but it represents a normal evolution and nas one fundamental basis, namely, the application of quantitative methods to phenomena theretofore outside their control. Beginning with geographical explorations and by the inevitable nature of the man improvements in the conditions under which such explorations are carried forward, he next took up the unstable phenomena of meteorology, devising the graphic method of the weather chart and inventing new instruments. But he soon passed to the still more complicated phenomena of biology, anthropology and psychology. Here his genius touched many subjects. Mental imagery, composite photographs and fingerprints are familiar to all. His great contribution is the study of human heredity by exact methods and its application to the improvement of the race. Galton's word "eugenics" may be soiled by ignoble use; but his work is one of the most original creations of pure science and at the same time one of its most important applications—so great indeed that Galton's body may some day be taken from the quiet churchyard where it lies to be placed beside Darwin and Kelvin in Westminster Abbey.
Galton united certain characteristics which the disciples of George Fox seem to have bred into their blood with the traits which those who knew Charles Darwin found in him. A few days before his death the present writer had the privilege of presenting his name for honorary membership in an academy of sciences to succeed William James. These two men are the greatest whom he has known. James possessed the more complicated personality; but they had certain common traits—a combination of perfect aristocracy with complete democracy, directness, kindliness, generosity and nobility beyond all measure. It has been said that eugenics is futile because it can not define its end. But the answer is simple—we want men like William James and Francis Galton.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the deaths of Professor Leonard Parker Kinnicutt, director of the department of chemistry in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute; of Dr. Edward Gameliel Janeway, professor of medicine and dean of the University and Believue Hospital Medical College, and of Dr. Willibald A. Nagel, professor of physiology at Rostock.
Sir Joseph Larmor, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University and secretary of the Royal Society, has accepted an invitation to become the unionist candidate for the vacancy in the parliametary representation of Cambridge University.—Dr. W. K. Röntgen, professor of physics at Munich, and Dr. Ewald Hering, professor of physiology at Leipzig, have been appointed knights of the Prussian order pour le mérite. Dr. Gustav Retzius, formerly professor of anatomy at Stockholm, has been appointed a foreign knight of this order.—Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, professor of hygiene in the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. George Wharton Pepper, professor of law, have been elected trustees of the university.
It was announced on January 20 that Mr. Andrew Carnegie had added $10,000,000 to the endowment fund of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The institution was established in 1902 with a gift of $10,000,000. and Mr. Carnegie recently added $2,000,000. These gifts consist of preferred bond of the Steel Corporation bearing five per cent, interest and their market value is considerably above their par value. Mr. Carnegie's gifts to public purposes now amount to about $200.000,000.
