Chapter VI: Front Matter (6)

It is not possible to report on the scientific work of the meeting in part owing to its magnitude--the papers would fill the volumes of this journal for several years to come. It is also true that each paper taken singly is likely to be of interest only to the special student. Specialization in science is absolutely necessary for its advance, but the terminology required for exactness and economy makes the work in each department scarcely intelligible to those not immediately concerned, while the great detail necessary in careful research seems almost trivial until we realize that it is upon such special work that the general principles and the applications of science depend. We all know that our ways of thought and habits of life are chiefly based on the results of modern science. This has not been the result of a sudden revelation, but of a continual growth, scarcely perceptible until viewed from a distance. The importance of current political events is magnified by the common interest they excite, whereas in art, literature and science time is required before things can be seen in their right perspective. We can, however, take the reports of the three committees of the Association to which small grants were made for research and use these as examples of the scientific work described at the meeting. These committees were on ‘Anthropometry,’ on ‘The Quantitative Study of Variation’ and on ‘The Cave Fauna of North America.’

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The committee on anthropometry is undertaking to make measurements of the physical and mental traits of members of the Association, and to encourage such work elsewhere. At the present time there exists but little exact knowledge of how people differ from each other and of the causes and results of such differences. Much has been written regarding men of genius, criminals and other classes, but without an adequate foundation of fact. The members of a scientific society are a fairly homogeneous class, regarding whose heredity, education and achievements correct information can be secured. The measurements made at the New York meeting, determining such traits as size of head, strength, eyesight, quickness of perception, memory, etc., will supply the standard type for scientific men and their variations from this type. When other classes of the community have been measured, comparisons can be made and we shall know whether scientific men are more variable than others, have larger heads, better memory and the like. Work of this character has been carried on at Columbia University for some years. The freshmen, both the men of Columbia College and the women of Barnard College, are measured and tested with care, equal attention being paid to mental and physical traits. Then the measurements are repeated at the end of the senior year. Anthropometric work has also been done in Great Britain under the auspices of Dr. Galton and Professor Pearson, and we may perhaps hope that the time will come when we shall have as exact knowledge about human differences as we now have about different kinds of butterflies.

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Although geologists and botanists have defined hundreds of thousands of species, they have not as a matter of fact until very recently attempted to secure exact measurements of differences, and the committee of the Association on ‘The Quantitative Study of Variation,’ of which Prof. Chas. B. Davenport is the recorder, aims to encourage such work. It is now over forty years since the facts and arguments presented in Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ paved the way for general acceptance of the doctrine of evolution. But the objection is hardly less valid to-day than it was then that the evidence for evolution is almost wholly indirect. Over and over again naturalists have been challenged to cite one case where a species in nature has changed within historic times and repeatedly they have taken refuge in the plea that the historic period is too short for a noticeable change to have taken place. This plea can be accepted, however, only so long as we have no exact way of measuring race change. When we can express quantitatively the condition of a community to-day, we may hope to be able to say whether any change has occurred after five, ten, or a hundred years. The committee of the Association has especially concerned itself with a piece of work which may be considered typical. In the headwaters of the Tennessee River there lives a univalor mollusc which is found nowhere else in the world and which belongs to a family of molluscs that was early separated from its marine cogeners as a fluviatile species. This genus, Io, varies greatly in different parts of the Tennessee basin. In some places it is smooth; in others, spiny; in others, long drawn out. Under a grant of the Association, Mr. C. C. Adams, of Bloomington, Ill., visited this region; travelled down one of the tributaries in a boat, collecting samples from every community of Ios; and went by train up a second river collecting at every stopping place. The results of this trip were, in a word, that in passing from the mouth to the headwaters of the two parallel tributaries the shells vary in parallel fashion and show a uniform, continuous change from the spiny, elongated condition characteristic of the mouths of the rivers to the smooth, more globose condition characteristic of the headwaters. The additional grant by the Association of one hundred dollars will assist Mr. Adams in making further quantitative studies on variation in the genus Io.

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Hardly any fact has excited more interest among evolutionists than the blindness of cave animals; and various theories have been advanced to explain the fact. It is known that the blind condition is due to a degeneration of formerly functional eyes. The difficulty has been to understand what advantage is gained by losing the eyes even in a locality where eyes are of no use. It has been affirmed that ‘Nature is economical’ and will not expend energy in building an unnecessary organ. Weismann has suggested that the only reason why we have eyes at all is because Natural Selection is constantly weeding out poor eyes. Withdraw the necessity for good eyes, and poor eyes and good eyes will have an equal chance of surviving. According to a third theory, the functional activity of any organ is essential to its maintenance. Just as the unused arm withers so the unused eye degenerates. Of course all these theories assume that the ancestors of the blind species--for instance, of the blind fishes--had originally no inherent tendency to blindness or degeneration of the eyes. This assumption has, however, been recently combatted by Professor Eigenmann, who has shown that although many kinds of fish are accidentally swept into caves, only one kind has become blind; of this kind the nearest allies which live in open streams shun the light, live in crevices and under stones, and have less perfect eyes than other fishes. Some of the allies of such light-shunning fishes have made their way into caves, and have there worked out their tendency to a reduction of eyes. That has been the history of eyeless fishes. To continue the researches of Professor Eigenmann, so auspiciously begun, the Association last year granted one hundred dollars to a committee on the cave vertebrates of North America. With the aid of the grant Dr. Eigenmann has during the past year penetrated into numerous caves and obtained much additional material for his researches.

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The American Association will meet next year at Denver, beginning on August 26th. The newly elected officers are:

_President._

Prof. Charles Sedgwick Minot, Harvard Medical School.

_Vice-Presidents._

Mathematics and Astronomy: Prof. James McMahon, Cornell University.

Physics: Prof. D. D. Brace, University of Nebraska.

Chemistry: Prof. John H. Long, Northwestern University.

Mechanical Science and Engineering: Prof. H. S. Jacoby, Cornell University.

Geology and Geography: Prof. C. R. Van Hise, University of Wisconsin.

Zoölogy: President D. S. Jordan, Leland Stanford Jr. University.

Botany: B. T. Galloway, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

Anthropology: J. W. Fewkes, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C.

Economic Science and Statistics: John Hyde, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

_Permanent Secretary._