to observe unknown things have founded the knowledge the records of which the library keeps." No student is too immature to acquire the habit of scientific observation which may well go hand in hand with the appropriation of scientific knowledge already recorded.

The view is sometimes expressed that students untrained in the technique of science should not be encouraged to attempt anything original for the reason that their attention is thereby diverted from the tasks set them by their instructors. Personally I have little patience with this notion. A student who believes that he has made an original observation or formulated a new theory will hasten to acquaint himself with the already recorded facts and explanations bearing upon the point that he has in mind. He will not be satisfied until he finds that his observation or idea is either correct or incorrect. If correct he will find that it is either new or already recorded. In any case he will probably secure in day more substantial scientific information than he would acquire ordinarily in a week. If Galileo had been told that no youth of nineteen ought to attempt to make scientific observations, the swinging lamp in the cathedral at Pisa would have continued to illuminate the vaulted church, but it would have shed no light upon the laws that govern the motion of the pendulum.

Between the methods of the scientist and those of the ordinary man of affairs there is no difference of kind but only of degree. What should characterize the latter and must characterize the former is precision or accuracy. Because this quality is essential to the astronomer and the chemist it has been too often assumed that in the study of modern languages forced into a position of false antithesis to scientific studies accuracy is a quality of minor

importance. It is true that for the appreciation of a work of imaginative literature the accuracy demanded is of a higher order, an accuracy, as it were, of insight and sympathy.1 But nowhere can this quality be dispensed with, least of all in the reading of scientific literature. Here, therefore, is a field where the habit of accuracy in the study and use of language can be constantly practised and where, conversely, the practice of accuracy will fully reward the reader for the labor it involves.

These are some of the incidental advantages which may be expected to accrue from a course in scientific reading. In referring to them as by-products we have borrowed a figure from the language of modern industrialism and in the same school we learn the necessity of coöperative effort. In my opinion the principle of the division of labor in the class room has not received hitherto sufficient consideration. A more generous recognition of personal ability and aptitude would result in increased effort on the part of each

1 This is not the place to enter upon a discussion of the disputed question of the introduction of scientific methods into either the production or the study of imaginative literature and of the application to scientific writings of literary criteria. It is sufficient in this connection to remark that the poet - using the term in its broadest significance — employs language as the medium for the production of a work of art, the scientist as a means of conveying information. We do not look for poetical scientists nor do we care for scientific poets. It is surely the simplest as well as the wisest course to accept science and literature for what they are without attempting to confound the two or to determine their "relative importance." The following statement of the case is as terse as it is convincing: "Was sollte eine Kunst, die sich derartig abhängig macht? Sie hat schlechterdings keinen Sinn. Wenn sie gleichbedeutend mit der Wissenschaft ist, dann ist sie überflüssig, und gegen eine Kunst als Dienerin der Wissenschaft wird sich mit Recht das schöpferische Bedürfnis des Genies erheben. Keiner Seite ist gedient, weder der Wissenschaft, noch der Kunst und am allerwenigsten der Menschheit" (Schlismann, Beiträge zur Geschichte und Kritik des Naturalismus).

participant and in exercises of greater variety and interest to the class as a whole. It is not expected, therefore, that every member of the class will follow up all the references given in the notes. But the instructor is urged to make individual assignments at his discretion, with the request that the information thus gained be reported back to the class at its next session. With a few minor exceptions these references are to German authorities, and it is hoped that if the instructor sees fit to add others he will pursue the same plan, scientific information and scientific method through scientific German. The amount of such outside reading will be governed, of course, by the judgment of the instructor and the ability of the class and where it seems desirable may be dispensed with altogether. The works to which reference is made (see p. 245) are in all cases worthy of a place on the shelves of the college library quite apart from their use in connection with this Reader, so that the instructor will surely not be making any unreasonable demand in requesting the Librarian to order for the use of the class such as may not already be on hand.

The notes, though chiefly in English, will be found to contain a considerable body of descriptive matter in German. A high regard for consistency would lead one perhaps to employ the one language to the exclusion of the other. But it has seemed to me advisable to be guided by more practical considerations, — on the one hand the desirability of affording the reader the opportunity to acquire the foreign idiom from the notes as well as from the text itself, and on the other a recognition of the fact that the notes ought not to rival the text in the demands which they make

1 Neither the student of science nor the student of literature should read books as such. The former should study topics, the latter authors.

upon the time and energy of the student. The excerpts from various German authorities are rarely quoted verbally. Much has been omitted and many sentences have been recast to suit the requirements of the altered context. But inasmuch as full references have been given in each case it has seemed unnecessary to indicate these changes in detail. The same remarks apply to the texts themselves, and any inequalities that may be noticeable in the style should be charged up to the editor rather than to the authors of the various articles.

The arrangement of the different sciences represented is alphabetical and the order in which they are to be taken up may well be decided by the needs and wishes of the students themselves. But when the first choice has been made the interrelation of the various sciences ought not to be overlooked. The articles "Anthropologie" and "Geologie," for example, may well be read in conjunction since both exhibit man as being in a certain sense a geological phenomenon. The forces which play about the sun, as described in the article "Astronomie," are met with again in the atmosphere of the earth, as described in the article "Meteorologie." The article "Biologie" is devoted chiefly to a discussion of the cell, the elementary organism, and in the article "Botanik" we find the character of the cell, its "individuality," a determining factor in the distribution of plants over the face of the earth. Physics and Chemistry have long been allies, but they are also sciences of such fundamental importance that they may be read not only in conjunction with each other, but also in connection with almost any of the other sciences; Physics particularly, is indispensable to the meteorologist and Chemistry to the biologist.

In selecting the texts the question of their relative ease or difficulty for English speaking readers has received little or no consideration. Indeed, it will be found that scientific literature in all languages is rather uniform in style and while it is not written in words of one syllable, neither is it, as a rule, particularly involved or abstruse. Nevertheless, a natural grading of the reading matter as to difficulty does occur in so far as the articles on Astronomy and Chemistry are written in a relatively simple style, the former being in a somewhat conversational tone and the latter in the form of direct address.

For the illustrations used in this volume, not found in the original texts, I am indebted to the following individuals and organizations to whom I take this opportunity of expressing my sincere appreciation:

The Frontispiece is from an original photograph by Dr. George C. Martin of the U. S. Geological Survey.

The plates for Figs. 5 and 6 were furnished by Miss Mary Cynthia Dickerson, editor of the American Museum Journal, New York City.

Fig. 7 is from a negative furnished by the Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory, Pasadena, Cal.

Fig. 14 is from a photograph by Mr. S. P. Sharples and Fig. 15 from a photograph by Mr. H. S. Gale, both under the direction of the U. S. Geological Survey.

Fig. 16 is from a photograph supplied by the Weather Bureau of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.

Plates 20 and 22 are from photographs furnished by Dr. Reinhard Süring of the Royal Prussian Meteorological Institute, Potsdam Observatory.

Information concerning errors or omissions will be appreciated. I should be glad also to receive from any readers