P. K. Whelpton (Scripps Founda-tion), with Arthur Campbell and Ron-ald Freedman, reported on a nationalprobability sample of married whitewomen, aged 18 to 39, in terms of theirfecundity, sterility, use of contraceptives,and expected family size. The study wasundertaken in part to provide neededunderstanding of the extent to which thehigher postwar fertility in the UnitedStates reflects an increase in family sizeas opposed to a mere change in the tim-ing of marriages and births. The latterappears to be the more important; nev-ertheless, family size, as measured bycompleted fertility, may be rising bynearly one child over prewar levels.

VINCENT H. WHITNEY,Program Chairman

American StatisticalAssociation (K5)

During the morning session of theAmerican Statistical Association therewere 25 people present. The room hadvery adequate facilities-in fact, twochalkboards were made available for thissession. The program was very stimulat-ing. P. E Irick presented the materialon "A statistically designed highway ex-periment" in an excellent manner, andthe audience participated actively. Thepaper was 1 hour in length; the formaldiscussion and the audience discussiontook another hour and three quarters.The whole problem of highway experi-mentation by means of statistical designsand techniques should be of interest toevery citizen when one considers the sizeof the highway projects in the UnitedStates. Just this relatively small projectis costing over $15 million.The afternoon session, on "Applica-

tion of a mathematical model in plastictooling research," was poorly attended;this was disappointing because the In-diana Chapter of the ASA, as well asthe ASQC, had indicated an interest inthis subject. I suspect that the schedul-ing of sessions on a Saturday afternoon isnot conducive to attendance, especiallyif people are not paid by their companiesto attend sessions during this time. Thisconclusion is a bit disturbing but, I be-lieve, realistic. Anyway, the session wasmodified a bit because only professionalpeople were present and the paper hadbeen written primarily for engineers, whocould apply the statistical techniques totheir problems.

VIRGIL L. ANDERSON,Program Chairman

History and Philosophy ofScience (Section L)

In 1957 Section L was greatly handi-capped by the illness of its secretary,Jane Oppenheimer, who broke her hip.21 FEBRUARY 1958

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However, good friends of the section inthe AAAS headquarters and in othersections lent suppport, and at the annualmeeting Section L held two sessions on

Sunday, cosponsored by Section Np(Pharmacy) and the Philosophy of Sci-ence Association, and one session on

Monday, cosponsored by the Philosophyof Science Association.The Sunday morning symposium,

"Can Science Provide an EthicalCode?", presided over by Hermann J.Muller, was exceptionally well attended.Because Henry Margenau was ill, hispaper was read by Lewis K. Zerby. Theanswer to the symposium question is"yes," as was ably argued by the speak-ers, who included Chauncey D. Leakeand Richard Rudner. The preparedpapers were followed by general discus-sion.Each of the three very different pa-

pers of Sunday afternoon-on AlbertusMagnus' scientific method by FatherWilliam H. Kane, on pharmaceuticalmanufacturing by K. K. Chen, and on

the thermometric scale by D. J. Lovell-was followed by questions which servedto bring further elucidation from thespeakers. Norwood Russell Hanson pre-

sided.On Monday morning, a view of man-

machine systems, presented by George0. Wright, was followed by a survey byDorrit Hoffleit of astronomy's develop-ment in the 20th century and by a talkby Karel Hujer describing the emphasison dialectical materialism in the treat-ment of the physical sciences behind theiron curtain. I. Bernard Cohen's vice-presidential addtess on "The history ofscience and the problems of understand-ing the science of today" concluded theseries of papers. C. Doris Hellman pre-

sided.At a business meeting immediately

following the papers, regret at Jane

Oppenheimer's illness was expressed,and the names of the new section chair-man, Carl B. Boyer, and the new com-

mittee-member-at-large, Adolf Grin-baum, were announced. It was reportedthat a national committee for the historyand philosophy of science was beingformed under the auspices of the Na-tional Academy of Sciences-NationalResearch Council and that this commit-tee would become the adhering body forthe International Union of History andPhilosophy of Science.

C. DoRis HELLMAN, Acting Secretary

General Systems Research (L2)

Two of the contributions to the sym-posium, "Organization for Humans,Cells, and Artifacts," were basicallymathematical. A paper by C. Foster, A.Rapoport, and E. Trucco (presented by

A. Rapoport) was concerned with theconditions under which Prigogine's the-orem of minimum entropy productioncould be applied to nonisolated systemsof known internal structure. It was shownthat, if a minimum exists, certain con-

straints upon the topological arrange-

ment of the feedback loops are implied.M. Kochen presented a procedure fortreating an organized system with dis-crete, synchronized information transferbetween its parts, formalizing certainaspects of cooperative group behavior so

that it is possible to describe how sub-units can be selected and interconnectedso as to produce a system with specifiedbehavior.

K. E. Boulding took up the implica-tions of such efforts in his presidentialaddress. He suggested that four levels ofsystematic knowledge could already bediscerned, including (i) purely empiri-cal systems based upon constant inter-action; (ii) maps, and blueprints, andplans; (iii) systems used for the designof artifacts; and (iv) theoretical modelswhich explain and predict the "innerworkings" of the other systems. Generalsystems research aims at a fifth level-systems of theoretical systems. As theseare found, it is expected that markedeconomies would result in work directedat the first four levels. This should haveimportant consequences in the conductof the affairs of national states.As long as the possessors of scarce

knowledge were restricted to physicaland -biological systems, the skills foroperating the state could be purely em-

pirical (for example, politics, business,and law) and scientists would performas specialized experts. But with progressin operations research, administrativescience, and other general systems ap-proaches, a conflict may be foreseen be-tween the "folk" culture and the scien-tific subculture embedded in it.How do "the people" control the spe-

cialists? Democratic theory is based uponthe assumption that the kind of knowl-edge required for government is notscarce or difficult. Are we doomed to an-

other Middle Ages, with Science as theChurch and the Military as the King?A growing self-consciousness of scienceitself as a social system may offer means

for resolving such conflicts and prevent-ing such eventualities.RICHARD L. MEIER, Secretary-Treasurer

Medical Sciences (Section N)

This program was the first symposiumon the human integument that had beenarranged before an AAAS meeting. Thetitle was "The Human Integument-Normal and Abnormal." The programwas organized as a symposium with fourhalf-day sessions, jointly with the AMA

SCIENCE, VOL. 127

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History and Philosophy of Science (Section L)C. DORIS HELLMAN

DOI: 10.1126/science.127.3295.419-a (3295), 419-420.127Science 

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trademark of AAAS. is a registeredScienceAdvancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005. The title

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of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.Copyright © 1958 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement

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