822 J. Bonner 



that this sort of rise and fall is what we must expect in the exploitation 

 of any and all fields of knowledge. Let me make this a point more 

 concretely by reference to a field of knowledge that has already been 

 thoroughly exploited and explored. About 40 years ago, biologists 

 suddenly became aware of the importance of hydrogen ion concentra- 

 tion. We learned that there is such a thing as pH and that we are 

 supposed to measure it. There ensued a great gold rush of biologists 

 to measure the pH of everything — insides and outsides of cells, dif- 

 ferent parts of cells, the soil — everything one might imagine was pH- 

 measured. And papers concerning the pH of objects of biological 

 origin appeared with rapidly increasing frequency. Numbers of papers 

 per year in this field attained a maximum and then subsequently 

 shrank. The rise and fall of works on pH has followed the kinetics of 

 our exploitation model. What does this mean? It doesn't mean that 

 we're less interested in pH than we used to be. It just means that 

 everybody know^s that there's such a thing as pH and that when you 

 do an experiment you should measure the pH, that you've got to be 

 careful about it and put buffers in solutions, and do all the things that 

 biologists do to take cognizance of the fact that the pH of the solution 

 is an important variable. W^q have essentially incorporated pH lore 

 into biological wisdom and we use it as an everyday part of our equip- 

 ment for being a biologist. 



It is therefore my prediction that by the year 1985, although the 

 last paper specifically dedicated to auxinology will have already ap- 

 peared in print, auxinology won't really disappear, it will just be in- 

 corporated into the total body of classical biology in the same way 

 that pH lore has been assimilated. When people study growth mat- 

 ters, they'll know that there's auxin, that auxin is made in certain 

 places, that it goes around the plant and that it makes leaves not fall 

 off or makes cells increase in size, or makes fruits be parthenocarpic 

 — they'll know the things that auxin does, whatever it does, and this 

 wisdom will be used in assessing the possible existence of any new 

 growth factor, in discussing the interaction of other growth factors, 

 in discussing the ways in which climatic factors influence plants, etc. 

 Auxin lore will just be a part of the background information which 

 we have at our disposal to help us evaluate new facets of the behavior 

 of plants. It will be a part of general plant biological wisdom. And I 

 think that this is not too dismal a prospect. We can look forward 

 perhaps to a decreasing interest in auxinology as a specific subject in 

 iis own right, but we can look forward to its becoming increasingly 

 a part of llic biological body. I forecast that this change will be at- 

 tended by an alteration in the educational level at which we offer in- 

 struction about auxin matters. There was a time in which peoj)le 



