1917] EDITORIAL. 107 



Apropos of these thoughts it is interesting to mention an instructive 

 lecture on The Living Plant as a Physical System, recently delivered 

 by Dr. Lyman J. Briggs of this Department. This was a remark- 

 able address on account of the novelty of the subject and the new 

 outlook it presented. It was highly suggestive of the advantage of 

 the physicist's viewpoint in approaching and in attempting to ex- 

 plain phenomena in plant life connected with its physiological ac- 

 tivity and its relations to its environment. 



Dr. Briggs dealt especially with such functions as plant transpira- 

 tion, efficiency in the use of water by different groups of plants, 

 drought resistance, the rise of water in the plant, the assimilation of 

 carbon dioxid, and other processes of growth. He illustrated some 

 of these phenomena by experiments with physical apparatus, notably 

 the theory upon which the rise of sap in trees depends, the action of 

 the mechanism to prevent interference through air bubbles, etc. He 

 discussed the mechanics of these processes, and the physical measure- 

 ment of the plant's response to differences in enviromnent. He 

 showed how in many cases the vital activities of the plant follow 

 quite closely established laws and principles in physics, and made it 

 clear in how large degree the explanation of manifestations which 

 are observed in practice and in scientific inquiry may with advantage 

 be sought through that science. 



Already the quantitative methods of physics and physical chemis- 

 try have begun to invade biological research, as Dr. Loeb recently 

 explained. This marks a step in advance for it shows that zoologists 

 and botanists have come to "grasp the fact that the progress of 

 science depends upon the invention or application of such methods." 

 So many of the processes of living as well as of dead matter rest upon 

 physical laws and principles that there is reason to believe a much 

 larger field is open to physics in agricultural investigation than is at 

 present occupied. The employment of the science by specialists in 

 it who are acquainted with agriculture and its problems would con- 

 tribute a viewpoint and a method highly important and helpful. An 

 intimate knowledge of it may supply a very material element of 

 strength in the agricultural investigator. 

 76601°— 17 2 



