The Human Machine 
are in many cases not new, but merely 
used by the author as stepping stones. 
Dr. Crile’s own results are sufficient to 
prove that the mechanistic philosophy 
will lead to some interesting advances in 
physiology, surgery and medicine, even 
if its genetic foundations are not fully 
understood. And the results obtained 
by a great number of other investigators 
in the same field, while perhaps not so 
immediately put into practice as, for 
instance, Dr. Crile’s method of pre- 
venting surgical shock, are not less of 
fundamental importance. 
It is really astonishing that the evolu- 
tionary study of physiology should have 
493 
been confined to such a small number of 
workers, during the last half century, 
and should have made so little impres- 
sion on the layman, or even on the 
medical profession. Such books as the 
one under review, packed as it is with 
interesting facts and fascinating theories, 
of which only a few have been suggested 
here, cannot help but be of great use in 
stimulating that sort of study. And it 
is on exactly that sort of study—the 
study of man as a species, in relation to 
other species and to his own past 
history—that the social progress of the 
next century will largely depend. 
Annual Meeting 
Two general sessions of the American 
Genetic Association will be held in 
New York, December 26-30, in connec- 
tion with the meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of 
Science. In addition there will be a 
number of meetings of each of the 
sections—plant-breeding, animal-breed- 
ing and eugenics. Members who desire 
to present papers should notify the 
of the A. G. A. 
secretary as soon as possible. Papers 
of suitable character will be published 
in the JouRNAL OF HEREDITY, par- 
ticularly if they lend themselves to good 
illustration. As it appears that the 
program will be full, the length of 
papers will be limited to twenty minutes, 
unless special notice is given. Full 
details of the meetings will be published 
in the next issue of this journal. 
Improvement of California Orange Groves 
Owners of the largest orange groves 
in Southern California have already 
adopted the plan of keeping a record of 
the performance of each individual tree, 
and eliminating any trees that do not 
prove to be good producers, usually by 
top-working them with select buds. 
So far, however, it has not been found 
possible to get many of the owners of 
small groves to adopt this process. The 
California Fruit Growers’ Exchange is 
now planning to assist the growers in 
securing the record of trees in these 
small groves, taking advantage of the 
fact that small growers do not pick 
their own fruit, but entrust the task 
to the local association of the exchange, 
which sends out a trained gang of men 
to pick the fruit. It is now proposed 
to add to each picking crew a man 
whose duty will be to make a record of 
the production of every tree; and this 
report, furnished to the owner of the 
grove, will enable him to supplant the 
bad yielders with trees of a better strain, 
in many cases by topworking the 
drone or undesirable individual tree. 
The exchange has for several years 
been working on the problem of stand- 
ardizing the citrus pack; a cooperative 
and organized effort is now being made 
to standardize the production. 
