24 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
IHE FUTURE OF VEGETABLE PATHOLOGY. 
AC ADs SELBY: 
On this occasion, as President of the Ohio Academy, 
it is incumbent upon me to deliver an address, presumably 
upon some phase of the body of knowledge we call science. 
Custom points no less unerringly to some topic along the 
lines of one’s chosen pursuit. Doubtless, without any an- 
nouncement a botanical heading would be assigned to this 
occasion. For various reasons it has seemed fitting to pre- 
sent to you some thoughts on “The Future of Vegetable 
Pathology.” Certainly this cannot be done without con- 
sidering the history of the rise and progress, nor without 
discussing the present status of plant pathology both from 
the standpoint of the investigator and of the teacher. These 
matters are likely to lead to estimates concerning the rank 
of vegetable pathology among the divisions of botanical 
science. 
Concerning the speaker personally it is known to most 
of you that his pursuits are along the line of the study and 
investigation of plant diseases. Since it is in the cultural 
aspects of plant life rather than in the original condition 
of wild plants that pathology has claimed the largest atten- 
tion, we naturally look te that phase for much of its history. 
The advance of our knowledge in this helpful line has cer- 
tainly been gratifying, during the closing decade of the 
nineteenth century. 
Plants, as dynamic factors, exhibit certain general and 
normal activities, discernible under widely different con- 
ditions of environment and recognizable in plants of ex- 
ternal dissimilarity, the study of these normal activities 
leads us to Plant Physiology. At the same time these 
plants in their usual activities are impinged upon by cer- 
tain special and general phases of environment, by varying 
