56 : 
many years ago—so many that I have forgotten the exact date—Dr. Jor- 
dan presented a discussion on “Fishing all the way from the Amazon to 
Greenland,” and he said that the number of vertebrze in the fishes of the 
same species always increases with the latitude in which the fish is 
caught. He suggested that he knew no reason for it unless perhaps it is 
that life expresses itself in more vigorous terms at the pole than at the 
equator. But Prof. T. C. Mendenhall offered a theory that was received 
with much applause, and that everyone thought was right. He said the 
North always had more backbone than the South, anyway. (Laughter). 
So that is one question we have settled. 
I remember also that twenty-four years ago our botanist presented to 
us what he was pleased to call a very important question. Several others 
have been presented that were more or less important, but this was 
really important, and it was, in general terms, the development of life 
from the plasmodium to the oak. He referred to the fact that mush- 
rooms—I tried to get his exact words, but we did not publish in those 
days, so this is as I remember it—that mushrooms “are degenerates, mere 
driftwood cast up by the waves of life’s ocean.” Incidentally this idea 
was illustrated by another journey parallel to it, from the Amoeba by way 
of the ascidian to man. In the discussion which followed, our zodlogist 
arose and said the ascidians “are degenerates, mere driftwood cast up by 
the waves of life’s ocean;” so the status of the mushroom and the 
ascidian was settled. 
We really took up some serious questions. I remember that Professor 
Waldo in a wide discussion of mathematical questions, had a good deal to 
say about parabolas, hyperbolas, asymtotes and other similar things; Pro- 
fessor Neff then followed with a paper dealing with the refinements of 
organic chemistry. which he illustrated with what appeared to be colored 
Chalk; all of us were lost some of the time and some of us were lost all 
the time for some hours. This was followed by a glowing vision of crea- 
tion from a Darwinian standpoint. It was an interesting occasion; we 
all understood and took on a benevolent expression. But the many things 
we used to teach that are discarded now were useful in their day. Car- 
lyle says somewhere that the present time is “child and heir of all the 
past and parent of all the future.” and I could not help thinking this 
morning when Prof. Coulter was talking, that as one after another these 
theories have been set aside, there has been a reason for the existence of 
