SCIENCE 



Vol. lvi November 24, 1922 No. 1456 TRENDS OF MODERN BIOLOGYi 



CONTENTS 



Trends of Modern Biology: Peofessor Ray- 

 mond Peael 581 



Earth Current Observations : Db. L. A. Batter 592 



Collaborators in the Standardization of Bio- 

 logical Stains: Dr. H. W. Conn 594 



Scientific Events: 



The Samsay Memorial; The Zeitschrift fiir 

 Praktische Geologic; Sigma Xi at the 

 University of Idaho; Association of Amer- 

 ican Geographers; The Ecological Society 

 of America; The American Society of Nat- 

 uralists _ 596 



Scientific Notes and News 599 



Vrwversity and Educational Notes 602 



Discussion and Correspondence : 



Belativity: Dr. W. J. Humphreys. Tingi- 

 tidcB or Tingidce: Dr. A. C Baker. A 

 Chemical Spelling Match: Dr. C. E. 

 Waters. Muscina pascuorum Meigen in 

 New England: Charles W. Johnson , 603 



Scientific Books: 



Hornaday's Minds and Manners of Wild 

 Animals: Dr. Egbert M. Yebkes 604 



Special Articles: 



The Power of the Wheat Plant to fix At- 

 mospheric Nitrogen: PRorEssoR C. B. Lip- 

 man and J. K. Taylor 605 



The American Chemical Society: Dr. Charles 

 L. Parsons 607 



SCIENCE: A Weekly Journal devoted to the 

 Advancement of Science, publishing the official 

 notices and proceedings of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, edited by 

 J. McKeen Cattell and published every Friday by 



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Annual Subscription, $6.00 Single Copies, 15 Cts. 



Entered as second-class matter January 21, 1923, at the 



Post Office at Utica, N. Y., Under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



An occasion such as this is 'thought-pro- 

 voking. Why should anybody endow a chair 

 of biology? When I began the study of the 

 subject a little more than a quarter of a cen- 

 tury ago such things wei-e not done. In most 

 of our large universities ibiology had a fairly 

 secure position, but in all but a very few of 

 the small colleges, at one of which I am proud 

 to say I had the privilege to study, if present 

 at all it was so distinctly only on sufferance. 

 Mudh doubt existed and was often expressed as 

 to whether this novel subject had any disci- 

 plinary value in the training of the youthful 

 mind, or had any particular cultural worth in 

 the producing of better citizens. Those of us 

 who were irresistibly lured, by tihe fascination 

 of the wonderful field opened to our vision, to 

 spend most of our time in the biological lab- 

 oratory, were looked upon iby our fellow colle- 

 gians as queer freaks of nature, and would 

 certainly have been called Bolsheviks had that 

 overworked appellation been cuiTent verbal 

 coin in those days. For the siibject distinctly 

 lacked respectability. It was thought by those 

 who pursued tlie classics or other orthodox lines 

 of educational conduct to be a messy business, 

 was known to ibe smelly, and was generally held 

 to be low. This attitude inevitably called forth 

 a defense reaction on the part of its callow 

 devotees, which resulted in distinctly worse 

 messes and smells than were really requisite for 

 the successful pursuit of knowledge in the field. 



Nor\v all this has <ihanged. Biology has come 



1 Papers from the Department of Biometry and 

 Vital Statistics, School of Hygiene and Public 

 Health, Johns Hopkins University. No. 80. 



An address delivered at Mount Union College, 

 Alliance, Ohio, October 20, 1922, on the occasion 

 of the dedication of the Milton J. Lichty Chair 

 of Biology in that college. 



