SCIENCE 



Friday, September 19, 1919 



CONTENTS 



A Basis for Beoonstructing Botanical Educa- 



■ tion : Dr. C. Stuart Gager 263 



The Retirement of Professor Edward L. 

 Nichols 269 



fie Events: — 

 The James Watt Centenary Commemoration 

 at Birmingham; The Subcommittee on 

 Pathometry of the Influenza Epidemic of 

 the American Public Health Association; 

 The New England Federation of Natural 

 History Societies; The Mary Clark Thomp- 

 son Medal; The EocTcefeller Institute for 

 Medical Besearch and the War 271 



fie Notes and News 273 



University and Educational News 274 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



Opisthotonos: Dr. Rot L. Moodie. A 



; Chinese Lamp in a Yucatan Mound: Dr. 

 Edward S. Morse 275 



; Industrial Fatigue and Scientific Manaige- 

 ment 277 



Scientific Books: — 



Bublin on the Mortality Statistics of In- 

 sured Wage Earners and their Families : Dr. 



. Ernst P. Boas 278 



Special Articles: — 



The Interaction of Gravitating and Eadiant 

 Forces: Professor Carl Barus 279 



The Philadelphia Meeting of the American 

 Chemical Society : Dr. Charles L. Parsons. 282 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



A BASIS FOR RECONSTRUCTING 

 BOTANICAL EDUCATION 



The pages of a leading English botanical 

 journal have, for over a year past, in every 

 issue, contained letters and articles discussing 

 botanical reconstruction and the need of it.^ 

 One of the foremost American universities 

 has recently sent out a questionnaire asking 

 for opinions and suggestions bearing on the 

 reconstruction of general biological instruc- 

 tion within the college; and the National Re- 

 search Council has invited constructive ideas 

 as to what should be the content of an " in- 

 tensive " course of study. The same topic is 

 being discussed in addresses and magazine 

 articles in America. Davis has recently called 

 attention to the importance of the question in. 

 Science,^ as has also Peirce, in his recent ad- 

 dress before the San Francisco Bay Section 

 of the Western Society of ^Naturalists.^ 



But how shall we decide the content of the 

 introductory course? Something more is 

 needed than mere personal opinion based on 

 the peculiar experiences, and idiosyncrasies, 

 and limitations of individuals. The question 

 is larger than the subject of botany, for it 

 includes the broad problems of educational 

 policy and theory. First of all, then, certain 

 basic principles must be formulated and, if 

 ]X)ssible, agreed upon. It is the aim of this 

 paper to state, and briefly discuss, two or three 

 of these principles. 



One might think that, after all that has 

 been said and printed on the subject, one need 



i"The BeeonatTUctiou of Elementary Botanical 

 Teaching," New Phytologist, 16, 241-252, Decem- 

 ber, 1917; 17, each issue, January-December, 1918. 



2 Davis, Bradly Moore, "Botany After the 

 War," Science, N. S., 48, 514^515, November 22, 

 1918. 



3 Peirce, George J., "What Kinds of Botany 

 Does the World Need Now?" Science, N. S., 49, 

 81-84, January 24, 1919. 



