SCIENCE 



Feidat, December 19, 1919. 



CONTENTS 



Agricultural Botany in Secondary Educa- 

 tion: PEorEssoR Herbert F. Roberts 549 



G-rants for Research of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science: 

 Professor Joel Stebbins 559 



Scientific Events: — 



The British Association and Scientifia Re- 

 search; The Worlc of the National Commit- 

 tee on Mathematical Requirements ; Chemical 

 Lectures at West Point and Annapolis .... 561 



Scientific Notes and News 5t)3 



University and Educational News 567 



i 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Charcoal Activation : H. H. Sheldon. Aged 

 Bean Seed, a Control for Bacterial Blight 

 of Beans : C. W. Eapp. The Flagellation of 

 the Nodule Organisms of the Leguminosce: 

 Rot Hansen. The Supposed Scales of the 

 Cottid Fish Jordania: Professor T. D. A. 



COCKERELL 568 



Report of the Committee of the American 

 Chemical Society on a list recommending 

 Chemical Tests for Libraries : W. A. Hamoe. 569 



Special Articles: — 

 An Unexcelled Medium for the Preservation 

 of Cadavers: Professor Arthur Willlam 

 Myer 570 



The American Chemical Society: Dr. Charles 

 L. Parsons 572 



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

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

 Hudsori, N. Y. 



AGRICULTURAL BOTANY IN 

 SECONDARY EDUCATIONi 



The advance of physical science during tlie 

 past century, and the application of the re- 

 sults gained therein to industry, and espe- 

 cially to the means of transportation and 

 intercommunication, have made desirable and 

 available, areas of the earth's surface hitherto 

 unsought or inaccessible. Because of the de- 

 velopment of mechanical agencies througk 

 science, the present age, more than any other,, 

 is characterized as an age of economic ex- 

 ploitation. The freedom and mystery of the- 

 older earth are departing, and soon will be- 

 gone forever. Never again will there be an- 

 other Odyssey. The spirit of the new Age of 

 Steel is over us — the spirit of exploitative- 

 and capitalized industry, that is reaching with 

 magnificent ease out to the remotest confines- 

 of the planet, uncovering all the secret places,, 

 and blazing plain bare trails athwart the- 

 earth, straight to the vei-y capitals of the- 

 ancient fairylands of geography. What mys- 

 tery is there left in Peking or Timbuktu, in- 

 Samarkand or Oandahar? To commerce, the 

 names of the nations are but words in a 

 game; their habitations but the squares of 

 red and black on the chess board upon which 

 the game is played; their remoteness a mere 

 relativity of cost of communication. 



In a sense that is far from Emerson's this 

 spirit is embodied in the words : 



Far or f-orgot to me is near, 

 Shadow and sunlight are the same, 

 The hidden gods to me appear, 

 And one to me are shame and fame. 



The first exploitation of new territories has 

 always been made by adventurers driven by 

 the primitive Wanderlust; by men impatient 

 of sitting in sodden security, but ever eager 



1 Address before the Iota Chapter, Sigma Xi, 

 University of Kansas. 



