December 19, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



559 



of plants in primitive culture for food, cloth- 

 ing and household purposes, leads directly 

 into the domain of human history and 

 anthropology. 



The study of the origins of the names of 

 plants and their folk-lore, in connection with 

 the literature of wizardry, magic, necromancy, 

 the healing art and poetry, furnishes an 

 abundance of material of decided human in- 

 terest and value. 



The study of the plant as a machine, in 

 the light of its adaptations of structure to 

 habitat, to secure survival, and to effect 

 fertilization and the distribution of seeds 

 and spores, in its economy in the use of 

 material, and in its conservation of resources, 

 is a field of distinctively cultural value. Cer- 

 tainly the field study of the struggle of plant 

 societies with one another for existence and 

 for supremacy, and with their general bio- 

 logical and physical environment, furnishes 

 material for thought, analogous to the study 

 of social evolution, and from which social 

 lessons can be derived. 



Without in any way cheapening its dis- 

 ciplinary value as science, a great opportunity 

 is thus open to elementary botany, of becom- 

 ing a subject of far more practical value, 

 interest and importance, both in the field of 

 education, and in the development of agri- 

 culture. 



Herbert F. Egberts 



TTniveksity of Manitoba 



GRANTS FOR RESEARCH OF THE 

 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 

 THE ADVANCEMENT OF 

 SCIENCE 



At the annual meeting of the association 

 in 1918 the Committee on Grants for Re- 

 search was organized for the year 1919 as 

 follows : Henry Crew, Chairman ; IST. L. 

 Britton, W. B. Cannon, J. McK. Cattell, 

 E. T. Chamberlin, L. I. Dublin, G. IST. Lewis, 

 G. H. Parker and Joel Stebbins, Secretary. 

 The sum of four thousand dollars from the 

 funds of the association was assigned by the 

 council to. the committee for distribution in 

 support of investigations. The committee 



did not hold a formal meeting, but transacted 

 all of its business by correspondence, and by 

 the middle of June had distributed the entire 

 sum at its disposal in the following grants. 



Astronomy 

 Five hundred dollars to Professor E. B. 

 Frost, of the Yerkes Observatory, for the 

 securing, measurement and reduction of stellar 

 spectrograms. Additional assistance in this 

 work with the 40-inch telescope will greatly 

 increase the mass of results being accumu- 

 lated concerning the motions of stars. 



Physics 



One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor 

 A. L. Foley, of Indiana University, for experi- 

 ments on the speed of sound very close to the 

 source. This investigation is in extension of 

 the important and rather remarkable results 

 which Professor Foley has recently published 

 in the Physical Review. 



One hundred dollars to Professor Orin 

 Tugman, of the University of Utah, to meet 

 the cost of a monochromatic source of light 

 to be used in finding the change of con- 

 ductivity in a thin metallic film when exposed 

 to ultra-violet light — a problem which has ac- 

 quired new importance in view of the rapidly 

 developing electronic theory. 



One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor 

 E. M. Terry, of the University of Wisconsin, 

 for work on the modulation of radio-energy 

 employed in wireless telephony. 



One hundred dollars to Professor F. C. 

 Blake, of the Ohio State University, for aid 

 in prosecution of a study of electric waves 

 and dielectric constants. 



Chemistry 

 Three hundred and fifty dollars to Dr. 

 Gerald L. Wendt, of the University of 

 Chicago, for the investigation of the photo- 

 chemical reactions of hydrogen and chlorine. 

 He has been able to show that under the 

 action of alpha rays and in the vacuum dis- 

 charge tube hydrogen forms a chemically 

 very active form, which probably has the 

 formula H,. From a valence point of view 



