Januaky 17, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



85 



changed. The country had recovered from 

 the effects of the civil war, money was 

 more abundant and more could be spent 

 on science. New professors were appointed 

 in the colleges and courses for the instruc- 

 tion of school teachers in botany and zool- 

 ogy were provided by private individuals. 

 I have time only to refer to one curious 

 episode in the development of botany in 

 America. I refer to what may be called 

 the biological epidemic which broke out 

 soon after I returned to America and 

 threatened for a time to drive botany from 

 the field. If at some future time some 

 one ventures to write a book on the abuse 

 of the "ologies" the chapter on biology 

 will be the most interesting. As far as I 

 can make out, as originally used, biology 

 did not differ much from physiology. The 

 laboratory manual of Huxley and Martin 

 was planned to correct the common idea 

 that botany and zoology consisted in the 

 description of different species of plants 

 and animals, whereas in reality they are the 

 study of plants and animals in all their 

 relations to one another and to their sur- 

 roundings. Huxley and Martin's book 

 was extensively used in this country and 

 was in many ways excellent. The criti- 

 cism might be made that it was not well 

 proportioned. Without saying that it was 

 all lobster, there was so much lobster and 

 so little of plants that there was not enough 

 to make a good lobster salad. Soon it 

 became the habit of young persons who 

 knew precious little about either plants or 

 animals to call themselves biologists, dis- 

 daining to be called botanists or zoologists. 

 It does not follow, however, that because 

 one is neither a botanist nor a zoologist 

 one is to be considered a biologist. 

 Trustees of colleges and similar institu- 

 tions were given to understand that a su- 

 perior race of beings had arisen, the biol- 

 ogists, and that botanists and zoologists 



had had their day. Colleges being always 

 impecunious, this information was gladly 

 received by their governing boards. By 

 calling their zoologists biologists they could 

 escape appointing professors of botany. 

 This clever device for saving a salary 

 worked very well for a few years, but at 

 last it became evident that the teaching by 

 a zoologist with the aid of a text-book, how 

 to distinguish a yeast cell from a fern 

 prothallus and a fern prothallus from a 

 germinating bean, was not all that was 

 wanted in our colleges, although it might 

 have been sufficient in a kindergarten. 

 The epidemic of biology, although it hin- 

 dered for a time the development of bot- 

 any in England and America, fortunately 

 never spread to other countries. 



Although garrulity is the privilege of 

 old age, I feel that I am still too young to 

 take up more of your time this evening: 

 This occasion, in which the body as well as- 

 the soul naturally participates, seemed to 

 me to call not so much for a formal his- 

 torical account of botany in my day as for 

 a series of personal reminiscences, more or 

 less anecdotieal in form, which would throw 

 a little light gained from the experience of 

 one who, although he has lived long, hopes 

 that he has not outlived sympathy with 

 the present, on some of the steps by which 

 our present advanced position among 

 the botanists of the world has been reached. 

 It has been my fortune to see the old order 

 of things overturned by the appearance of 

 the "Origin of Species" which, by freeing 

 science from the fetters of a semitheolog- 

 ieal bias, opened the way to a free scien- 

 tific study of the distribution of plants 

 and animals and the great questions of 

 heredity and evolution. To most of you 

 this great change is only a historical fact. 

 To me it is a living memory. I, who was 

 almost the first American student to seek 

 the benefit of botanical instruction abroad. 



