354 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1215 



for the economic entomologist and not for 

 the medical man ; or, at the very least, for 

 the individual who does not yet exist, 

 namely, the medical man trained as an ento- 

 mologist. It is true that the practise of the 

 results obtained by the research of medical 

 entomologists may eventually be placed in 

 the hands of men of lesser training or of 

 men who possess other sanitary qualifica- 

 tions, such as the sanitary engineers, but 

 the entomologist is a vital link in the chain. 

 Entomologists, as such, will receive more 

 and more consideration from sanitarians, 

 especially in Army circles, as is indicated 

 by the fact that, from a zero beginning in 

 1914, at the present time with each sani- 

 tary unit of seventy in the expeditionary 

 forces of Great Britain there are two 

 trained entomologists. 



I might easily have prepared a paper of 

 ten times the length of this and adding to 

 its effectiveness, but other speakers are wait- 

 ing to add their expert testimony to the 

 enormous "value of zoology to the welfare 

 of humanity." L. 0. Howabd 



THE STATUS OF PHYSIOLOGY IN 

 AMERICA 



In a recent issue of our most widely read 

 medical jotirnal^ there is presented an arraign- 

 ment of modern biolog-y which can not be 

 passed by without serious consideration. This 

 is so not because the writer of the review has 

 presented the case exhaustively, or even fairly, 

 but because the statements are commonly 

 raade and therefore deserve examination. 



Modern biology is a composite, its several 

 components derived from the following sources : 



1. Traditional natural history of pre-Agassiz 



times. 



2. The laboratory period of Agassiz. 



8. The morphological period of Darwinian 

 corroboration and consequences of the 

 '■ Origin of Species." 



1 Journal of the American Medical Association, 

 September 29, 1917, column Book Notices. 



4. The newer physiological aspects, introduced 



by the experimental school. 



5. The dictations of the professional schools — 



medical, agricultural, etc. 

 Of the two great divisions, botany and zoology, 

 the former has exhibited a more catholicity 

 of view. Unlike zoology, the curricula of de- 

 partments of plant study offer a more com- 

 plete survey of the essential aspects of the 

 subject. Both the functional as well as the 

 morphological divisions are presented, for a 

 typical curriculum of botany includes not only 

 the morphological studies, similar to those of 

 the department of zoology, but an integrated 

 division of plant physiology, part and parcel 

 of the department. To find an equivalent to 

 this state of affairs in zoology, one must con- 

 fine himself to a comparatively few of our in- 

 stitutions of learning. A typical case is pre- 

 sented by Princeton, and the result, indicated 

 by the character of investigations produced 

 from the department of biology of that uni- 

 versity, has apparently justified the incorpo- 

 ration of functional study into the department 

 However, such instances are the exception 

 rather than the rule and the number of insti- 

 tutions which embody this idea increase at a 

 very low ratio from year to year. 



The arrangement which is practised in 

 many institutions is that which is exemplified 

 by Columbia University. The department of 

 zoology includes a professor of experimental 

 biology and the courses presented by him are 

 physiological, to be sure ; yet these courses are 

 advanced and are specialized for certain re- 

 search work with which the department has 

 been identified since 1904. For the under- 

 graduate, nothing is available as far as a 

 sm-vey of functional zoology is concerned; 

 that work is relegated to the medical school. 

 In this respect, as we have said before, Co- 

 lumbia is typical inasmuch as the zoologist 

 leaves to the medical school the functional 

 aspects of his science. 



Owing to the growing potency of the fifth 

 factor mentioned above in our enumeration of 

 the various components of modern biology, 

 this condition of affairs is gTowing pari passu 

 At California, where traditionally the depart- 



