SCIENCE 
Fripay, Aprin 19, 1912 
CONTENTS 
The Effect of Research in Genetics on the 
Art of Breeding: PRoFESSOR HERBERT J. 
WEBBER 
General Hygiene as a Required College 
Course: PRoFESSOR ALAN W. C. MENzIES . 609 
The Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund: PRo- 
FESSOR CHARLES S. MINOT .............. 612 
John Bernhardt Smith: Dr. L. O. HowarD . 613 
Scientific Notes and News ..............-- 614 
University and Educational News .......... 618 
Discussion and Correspondence :-— 
A Defense of the ‘‘New Phrenology’’: DR. 
F. H. Pre. Mr. Dooley on Science: A. 
1D, SWOWO soascgoocoagscsa0ndsadend00 GK 619 
Scientific Books :— 
Recent Books on the Doctrine of Descent: 
J. P. MoM. Fischer on Nephritis: Pro- 
FESSOR YANDALL HENDERSON. An Expert- 
mental Study of the Death-feigning of 
Animals: PROFESSOR C. F. CURTIS RILEY. 
Abbot’s The Sun: PROFESSOR CHARLES 
LANE Poor 624 
Scientific Journals and Articles ............ 631 
Special Articles :— 
Deciduous Rootlets of Desert Plants: Dr. 
W. A. Cannon. The Effect of Narcotics 
upon the Development of the Hen’s Egg: 
PROFESSOR ALBERT M. REESE. Inhibition 
of Cell Division in Paramecium: Dr. G. C. 
CRAMPTON 
Societies. and Academies :— 
The Section of Zoology of the Michigan 
Academy of Science: GEORGE R. La RUE. 
The Helminthological Society of Washing- 
ton: Dr. Maurick C. Hah .............. 635 
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intonded for 
seview should be sent to the Editor of ScimNcr, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N, Y. 
THE EFFECT OF RESEARCH IN GENETICS 
ON THE ART OF BREEDING* 
Tue knowledge of breeding has advanced 
so rapidly in recent years that few of us 
realize the great change that has taken 
place in our understanding of the funda- 
mental principles, and the effect that this 
change has had on the methods of practical 
breeding which we advocate. I had the 
good fortune to begin my studies and ex- 
periments in breeding in 1890, ten years 
before the rediscovery of Mendel’s now 
famous principles of heredity, or the pub- 
lication of de Vries’s mutation theory. 
I have thus had the opportunity to follow 
this change through all its ramifications. 
From a condition of ignorance and largely 
of chaos, where all advance was taken as a 
lucky chance, we have developed to a posi- 
tion where practically each step may be 
taken intelligently. True, we touch the 
limits of knowledge on every hand and 
many of the most fundamental problems 
still remain unsolved, yet our understand- 
ing to-day, which enables us to analyze a 
plant into its component parts or charac- 
ters, and then in turn by synthesis to build 
up a new structure by the combination of 
different characters into a new race or 
variety, is to our former understanding 
as light to darkness. The knowledge of 
breeding has developed into the science of 
genetics, and is fast assuming through 
the orderly presentation and classification 
of facts, the form of an exact science. Yet 
with all this advance in our understanding, 
1Paper No. 27, Department of Plant Breeding, 
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Annual 
address of retiring chairman of the Plant Section, 
American Breeders’ Association. 
