Frmay, August 23, 1918 
CONTENTS 
American Botany and the Great War: New 
ie: RUUUG MIEN "ss hw aicisis)<.=/oie au de) ols cistetinrain Se 
A Survey of High-school Chemistry in Penn- 
sylvania: PROFESSOR ALEXANDER SILVER- 
Twenty-five Important Topics in the History 
of Mathematics: Proressor G, A. MILLER, 182 
Scientific Events :— 
The Cleveland Meeting of the American 
Chemical Society; The Japanese Beetle in 
New Jersey; The Rehabilitation of Wounded 
Soldiers; The Volunteer Medical Service 
un) ae ae Gog ObceOOCe De Udon. ObOnL Cor -tde 184 
Scientific Notes and News ..........+ssee00% 187 
University and Educational News ........... 191 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Pseudo-psychology: Dr. CHRISTIAN A. RucK- 
micH. The Position and Prospects of Bot- 
any: Dr. W. L. Crozier. Leaf Burn of the 
Potato and its Relation to the Potato Leaf- 
hopper: E. D. Batu. ‘‘ Fats and Fatty De- 
generation:’’ Dr. Martin H. FISCHER...... 191 
Quotations :— 
A Medical Entente with America ......... 196 
Scientific Books :— 
Emmons’s Principles of Economic Geology: 
Proressor ALFRED C, LANE. Stokes’s 
Aquatic Microscopy: Proressor M. F. 
MEUM MAMET aia seta aratcie’a(uie.t, sieve’ siciaiejars'e sisielersin 197 
Special Articles :— 
Adaptation in the Photosensitivity of Ciona 
intestinalis: Setig Hecut. A Method for 
198 
preparing Pectin: Cuas. H. Hunv......... 
MSS. intended for ‘publication and books, ete., intended for 
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 
mT = 
AMERICAN BOTANY AND THE GREAT 
WAR 
Tuat botany, the traditional scientia ama- 
bilis, should have a place in the present world 
war seems almost a contradiction in terms. 
Yet so far are we from the days when war was 
the concern of professional soldiers only, that 
one of the earliest announced requests of the 
British war commission was for regiments of 
foresters, who are first of all botanists, for 
service in the forests of France. 
That the activities of all professional botan- 
ists should, moreover, be profoundly influenced 
by the war was inevitable. Botany like other 
sciences is international. Before the war Ger- 
many held a prominent and unique place in 
the botanical world. A number of American 
students of botany were trained in her labora- 
tories, and although within the last decade the 
emigration of American students to Germany 
had slackened, it was the war which effectually 
stopped the current. 
Germany held moreover an almost complete 
monopoly of the publication of abstracts of 
botanical papers. Botanists had come to take 
it as a matter of course that botanical ab- 
stracts would appear in German publications, 
and two at least of these abstract journals had 
attained world-wide circulation and prestige. 
These abstract journals are, of course, no 
longer available in America, if indeed they are 
being published. It is natural that in this 
particular field, now left vacant, American 
botanists should begin to extend their activi- 
ties and it is gratifying to note that, at their 
last annual meeting (January, 1918), the mem- 
bers of the various American botanical so- 
cieties inaugurated the publication of such a 
journal under editorship which guarantees its 
success. 
In incidental, and somewhat unexpected, 
ways the war has influenced botanical studies. 
The shortage of potash has stimulated the 
