‘ 
NoveMBER 22, 1918] 
Part IIT. goes into detailed account of specific 
diseases of plants in which the hosts are also 
taken up alphabetically. Only those diseases 
which are of economic importance are consid- 
ered. The doubtful ones, or those of little eco- 
nomic importance, are omitted. Here plant 
pathologists will find ground to differ with the 
author in his choice of those specific diseases 
which he considers most important. The sur- 
vey in the chapter of non-parasitic, or physio- 
logic, diseases will be appreciated by the stu- 
dent. 
Part IV. takes up a detailed account of lab- 
oratory and teaching methods. Here the au- 
thor incorporates much of his own methods and 
technique. This part will be found of partic- 
ular interest to the teacher of both under- 
graduate and graduate students. Part IV. is 
made up of forty-six lessons in which every 
phase of laboratory technique is elaborately 
and clearly set forth. Finally the book con- 
cludes with an appendix which considers the 
preparation of fungicides and _ insecticides, 
spray calendar, keys for determining species of 
Mucor, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Erysipha- 
ces and the fleshy fungi. 
The distinctiveness of the book is the exten- 
sive field which it covers in mycology and plant 
pathology. It stands by itself, in its difference 
from the average American text-book bearing 
on these subjects. The book fills a timely 
want, and it should find a place in every li- 
brary of the teacher, investigator or student. 
J. J. TAUBENHAUS 
TexaAS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 
THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSI- 
CIANS! 
Tue four hundredth anniversary of the 
foundation of the Royal College of Physicians 
of London is an event which can not be al- 
lowed to pass without comment. On Septem- 
ber 23, 1518, Henry VIII. granted the charter 
by which the college was constituted. He did 
so, moved by the example of similar institu- 
tions in Italy and elsewhere, and by the in- 
stigation of Thomas Linacre and others of his 
own physicians, and of Wolsey his chancellor, 
1From the British Medical Journal. 
SCIENCE 
517 
with a view to the improvement and more 
orderly exercise of the art of physic, and the re- 
pression of irregular, unlearned and incompe- 
tent practitioners of that faculty. The college 
consisted of eight persons known as “ elects,” 
with power to elect from amongst themselves a 
President annually, and to choose the “ most 
cunning and expert men” to fill vacancies as 
occurred in their number. At the same time 
it was enacted that no person except a grad- 
uate of Oxford or Cambridge, without dis- 
pensation, should be permitted to practise 
physics throughout England, unless he had 
previously been examined and approved by the 
president and three of the elects. The first 
meetings of the college were held at Linacre’s 
private house-in Knightrider Street, the front 
portions of which, comprising a parlor below 
and a chamber above, used as a council room 
and library, were given to the college during 
Linacre’s lifetime. These small premises— 
the ground on which they stood only meas- 
uring about twenty-four square feet—con- 
tinued to be used for nearly a hundred years. 
But in 1581 they. were enlarged, and a capa- 
cious theater added, in which to deliver the 
lectures founded by Dr. Caldwell and Lord 
Lumley, in 1583. Dr. Foster was the first 
Lumleian lecturer. A botanical garden, un- 
der the supervision of Gerard, was also se- 
cured. Linacre, founder of the college, learned 
both as physician and scholar, was president 
until he died in 1524. Of distinguished suc- 
cessors and benefactors of the college during 
its first hundred years of existence the names 
of Clement (1544), professor of Greek at Ox- 
ford; of Wotton, the zoologist; of Caius 
(1555), linguist, critic, physician, naturalist, 
second founder of Gonville and Caius College, 
Cambridge, antiquarian and designer of the 
insignia of office still used by presidents; of 
William Gilbert (1600), author of “De Mag- 
nete” and first physicist of the college, natu- 
rally occur to us. The last meeting in the old 
eollege in Knightrider Street was on June 25, 
1614; the first meeting in the new college, in 
Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, was on Au- 
gust 23, 1614. Here, in April, 1616, Harvey 
