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SCIENCE 



Friday, April 18, 1919 



CONTENTS 

 The Botanical Opportunity: Professor John 

 M. COULTKB 863 



Psychiatry and the War: Professor "W. H. E. 

 Rivers 367 



Intellectual Intercourse between Allied and 

 Friendly Countries: Giorgio Abetti 369 



George Francis Atkinson: Professor Harrt 

 M. Fitzpatrick 371 



Scientific Events: — 

 The Germs of Influenza and yellow Fever; 

 Lectures by Professor Blaringhcm ; The Na- 

 tional Besearch Council; The American So- 

 ciety of Mammdlogists M72 



Scientific Notes and News 375 



University and Educational News 377 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



On Some Proboscideans of the State of New 

 York: Dr. O. P. Hay. Hitman Flying: Pro- 

 fessor M. E. Wadsworth. Keeping Step: 

 Walteb Moore Coleman 377 



Quotations : — 



The Organization of Beseairch in Great 

 Britain 380 



Scientific Books: — 

 Ernst on Bastardierung als Vrsache der 

 Apogamie im Pfianzenreich: Professor 

 Hugo de Vries 381 



Experiments on the Action of Mustard Gas on 

 the Cells of Marine Organisms : R. S. LnxiE, 

 G. H. A. Clowes, R. Chambers 382 



Special Articles: — 

 On Eerschell's Fringes: Professor Carl 

 Barus 385 



MSS. inUnded for 'publication and books, etc.. intended for 

 review should be aent to The Editor of Science. Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



THE BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY! 



When this program was arranged, it was in- 

 tended to bring to the attention of botanists 

 how they could serve the nation in the crisis of 

 war. Committees liad been multiplied to do 

 various kinds of necessary work. The results 

 were not all that we had hoped for, but botan 

 ists were beginning to find themselves, and or- 

 ganization was gradually becoming more effec- 

 tive, because the spirit of cooperation was 

 developing. Enough results were obtained to 

 prove that botany could be of great service at 

 a time of national need. The practical results 

 were not so conspicuous to the public in the 

 immediate activities of the war as those of 

 chemistry and physics for example, but they 

 were fundamental and far-reaching, looking 

 to future as well as to present needs. We must 

 recognize that to bring into effective coopera- 

 tion great numbers of isolated, scattered, and 

 sometimes conflicting units, takes time and a 

 great controlling motive. But we were ma- 

 king progress, not so rapid as the impatient 

 desired, but probably as rapid as human nature 

 permitted. 



Now that the emergencies of war have 

 passed, shall we stop this kind of progress? T 

 wish to attempt to answer this question. In 

 doing so, I shall not formulate any plan, any 

 scheme of organization, but shall present in 

 brief general statement what seems to me to 

 be our opportunity. The other speakers upon 

 the program will doubtless present more con- 

 crete suggestions, for which I hope my state- 

 ment may be an appropriate background. 



In connection with the period of reconstruc- 

 tion, there has come to the science of botany a 

 great opportunity, and botanists must rise to 

 the occasion. It is a critical time for our sci- 

 ence, for we may lapse into our former state 

 and become submerged by more aggressive 



1 Invitation paper before the joint meeting of 

 botanists at the Baltimore meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science. 



