March 9, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



229 



the fundamental things, the larger truths 

 that increase the general perspective of 

 knowledge, and may underlie the possibil- 

 ities of material progress in many direc- 

 tions. On the other hand, the immediate 

 material needs of the community are to be 

 met by the superficial things of science, 

 the external touch of the more fundamental 

 things. The series may move in either di- 

 rection, but its end members must always 

 hold the same relative positions. The first 

 stimulus may be our need, and a superficial 

 science meets it, but in so doing it may put 

 us on the trail that leads to the funda- 

 mental things of science. On the other 

 hand, the fundamentals may be gripped 

 first, and only later find some superficial 

 expression. The series is often attacked 

 first in some intermediate region, and prob- 

 ably most of the research in pure science 

 may be so placed; that is, it is relatively 

 fundamental, but it is also relatively super- 

 ficial. The real progress of science is away 

 from the superficial toward the funda- 

 mental; and the more fundamental are the 

 results, the more extensive may be their 

 superficial expression. 



In our campaign of education, which is 

 to develop some appreciation of the fact 

 that botanical exploration is a great na- 

 tional asset, concrete illustrations must be 

 used to show that what people regard as 

 applied science, which seems to them there- 

 fore useful and worthy of support, is but 

 a superficial expression of fundamental 

 things which it is the mission of pure sci- 

 ence to discover. In other words, it must 

 be known that the most practical science in 

 the long run is the most fundamental. 



I wish to illustrate my meaning by one 

 concrete example, selected from many that 

 will occur to any botanist. This will indi- 

 cate how we can make the contacts between 

 our pure science and the human welfare 

 appreciated. The science of botany has had 



an interesting history. Beginning with the 

 investigation of plants for what were called 

 their "medicinal virtues," it developed 

 with various progressions and retrogres- 

 sions, until the botanist came to be re- 

 garded as about the most useless intelligent 

 member of society. His chief concern 

 seemed to remove him so far from the gen- 

 eral human interest that he was regarded 

 as a harmless crank at best, a man of only 

 ephemeral interest. The most unfortunate 

 result was that this public estimation "of 

 botany lingered much longer than it was 

 deserved; and consequently, when the 

 other sciences had won public esteem, 

 either through their services or their ap- 

 peal to the wonder instinct, botany lagged 

 behind in public recognition, and in most 

 educational institutions was the latest born 

 in the family of sciences ; but finally it also 

 began to render signal service and appeal 

 to the wonder instinct. 



Among the several phases of botanical 

 activity, phases which deal with the funda- 

 mentals of plant activity of all kinds, and 

 are directly related to plant production, I 

 wish to select plant breeding as a single 

 illustration. It is not my purpose to 

 recite the notable achievements that can be 

 grouped under this title, for they are famil- 

 iar to aU of you. I wish simply to use 

 plant breeding as a brief and concrete illus- 

 tration of my thesis. 



The practical aspect of plant breeding in 

 a certain sense is as old as the cultivation 

 of plants. Long experience in the prac- 

 tical handling of plants developed a kind 

 of knowledge that became formulated in 

 empirical practise; that is, practise whose 

 meaning was not understood, but whose re- 

 sult experience assured. In general, the 

 improvement of old forms by continuous 

 selection grew into a fairly successful 

 empirical practise. 



During a,ll this period of plant improve- 



