June 29, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



647 



beings, differ in their susceptibility to dis- 

 eases. Some are immune, and others are 

 susceptible. This means that we can culti- 

 vate immune races and let the susceptibles 

 perish. We can not handle human diseases 

 in this way. Before what we speak of as 

 the wonderful advance of medicine, we 

 were unconsciously practising selection of 

 the human race for immunity. The sus- 

 ceptibles disappeared and the immunes sur- 

 vived. Now medicine has been so successful 

 that it saves the susceptibles and keeps 

 them mixed with the immunes, so that our 

 human problem is more difficult than it 

 used to be. But we have no such sentiment 

 about plants, and we can cultivate im- 

 munity and eliminate susceptibility. 



I am told by those who are trained in col- 

 lecting such statistics that if these sugges- 

 tions of scientific research can be generally 

 applied, our food production will overtake 

 our population. It is in such ways that the 

 results of science find application. This is 

 not merely a local service, but a national 

 service, and in such a time as this it is a 

 patriotic service. 



May I call your attention to the work of 

 the National Eesearch Council in connec- 

 tion with your opportunity. This council 

 has been appointed by the National Acad- 

 emy of Science at the request of President 

 Wilson. Its purpose is to bring into coope- 

 ration all of our scientific equipment in an 

 attack upon the problems we are facing. 

 This week we have been canvassing the 

 problems that need immediate attention, 

 and they are to be assigned to various re- 

 search centers, where properly trained men 

 and adequate equipment are available. J 

 want to include this institution in these as- 

 signments. Your opportunity is an un- 

 usual one, for already you have many 

 things that are needed. You have the op- 

 portunity to respond to this call from your 

 country, and to see to it that research is 



properly provided for. Such research work 

 not only provides what are called the sin- 

 ews of war, when war becomes necessary, 

 but it also means progress and power in 

 time of peace. It is this opportunity that 

 led me to say earlier in this address that 

 perhaps you have builded better than you 

 knew. 



Do not be misled into thinking that only 

 those problems should be attacked that have 

 been developed by some immediate need. 

 Eesearch is like the exploration of a new 

 country. It must be traversed throughout ; 

 all trails must be followed and mapped. 

 Some trails will lead to rich lands and valu- 

 able mines; others wiU not. No one can 

 tell until everything has been explored. 

 Your research work here should mean an 

 exploration of nature as represented by 

 plants, and there is no more important re- 

 gion of nature. The more we know about 

 plants, the more intelligent we become in 

 handling them. I have known scientific ex- 

 plorers who discovered a new country and 

 mapped it, but no one at the time recog- 

 nized it as good for anything. Years after- 

 wards it was discovered that it was rich in 

 possibilities. 



Years ago an Austrian monk, working in 

 his monastery garden, discovered some in- 

 teresting behavior in the plants he was 

 breeding. He recorded his facts and his 

 conclusions in an obscure journal, and no 

 one paid any attention to it. What could 

 be expected from a monk pottering in his 

 garden? Years afterwards, the contribu- 

 tion was discovered, and to-day it is the 

 basis of most of our work in the study of 

 heredity, and this in turn has made our 

 agriculture scientific. No one knows what 

 may turn up in a garden like this one of 

 yours. It is a gold mine of opportimity. 

 See to it that it is cultivated. 



John Merle Coulter 

 XjNivERsirT OP Chicago 



