372 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S, Vol. II. No. 38. 



mental characters have brought about that 

 the stimulating action of external agents, 

 such as light, heat and gravity, have pro- 

 duced very diverse powers in the two king- 

 doms. Animals have a wonderful mechan- 

 ism which enables them to see, while plants 

 have a no less wonderfully specialized sen- 

 sitiveness by which they assume various 

 positions to secure more or less illumination. 

 Animals have a sense of equipoise, but 

 plants have a very dissimilar and even more 

 remarkable sense of verticality. And so 

 on throughout the list of stimuli the reac- 

 tions are not the same, but are differ- 

 entiated along entirely separate and diver- 

 gent lines. The period is fortunately well 

 past when physiology was chiefly cultivated 

 with an arriere pensee as to its value for in- 

 terpreting the functions in man, and hence, 

 in claiming for this department of study the 

 most exalted position, and the most intri- 

 cate and interesting of botanical problems, 

 we need not be distracted by any lurking 

 cui bono, or feeling of having come short of 

 ample returns for conscientious effort, al- 

 though the facts do not elucidate any point 

 in human or animal physiology. Some of 

 the dissatisfaction which caused G. H. 

 Lewes to abandon the pursuit of his early 

 dreams of a comparative psychology, and 

 M. Foster to discontinue his early study of 

 comparative general physiology, as both 

 authors have assured us they did, may pos- 

 sibly be traceable to a lack of singleness of 

 purpose in taking the good of the organism 

 itself in each grade of development as the 

 point of view in pursuing the study. But 

 as all vital activity rests upon a common 

 basis, it is not improbable that the key to 

 some of the fundamental mysteries of physi- 

 ological action will yet be found in a study 

 of the well developed functions exhibited in 

 the simpler, nerveless structure of plants, 

 and thus a truer philosophy of life in gen- 

 eral be attained. 



In closing, a few words in regard to the 



future of vegetable phj'siology in America 

 may not be out of place. In many waj'S 

 the conditions under which botanj^ exists 

 in America are verjr dififerent from those in 

 other countries. In Europe the class-rooms 

 are filled chiefly with medical students, for 

 whom a moderate amount of botany is con- 

 sidered essential, and the incentive for ad- 

 vanced work in most instances is not strong. 

 In this country the botanical classes are 

 larger, with more varied interests, of which 

 medicine forms only a smaU part, and the 

 study usually stands upon the same footing 

 as that of the other sciences. The attain- 

 ment of equal recognition as a substantial 

 element of an educational course, supersed- 

 ing the notion that it constituted only an 

 efflorescence to be classed with belles-lettres 

 and other refinements, was the beginning 

 of a prosperous period. One of the effects 

 of this prosperity was to make the botanist 

 more jealous of his reputation, and with the 

 beginning of the nineties he entered a vig- 

 orous protest against the appropriation by 

 the zoologists of the terms ' biologj^ ' and 

 ' biologist.' It was fair evidence that bot- 

 anists had awakened to a recognition of 

 common interests with the rest of the world, 

 and of the advantages of keeping well 

 abreast with the times. Later, the sys- 

 tematists, finding that other departments 

 of natural history had devised improved 

 ways for naming natural objects, undertook 

 to fall into line and reform the method of 

 naming plants, which led to the first serious 

 break in unanimity which American botan- 

 ists have known. So warm has been the 

 contention that a few have descended to per- 

 sonal reflection and invective, which were 

 never before known to mar the amicable 

 adjustment of differences of opinion among 

 American botanists. But this storm is 

 likely to pass and leave the atmosphere 

 clearer, brighter and more invigorating; and 

 it is to be hoped that no trace will remain 

 of an interruption of good fellowship and 



