224 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1050 



botany almost began with an attempt to 

 find the cures for human ills. So it was 

 natural enoiTgh that posts of botany in the 

 olden time should be assigned so generally 

 to physicians, and that so many physicians 

 should cultivate botanical science. Even 

 to-day, in many European universities 

 botanists who know nothing of such things 

 are often obliged to give lectures along 

 these lines to medical students. 



It is only a few years ago that our bo- 

 tanical programs were made up almost en- 

 tirely of the reports of investigations in 

 what we are accustomed to call pure sci- 

 ence, as though applied science were im- 

 pure. But see what we have to-day ! It is 

 a conservative estimate to say that three 

 fourths of our botanical investigation is 

 now along economic lines, as compared 

 with essentially none at all, when the old- 

 est among us were beginning botanical re- 

 search. 



If one were to count the titles in the 

 present program of the Botanical Society 

 of America, he might be inclined to dis- 

 pute this statement, but it must be remem- 

 bered that the majority of the economic 

 papers are now given in the various tech- 

 •nical societies. Immediately previous to the 

 formation of the American Phytopatho- 

 logical Society, approximately half of the 

 titles offered in the combined programs of 

 Section G and the Botanical Society were 

 phytopathological. If we take account of 

 the work done by the various divisions of 

 the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture and by the many state agricultural 

 colleges and experiment stations, by work- 

 ers in bacteriology and plant breeding, and 

 bj'- investigators in the forest service, it 

 will be realized that more rather than less 

 than 75 per cent, of our botanical investi- 

 gation is economic. 



Whatever may have been the scientific 

 deficiency of much of this work in the past 



and of part of it to-day, it must be ad- 

 mitted that there is coming from these 

 sources an increasing body of work of the 

 highest vahie scientifically. This is well 

 indicated by the Journal, of Agriculhiral 

 Besearch, which from the first number has 

 taken rank with our best botanical jour- 

 nals. 



It is scarcely to be supposed that eco- 

 nomic botany is a passing fad, and that 

 ■pure botany, as we call it, Avill once again 

 come into a place of dominance. The shift- 

 ing emphasis in botany is but a part of a 

 great movement as broad as humanity itself. 

 The three sections that have been most re- 

 cently organized in the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science are 

 practical rather than theoretical, and the 

 last of these, agriculture, is one which is 

 looming up everywhere as a competitor of 

 botanj^ Chemistry and physics also are 

 being swept with the same economic title. 



No better index is to be seen of the ti-end 

 of the time than in the curricula of schools 

 and colleges. Once the central feature of 

 our educational system was the disciplinary 

 study of the classics. Latin and Greek, 

 subjects which survived the barbarism of 

 the middle ages and the changing view- 

 points of subsequent centuries, have given 

 way before our modern demand for cul- 

 ture that is i^ractical; and it is doubtful 

 if they can ever again take a leading 

 place in educational systems. In many 

 of our secondary schools botany has 

 given way, and perhaps permanently, to 

 agriculture, and in many others agricul- 

 ture is introduced along with botany, or 

 the demand is made that botany be made 

 practical. Naturally the last institutions 

 to feel the press of the new movement will 

 be the private or endowed institutions, such 

 as the University of Chicago, from which 

 your speaker comes. But even we are feel- 

 ing it. An increasing number of our stu- 



