Mabch 6, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



359 



diversity of opinion, and it is evident that no 

 one is in a position as yet to decide the points 

 at issue. Amid all the flux of opinion, however, 

 there is evident a desire to relate plants more 

 closely to the interest and to the need of high 

 school students. This desire expresses itself 

 in an extreme form when courses in ' agri- 

 culture ' are asked to be substituted for courses 

 in ' botany.' This has brought a distinct 

 temptation to publishers and to authors to 

 ' meet the demand ' without much considera- 

 tion as to its significance. It can not mean 

 that all that has proved good in the older 

 method is to be abandoned, and an unorgan- 

 ized mass of new material substituted for it. 

 It can not mean that high school pupils are to 

 become apprentices rather than students. It 

 must mean that the structure and work of 

 plants are to be so studied that this knowledge 

 will enable the student to work with plants 

 intelligently. In other words, it is intended 

 to be the practical application of knowledge, 

 rather than practical work without knowl- 

 edge." 



It would be well for teachers of botany of 

 all classes to carefully read these sentences, 

 which gain in strength and significance to the 

 end of the paragraph. As the writer of this 

 review has insisted over and over again, botany 

 wherever taught must be botany, and not some 

 application of botany, or some study of plants 

 not involving the orderly sequence of struc- 

 tural and physiological inquiry. Agriculture, 

 horticulture, plant breeding, forestry, etc., are 

 most excellent subjects of study for young 

 people (and older people, for that matter), but 

 they are not botany; rather, they require 

 botany as a prerequisite, and must be based 

 upon it. 



Coming to Dr. Coulter's text-book we find 

 twenty-seven chapters arranged in two 

 "parts." Chapters I. to 5IV., inclusive, deal 

 with what may be called " pure " botany, and 

 in these the pupil is taken step by step from 

 the simpler to the more complex plants and 

 their principal functions. This part of the 

 book is intended to afford a good half-year's 

 work for the high school pupils, and without 

 doubt this is one of the best formulations of 



this work which has yet appeared. In looking 

 through the chapters one finds nothing which 

 can well be omitted, nor anything which im- 

 peratively demands admission. In the second 

 part, which is entitled " Plants in Cultiva- 

 tion '' one finds also not a little of pure botany. 

 Thus the chapter " "What Plants Need " is 

 plant physiology, pure and simple, as is also 

 the chapter on "What the Soil Supplies." 

 There is a little concession to the " practical " 

 in the chapters on "Seeds," " Other Methods 

 of Propagation " and " Plant Breeding," and 

 considerably more in those on " Cereals and 

 Forage Plants," " Vegetables," " Fruits," etc., 

 and yet in even the most " practical " of these 

 one sees that the presentation is by one who is 

 primarily a botanist. All through this second 

 part the living plant as a plant is emphasized, 

 rather than the plant as a crop to be sold for 

 such and such a sum. And here is perhaps 

 the line of difl^erence between the scientific 

 conception of plant study and the conception 

 held by those who think of plants as things to 

 be grown for our use or pleasure. Dr. Coul- 

 ter's book is a demonstration of the possibility 

 of presenting much of applied botany in a 

 scientific manner. 



Charles E. Bessey 

 The University of Nebraska 



The Evil Eye, Thanatology and Other Essays. 



By EosWELL Park. E. G. Badger, Boston. 



1913. 



This volume consists of a series of enter- 

 taining essays, which, as the author states, 

 " partake of the character of studies in that 

 border-land of anthropology, biology, philology 

 and history which surrounds the immediate 

 domain of medical and general science." The 

 subjects include The Evil Eye, Thanatology 

 (the study of the nature and causes of death). 

 Serpent Myths and Serpent Worship, latro- 

 Theurgio Symbolism, Giordano Bruno, The 

 Career of the Army Surgeon, The Evolution 

 of the Surgeon from the Barber, History of 

 Anesthesia and the Introduction of Anesthetics 

 in Surgery, etc. The treatment in nearly 

 every case is primarily historical, and the 

 main purpose appears to be to show how many 



