July 6, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



21 



tained by heating the amino terephthalic acid 

 with formamide, urea, etc. 



Condensation with p-Diamino Terephthalic 



Ester: J. M. Nelson and M. T. Bogert. 



p-Diaraino terephthalic ester was condensed 

 with phenyl isocyanate, phenyl isothioeyanate, 

 and with formamide, giving various complex 

 heterocycles. From these substances various 

 derivatives were prepared and studied, many 

 of which were found to be strongly fluorescent. 



Officers of the section for the year 1906-07 

 were elected as follows: 



Chairman — A. A. Breneman. 



Vice-chairman — H. C. Sherman. 



Secretary-Treasurer — C. M. Joyce. 



Executive Committee — G. C. Stone, C. H. 

 Kiessig, V. Coblentz, D. Woodman. 



F. H. POUGH, 



Secretary. 



THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



On May 23, 1906, the club held a special 

 meeting in commemoration of the tenth anni- 

 versary of the commencement of work in 

 the development of the New York Botanical 

 Garden. 



The meeting was held in the lecture hall of 

 the museum building at the garden, with 

 President Rusby presiding. 



After the election of new members the club 

 listened to an illustrated lecture by its presi- 

 dent on ' The History of Botany in New York 

 City.' 



Dr. Rusby presented a historical sketch of 

 the development of botany in the city of New 

 York, giving special attention to the history 

 of local botanical gardens, of the botanical 

 department of Columbia College and of the 

 Torrey Botanical Club. The earliest local 

 work related to the botanical gardens of Col- 

 den, Michaux and Hosack, and to the publica- 

 tion of local catalogues and floras. The second 

 period was that of text books, manuals and 

 other educational works. Out of the associa- 

 tions resulting from local work, the Torrey 

 Botanical Club developed so gradually that it 

 is impossible to fix the date of its actual be- 

 ginning. Portraits of its early members were 

 exhibited and brief biographical sketches pre- 



sented. Out of the activity of the club and 

 of the botanical department of Columbia grew 

 the demand for a great botanical garden, 

 which was satisfied by the establishment of 

 the present New York Botanical Garden. The 

 contemporary botanical forces at work in the 

 city were briefly described, and their most ira- 

 portant present needs outlined. The com- 

 plete address will be published in Torreya for 

 June and July, 1906. 



The lecture was followed by an informal 

 reception in the library, and by an inspection 

 of the library, laboratories, herbaria and the 

 museum exhibits. C. Stuart Gager, 



Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



intercollegiate athletics and scholarship. 

 To begin with, and to end with, I have no 

 opinions to offer, no theory to defend, no pur- 

 pose to dispose of a broad and complicated 

 problem with a few general sweeps of rhetoric. 

 Without such credentials, I dare not appear 

 in public under so weary and worn a topic. 

 Intercollegiate athletics has had so much 

 talking about it and one must be bold in- 

 deed — usually too bold — ^who ventures more 

 mere opinion. On whatever phase of educa- 

 tion the organization of contemporary experi- 

 ence can yield facts, it is an old and perni- 

 cious habit to guide practise by mere opinion. 

 On such subjects one man's opinion is about 

 as good as that of another, and neither is 

 worth much. The quantity of opinion on the 

 subject of football is to the quantity of fact 

 in about the same relation as the forty thou- 

 sand yelling spectators to the little pile of 

 men on the gridiron. My present purpose is 

 to contribute a body of facts to one single 

 phase of the problem. 



Athletics are denounced in arguments as 

 numerous and as varied as those recklessly 

 put forth on the other side. On both sides 

 of the question we hear some reason and much 

 exaggeration, some fact and much opinion. 

 Those who oppose football as played last fall 

 in American schools and colleges hold that the 

 game is injurious to healthful student life on 

 account of the large number of injuries re- 



