SCIENCE 



Editoeial Committee : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; K. S. Woodward, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickeeing,. 



Astronomy ; T. C- Mbndenhall, Physics ; R. H. Thueston, Engineering ; Iea Remsen, Chemistry ; 



Joseph Le Conte, Geology ; W. M. Davis, Physiography ; Heney F. Osboen, Paleontology ; 



W. K. Brooks, C. Haet Meeeiam, Zoology ; S. H. Scuddee, Entomology ; C. E. Bessey, 



N. L. Beitton, Botany ; C. S. Minot, Embryology, Histology ; H. P. Bowditch, 



J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; William H. Welch, Pathology ; 



J. McKeen Cattell, Psychology ; J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Friday, August 3, 1900. 



CONTENTS: 



The Last Quarter — A Beminiscence and an Outlook : 

 Peofessor Lucien M. Undeewood 161 



Artificial Parthenogenesis in Annelids: Peofes- 

 90E Jacques Loeb 170 



The Astronomical and Astrophysical Sodeiy of Amer- 

 ica [11): Professor Geo. C. CoMSTOCK 171 



Scientific Books :■ — ■ 



Loew's Investigations on Tobacco: Dr. H. N. 

 Stokes. Cory on the Land Birds of Eastern 

 North America : W.H.Osgood 191 



Scientific Journals and Articles 192 



DiscMsdon and Correspondence : — 

 Kite vs. Balloon : A Lawrence Rotch. Cal- 

 losities on Horses' Legs: De. W J McGee 193 



Notes on Inorganic Chemistry: J. L. H 194 



Medical Exhibits at Paris 195 



Sigma Xi, The American Association and The Geo- 

 logical Society of America 196 



Scientific NotesandNews 197 



I and Educational Netvs 200 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 

 for review sliould be sent to tlie responsible editor, Profes" 

 sor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



THE LAST QUARTER— A REMINISCENCE AND 

 AN OUTLOOK* 

 Ninety years ago, a botanist holdiDg a 

 professor's chair in Williams College for 

 the supposed mismanagement of an estate 

 in Columbia county was confined for a 

 short period in a debtor's prison in New 



* Address of Retiring President, Botanical Society 

 of America. 



York City. Years afterward he related to 

 a friend that as a relief to the monotony of 

 confinement he found amusement in teach- 

 ing botany to the keeper's son whom he 

 described as a bright youth of fourteen 

 years. From such an inauspicious begin- 

 ning came the real development of botany 

 in this city, for while Hosack had attempted 

 to develop his Elgin Gardens earlier in the 

 century, the above episode was the begin- 

 ning of a career that resulted in the rapid 

 advance of botanical science in New York. 

 It is only proper to add that the professor 

 above noted was no less a personage than 

 Amos Eaton, author of the first series of 

 American botanical manuals, and the wil- 

 ling pupil was none other than John Tor- 

 rey, the Nestor of American Botany. 



Were we tracing the full pedigree of bot- 

 any in New York, it would be necessary 

 to follow the record two generations back 

 of Torrey, for it was Hosack, the originator 

 of the first botanic garden of New York 

 who instructed and assisted Amos Eaton in 

 his early botanical studies while the latter 

 was still a law student in New York City, 

 and more specially after he had passed on 

 to his higher work of instruction. Hosack 's 

 Botanical Garden at 54;th Street and Madi- 

 son Ave. was too far out of town for the 

 New Yorkers of 1801-1806 to visit, and it 

 passed over finally to Columbia College 

 and laid a solid foundation for the financial 

 endowment of that institution, as property 



