740 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 384. 



is a very concrete division of pathological 

 subjects, Ave are forced to conclude that a 

 great deal remains to be done to provide 

 adequately for the future instruction that 

 I am well assured is to be given in vege- 

 table pathology. 



A body of well-organized knowledge on 

 plant diseases presented by teachers 

 charged chiefly or solely -with the giving of 

 courses or the conduct of investigations in 

 plant pathology is, I am led to believe, 

 not solely by the course of demand for 

 workers, but as well by the development 

 of our agriculture practice, to be the future 

 of vegetable pathology. In so far as I am 

 aware, the only university whose officials 

 have, as yet, expressed a desire and future 

 purpose to put plant pathology on this 

 foundation for the future is not, as one 

 would expect, endowed by public funds, 

 but by private philanthropy. I am hope- 

 ful that tliis will not long remain the case. 



In choosing this subject and in the man- 

 ner of presenting it, I have been guided, as 

 herein set forth inadequately, by a desire 

 to make plain the disproportion between 

 the demands, in the line of applied botany, 

 made upon many of the most competent 

 graduates in botany and in the preparation 

 they have been given for this work. It is 

 recognized that at no other period of the 

 world's history have the universities of the 

 time been subjected to such stress and ex- 

 pense in equipping for the demands of in- 

 struction as have fallen upon those of our 

 own day mtliin the last two decades, more 

 especially within the last one. Under these 

 circumstances, with the achievements of 

 applied physical and chemical science in 

 the minds and on the lips of the inhabitants 

 of both town and country, it is not sur- 

 prising that the equally important eco- 

 nomic achievements in botanical science, 

 and especially in pathology, should have 

 been passed without much consideration by 

 a great number whose interests and train- 



ing lead them to look elsewhere. "\ATiat has 

 been stated has been offered in the spirit 

 of friendly suggestion and with no desire 

 to misstate or misapply the facts as they 

 now exist. Should this appear to have 

 been done, it will be my greatest pleasure 

 to make corrections. 



It is quite generally recognized at the 

 present day that some of the brilliant hopes 

 of the chemist respecting improvement in 

 plant growth have failed of realization, and 

 that after all the sciences which deal with 

 living things have their problems worthy 

 the most competent and best equipped 

 of our scientists. The chemist will now 

 admit that mere chemical analysis of the 

 plant substances gives no adequate knowl- 

 edge whereby we may solve the vexing- 

 problems of plant nutrition, valuable and 

 helpful as the analysis has been. We as 

 botanists, are justified in the faith that our 

 beloved science is at last to come into pos- 

 session of her full heritage of problems as 

 well as opportunities. Certainly the un- 

 rivaled development of American botany 

 in recent years justifies a faith of this sort. 



I have th^^s with hasty preparation, and, 

 as I am well aware, very imperfectly as to 

 result, taken this much of your valuable 

 time in discussing what appears clearly to 

 me to be the larger possibilities of the fu- 

 ture of vegetable pathology. 



Augustine D. Selby. 



Ohio Agkicultukal Experiment SiATiOisr, 

 WoosTEK, Ohio. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Briefwechsel zivischen J. Berzelius und F. 

 Wohler im Auftrage der Icbnigl. Gesell- 

 scliaft der Wissenschaften zuOottingen. Mit 

 einem Commentar von J. voN Bhaun ; 

 herausgegeben von O. Wallach. Leipzig, 

 Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann. 1901. 

 Two vols., 8vo. Vol. I., pp. xxii + YlY, 

 with portrait of Berzelius; Vol. II., pp. 

 Y74, with portrait of Wohler. 

 Thanks to the gi'eat care with which the 



