5Q; 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 393. 



years ago the botany taught in our universi- 

 ties and colleges was of such a nature as to 

 meet the general requirements of the time. 

 It broadened out rapidly during the last ten 

 years of this period, but it was still limited 

 in large part to systematic studies, with 

 some few attempts here and there to enter 

 the field of morphology, physiology, and the 

 kindred branches. Perhaps no one thing 

 has given a greater stimulus to applied bot- 

 any than the organization of the various 

 State Experiment Stations, under what is 

 known as the Hatch Act, which became a 

 law in 1886 and went into active operation 

 a year later. Under the broad authority 

 given in this Act, establishing a Station in 

 each State and Territory, opportunities 

 were afforded for advanced studies of both 

 plants and animals in their bearing on 

 agricultural development, and as a result 

 there was an extraordinary demand for 

 men, which, even yet, it is impossible to 

 meet. 



Coincident with the establishment of the 

 Experiment. Stations came a broadening of 

 the work of the National Department of 

 Agriculture, thus creating the need for still 

 more men trained in certain lines. At this 

 time the era of specialization was scarcely 

 upon us, but such was the demand for men 

 and work that the stimulus to those engaged 

 in special lines was great. 



Of course, this country was not alone in 

 the movement which has just been de- 

 scribed, for in Europe, and particularly in 

 France, there was experienced the same 

 need for help in applied lines, and as a 

 result extraordinary efforts were put forth 

 by those in charge of chairs in the various 

 institutions of learning to meet these de- 

 mands. The happenings such as we are de- 

 scribing are met with frequently in the 

 progress of the world, and are really the 

 culmination of more or less subjective 

 thought, which, when the proper moment 

 arrives, breaks into force and makes itself 



felt in an objective way. It is found, there- 

 fore, that while this work was making rapid 

 strides, the demand was so great for imme- 

 diate practical results that sufficient atten- 

 tion was not always given to that accuracy 

 and precision of conclusion that the world's 

 best thought demands. There was a prone- 

 ness, in other words, to sacrifice accuracy 

 to utility. Helmholtz, long ago, sounded 

 a warning on this subject, when he said that 

 ' Whoever in the pursuit of science seeks 

 after immediate practical utility may gen- 

 erally rest assured that he will seek in vain. ' 

 On the other hand, there is a class of inves- 

 tigators, and their numbers are consider- 

 able, whose work, for the most part, is 

 largely ahead of the practical side. Possi- 

 bly, taking all of the work that has been 

 done in this countrj^, the need is not so 

 much for more research, but for the prac- 

 tical application of the researches already 

 made to the everyday affairs of life. In 

 some branches this, of course, has not been 

 the case, as is evidenced by what has been 

 accomplished in a number of important 

 fields during the past fifteen years. 



Of the different branches of botanical 

 science that have been applied to the better- 

 ment of man, physiology and pathology 

 stand preeminently to the front. "We can- 

 not lay any great claim to much in the way 

 of studies in the pure science of physiology, 

 but the practical application of these 

 studies to the affairs of life has been con- 

 siderable. 



In passing, I may be pardoned for em- 

 phasizing somewhat in detail a fact that 

 seems to be little appreciated, and that 

 is the great value and usefulness of 

 the individual or organization that can 

 bring to the attention of the people 

 the results of scientific work in such a 

 way that mankind as a whole is bettered, 

 and the struggle for life is made less a bur- 

 den. "What value to the world is a scientific 

 discovery unless it" is clothed by some gen- 



