SCIENCE 



Friday, June 10, 1910 



CONTENTS 

 Practical Science: Pbofessob John M. Coul- 

 ter 881 



Botany in its Relations to Agricultural Ad- 

 vancement: C. V. Pipes 889 



Scientific Notes and News 900 



University and Educational News 902 



Scientific Books: — 



Poulton's Charles Darwin and the Origin 

 of Species: V. L. K. Austen on African 

 Blood-sucking Flies: Pkofessob Heney B. 

 Wakd. Marchal on Aposporie et Sexuality 

 chee les Mousses: Db. A. F. Blakesi.eb. 

 Geographical Atlases in the Library of 

 Congress: Pbofessob J. Paul Goode 903 



Scientific Journals and Articles 907 



Botanical Notes: — 



Forests as Gatherers of Nitrogen; A Study 

 of Peat-bog Floras; The Principle of Ho- 

 mceosis: Pbofessob Chables E. Besset . 908 



Paleogeography of North America: Vs. Eliot 

 Blackweldeb 909 



Special Articles: — 



Webber's Brown Fungus: H. S. Fawcett. 

 A corrected Classification of the Edentates : 

 H. H. Lane 912 



The North Carolina Academy of Science: 



■ Dr. E. W. Oudgee 914 



Societies and Academies: — - 



The Society for Experimental Biology and 

 Medicine: Db. Eugene L. Opie. Section of 

 Biology of the New York Academy of Sci- 

 ences: Db. W. K. GrBEGORY, L'. HUSSAKOF. 

 The Philosophical Society of Washington: 

 R. L. Faeis. Northeastern Section of the 

 American Chemical Society: K. L. Maek 917 



MSS; intended for publication and bookSj etc., intended for 

 leTiew should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson. N. Y. 



PRACTICAL SCIENCE^ 

 Men ffho spend their lives in universi- 

 ties are apt to develop certain unfortvinate 

 peculiarities. These peculiarities may not 

 make them less happy, or less useful to 

 their professional students, but they di- 

 minish the appreciation of the community 

 at large. In the life of an instructor or 

 investigator of university rank there is a 

 peculiar kind of isolation that is bound to 

 react. 



It is partly the isolation of a subject, 

 which is more or less segregated from gen- 

 eral human interests, at least in the aspects 

 of it the university man is cultivating. As 

 a consequence, he feels that his world is 

 quite apart from that one in which the 

 majority of men are living. He is con- 

 scious of an interest distinct from their 

 interests, which seem therefore relatively 

 trivial. This sense of intellectual aloof- 

 ness does not result in a feeling of loneli- 

 ness, but rather in a feeling of superiority, 

 unconscious in many cases, but often 

 naively expressed. 



It is also the isolation of authority, 

 which comes from mastery of a subject 

 and from association with students who 

 recognize this mastery. To speak with 

 authority in intellectual matters, to give the 

 deciding word, to meet a constant succes- 

 sion of inferiors, is apt to affect any man's 

 brain. Either he becomes dogmatic in ex- 

 pression, or he must hold himself in check 

 with an effort. It is the same reaction that 

 was observed in the case of the clergy, 

 when acknowledged authority in position 



^Address at the winter convocation, 1910, of 

 the University of Chicago. 



