SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Friday, October 13, 1905. 



Recent Developments in Agricultural Science: 

 A. D. Hall 449 



Scientific Books: — 



Chittenden on Physiological Economy in 

 Nutrition: Professok Gbaham Lusk. 

 Turner and Hohart on the Insulation of 

 Electric Machines: De. Louis Bell, 

 Oumploioicz's Grundriss der Soziologie: 

 Professor J. Q. Dealey 464 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Breeding Beneficial Insects: Dr. L. O. 

 Howard. Nomenclature at the Inter- 

 national Botanical Congress at Vienna: 

 Dr. F. S. Eaele. ' Clon ' versus ' Clone ' ; 

 Dr. Chas. Louis Pollard 467 



Special Articles: — 



A Diagram or Chart for finding the Sun's 

 Azimuth: R. A. Harris. Analysis of the 

 Mississippi River: C. H. Stone. Functions 

 of a Transplanted Kidney: Alexis Carrel 

 and C. C. Guthrie 469 



The Unii^ersity of Florida 473 



Stations for the Determination of the Varia- 

 tions of Latitude. . . ., 474 



Professor Bjerknes's Lectures 475 



Permian Olaciation in South Africa 475 



Scientific Notes and Isleios 475 



University and Educational News 480 



MSS. Intended for publication and bool:B, etc., intended 

 for review should toe sent to the Editor of Science, Garri- 

 80n-on-HudBon, N. Y. 



RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN AGRICUL- 

 TURAL SCIENCE} 



In dealing with the science applied to a 

 particular industry like agriculture it is 

 convenient to draw a distinction between 

 the class of investigations which seem to be 

 contributions to knowledge pure and sim- 

 ple and those which aim at an immediate 

 bearing upon practice. Both must be re- 

 garded as equally 'pure' science, since both 

 should call for the same qualities of imagi- 

 nation and exact reasoning which char- 

 acterize true scientific work; but while the 

 one may appeal readily to the intelligent 

 practical man, the value of the other can 

 only be appreciated by the expert. The 

 dividing line between these two branches of 

 the subject is never a sharp one ; indeed the 

 most abstract and remote investigations are 

 always cutting into the region of practise 

 in a wholly unexpected fashion; but still 

 the distinction I have indicated can be 

 readily felt. To take an example — for the 

 proper interpretation of many questions 

 connected with the texture of soils and 

 their behavior under cultivation — it is 

 necessary to arrive at a clearer understand- 

 ing than we now possess of the intimate 

 causes which lead the finest particles of 

 material like clay to unite together into 

 floccules, or coagula, under the influence 

 of traces of dissolved salts. Such investi- 

 gations will touch upon some of the most 

 debatable ground belonging to the theory 

 of solutions and the constitution of matter, 

 and can never be made intelligible to the 



^ Read at the South Africa meeting of the Brit- 

 ish Association for the Advancement of Science. 



