366 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 636 



trol of sexual dimorphism is one of such 

 moment that it might well be assigned to a 

 special commission including both cytolo- 

 gists and experimental breeders. The sub- 

 ject of the physiology of ontogenesis, in- 

 cluding experimental embryology, form 

 regulation, and experimental morphology, 

 is one in which American zoologists and 

 botanists have made their country famous, 

 yet the exploration of the subject has only 

 been begun. The investigators should all 

 come together from time to time to con- 

 sider new lines of advance. As further 

 examples of investigations needing coopera- 

 tion I may mention the determination of 

 biogeographic centers and the routes and 

 means of dispersal ; the basal instincts and 

 reactions of organisms— but these will suf- 

 fice as examples of subjects of common 

 interest to all the biological societies ; zoolo- 

 gists, botanists, bacteriologists, anatomists, 

 physiologists, thermatolo gists and psycholo- 

 gists. Such subjects may not be left to the 

 different societies separately. It is because 

 none of the existing special societies can 

 appropriately assume charge of these gen- 

 eral biological topics that their interests 

 have not been as much advanced as they 

 ought to have been. Some attempt has 

 been made to meet the need by occasionally 

 arranging joint meetings between botanists 

 and zoologists, and in the last two discus- 

 sions of the naturalists a symposium has 

 been held on some general biological topic. 

 But it is clear that there should be a special 

 society for the cultivation of these subjects. 

 The American Society of Naturalists was 

 established in 1883 as an association of 

 professional naturalists. The original call 

 was signed by fourteen persons, all but 

 one biologists. Although many geologists 

 joined the society later, most of them sub- 

 sequently withdrew to concentrate their in- 

 terests on the Geological Society of Amer- 

 ica. Many other special societies have 



sprung from the loins of the Naturalists, 

 but, for the most part, the individual biolo- 

 gists have clung loyally to the parent so- 

 ciety. It has been suggested recently that 

 the Society of Naturalists is an anachron- 

 ism; that its interests are too diffuse; that 

 we must concentrate now on the special 

 societies; that, now her children are grown, 

 the mother should die. With this view I 

 do not agree. I have tried to show that 

 there is not now less need but more of a 

 synthesizing biological society with the fol- 

 lowing aims : To arrange for an annual dis- 

 cussion of some burning biological topic; 

 to arrange with the special societies one 

 session for technical papers of interest to 

 both zoologists and botanists as well as 

 biologists of other societies; to arrange, 

 through the appointment of commissions 

 from time to time, for cooperation in the 

 control of biological nomenclature and for 

 the cooperative study of certain large top- 

 ics. Such commissions should be composed 

 of those specially investigating those topics 

 and should do what they can to encourage 

 independent work also in these lines. They 

 should report briefly each year to the so- 

 ciety. 



Next year the Society of Naturalists will 

 celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of its 

 birth. Can it do so more fittingly than by 

 arranging a series of brief reviews of the 

 progress in the past quarter of a century 

 of the larger cooperative undertakings in 

 biology, with suggestions as to their better 

 organization? C. B. Davenport 



THE BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE AND 

 CONTROL OF SEX" 



THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OP SEXUAL 

 DIFFERENTIATION IN PLANTS 



You will pardon me if in discussing the 

 subject which has been assigned I take my 



' Five addresses given before the American So- 

 ciety of Naturalists at Columbia University, New 

 York, December 28, 1906. 



