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



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE /vMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



Friday, June 7, 1907 



CO'NTE'ltrTS 



Some Physiological Variations of Plants and 

 their General Significance: Db. James B. 

 Pollock 881 



A Plea for the Study of the History of Medi- 

 cine and Natural Sciences: Db. Bebthold 

 Latifee 889 



Scientific Books: — 



The Mission Foureau: Db. W. H. Dall. 

 Ortmann on the Crawfishes of the State of 

 Pennsylvania: Db. Chas. C. Adams 895 



Scientific Journals and Articles 901 



Societies and Academies: — 



The New York Section of the American 

 Chemical Society: C. M. Jotce. The Tor- 

 rey Botanical Club: De. C. Stuabt Gageb. 

 The Biological Society of Washington: M. 

 C. Maesh. The Philosophical Society of 

 Washington : R. L. Faeis 902 



Discussion and Correspondence: — - 



A Protest on Behalf of the Systematic Zool- 

 ogist and the Bibliographer: J. Chestee 

 Beadley. Science and Poetry — a Protest: 

 De. C. Stuaet Gagee. Concerning Left- 

 handed Aborigines: Albeet B. Reagan. 

 Uplift increases Rainfall, Denudation dim- 

 inishes it: Peofessob Maek S. W. Jeffeb- 

 soN 907 



Special Articles: — 



The Development of Unfertilized Frog's 

 Eggs injected mth Blood: Peofessob 

 Michael F. Guteb. Transmission Inherit- 

 ance distinct from Expression Inheritance: 

 O. F. Cook. A New Method by which 

 Sponges may be artificially reared: Peo- 

 fessob H. V. Wilson 910 



tific Notes and News 915 



University and Educational News 919 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended foi 

 review should be seut to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 



SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL VARIATIONS OF 



PLANTS, AND THEIR GENERAL 



SIGNIFICANCE"- 



In a survey of the domain of the biolog- 

 ical sciences in recent years, one of the 

 most significant facts is found in the extent 

 to which physiology has invaded those 

 fields of this domain which, in the earlier 

 stages of development, seemed entirely 

 apart from and independent of physiolog- 

 ical relations. When species of plants 

 were supposed to have been created at the 

 beginning just as we find them to-day, and 

 to transmit their original characters un- 

 changed to their remotest possible descend- 

 ants, there was no physiological question 

 as to the variations within species, and 

 none as to the relation of species to each 

 other nor as to the origin of new species. 

 In that view there could be no origin of 

 new species. They were all created at the 

 beginning, and then the Creator rested. 



When botany first began to be a science 

 it was merely an attempt to classify plants, 

 that is, to discover the characters of species 

 as they were originally created, to group 

 together those that were most alike and to 

 separate those that were unlike. The char- 

 acters used in the first attempts at classifi- 

 cation were more or less superficial, and 

 systematic botany was merely a study in 

 formal external morphology. 



But a change has come; and this change 

 began with the general acceptance, among 

 biologists, of the view that species are not 



' Presidential address delivered before the Mich- 

 igan A-cademy of Science at Ann Arbor, Mich., 

 March 28, 1907. 



