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, January 24, 1908 



CONTENTS 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 



Heredity and Environic Forces: Dr. D. T. 

 MacDougal 121 



Tendencies in Pathology : Dk. Simon Flex- 

 neb 128 



Charles A. Young: Professor Edwin B. 

 Frost 136 



Scientific Books: — 



Morgan's Experimental Zoology: Pro- 

 fessor Edwin G. Conklin. Fernald on 

 the Soil-preferences of Certain Alpine and 

 Subalpine Plants: Professor E. VV. Hil- 



GABD 139 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Ohio Academy of Science: Professor 

 L. B. Walton. The Neic York Academy of 

 Sciences, Section of Astronomy, Physics 

 and Chemistry: Dr. William Campbell .. 143 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Brittle Star new to the Woods Hole 

 Region: Dr. Hubert Lyman Clark 147 



Special Articles: — 



The Four Inseparable Factors of Evolu- 

 tion: Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn 148 



Quotations : — - 



The Concilium Bibliographicum 150 



A Letter Relating to the Biography of La- 

 marck : Professor Bashford Dean 151 



Edward Gardiner Gardiner 153 



Scientific Notes and News 155 



University and Educational Neios 159 



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

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

 Hudson. N. Y. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 

 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONIC FORGES^ 

 That the qualities and forms of living 

 things are the final and net result of the 

 action of environic conditions upon an- 

 cestral protoplasm is almost universally 

 agreed upon. Unanimous as may be the 

 acceptance of this all-inclusive generaliza- 

 tion, yet when the attempt is made to estab- 

 lish the causal connection between organ- 

 isms and the forces concerned in their de- 

 velopment, an accumulation of facts is en- 

 countered which lends itself to widely 

 divergent theoretical explanations. 



No gain would result from a citation of 

 these countless theories or from a rehearsal 

 of the evidence claimed for the support of 

 each of them. A proper approach to some 

 of the results to be presented, however, 

 makes necessary a preliminary considera- 

 tion of some of the basal and recognized 

 relations of the cell, or of the organism to 

 the developing complex of external forces. 

 Foremost among the problems that present 

 themselves in such a review is that of the 

 nature of the so-called adaptations. Un- 

 derlying the practise and extension of 

 botanical science is the untested assump- 

 tion that, for example, when a mesophyte is 

 grown as a xerophyte, the modifications of 

 structure which ensue are adaptive and fit 

 the organism for dealing with arid condi- 

 tions. The size and form of leaves de- 



' Address of the vice-president and chairman of 

 the Section of Botany, American Association for 

 tne Advancement of Science, Chicago meeting, 

 1907-8. 



