SCIENCE 



Friday, September 11, 1914 



CONTENTS 



Address to the Botanical Section of the 

 British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science: Dk. F. O. Bower 357 



The Decreasing Birth Bate of the German 

 Empire: De. A. Allemann 373 



Patent Medicines in Great Britain 374 



The Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Mis- 

 souri Botanical Garden 375 



Scientific Notes and News 376 



University and Educational News 378 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Do Aeotobacter Nitrify? Dr. Wm. P. Head- 

 den. Northern Lights in Summer: Albert 

 B. Reagan 379 



Scientific Books: — 



The Cambridge Manuals of Science and 

 Literature: Professor T. D. A. Cockerell. 

 The American College: Dr. F. P. Keppel 381 



Scientific Journals and Articles 383 



Special Articles: — 



The Measurement of Changes in the Sate 

 of Fecundity of the Individual Fowl: Dk. 

 Baymond Pearl 383 



The North Carolina Academy of Science: Dr. 

 B. W. GUDGEB 384 



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

 review should be sent to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-Hudson, N. Y. 



ADDBESS TO THE BOTANICAL SECTION OF 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOB THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE-l 



To preside over the Botanical Section on 

 the occasion of its first meeting in Australia 

 is no slight honor, though it also imposes 

 no small responsibility. We members from 

 Great Britain have a deep sense of the ad- 

 vantage which we derive from visiting 

 these distant shores. I am doubtful 

 whether any scientific profit we can confer 

 by our coming here can balance that which 

 we receive; while over and above this is 

 the personal kindliness of the Australian 

 welcome, which on behalf of the visitors 

 of this section from the old country I take 

 this opportunity of gratefully acknowledg- 

 ing. Of the members of the British Asso- 

 ciation, those who pursue the national sci- 

 ences may expect to gain most by their 

 experiences here; and perhaps it is the 

 botanists who stand to come off best of all. 

 Living as most of us do in a country of 

 old cultivation, the vegetation of which has 

 been controlled, transformed, and from the 

 natural floristie point of view almost 

 ruined by the hand of man, it is with 

 delight and expectation that we visit a land 

 not yet spoiled. To those who study ecol- 

 ogy, that branch of the science which re- 

 gards vegetation collectively as the natural 

 resultant of its external circumstances, the 

 antithesis will come home with special 

 strength, and the opportunity now before 

 them of seeing nature in her pristine state 

 will not, I am sure, be thrown away. 



I may be allowed here to express to the 

 Australian members of the Section my 

 regret that the presidency for this occasion 



1 Australia, 1914. 



