SCIENCE 



Friday, August 27, 1915 



CONTENTS 

 The Technical Application of Microorganisms 

 to Agriculture: Professor Charles E. 

 Marshall 257 



An Analysis of the Medical Group in Cattell's 

 Tho^isand Leading Men of Science: Dr. 

 EicHAED M. Peabce 264 



The National Forests 278 



Scientific Notes and News 280 



University and Educational News 281 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 

 Elementary Mechanics: Professor L. M. 

 HosKiNS. ' 281 



Quotations : — 

 British Scientific Men and tlie Government. 282 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



Ellwood cm the Social Problem: Professor 

 A. A. Tenney 283 



Special Articles: — 



New Metliods in Soil Protozoology : Nicho- 

 las KoPELOFP, H. Clay Lint, David A. 

 Coleman 284 



Societies and Academies : — • 



The Botanical Society of Washington: De. 

 Perley Spaulding 286 



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

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

 on-Hudson. N. Y. 



THE TECHNICAL APPLICATION OF MICBO- 

 OBGANISMS TO AGBICULTUBE^ 



Out of a period extending over several 

 centuries, there were developed many scien- 

 tific and unclassified forces which gradually 

 but with positive progress focused in the 

 person of Pasteur. They were often indef- 

 inite, possibly crude, and not infrequently 

 speculative. In the mind of Pasteur they 

 were digested, assimilated, reconstructed 

 and confirmed, reissuing from him in an 

 harmonious whole. When they emerged 

 they possessed tangible form as directive 

 principles founded upon actual demon- 

 stration and specific knowledge. 



Fermentation, the great fundamental 

 work of Pasteur, came from his hand with 

 new life and singular pertinency. The 

 vitalistic element advanced by him and 

 founded so thoroughly upon experimental 

 data fresh from his efforts became the 

 pilot. While perhaps in error regarding 

 details, the general truths have stood the 

 tests of time. Pasteur's fermentation has 

 put into the hands of every scientist, 

 whether in the field of plants or animals, 

 physics or chemistry, a truly basic working 

 policy. If extended and modified, more- 

 over, it may furnish the most satisfactory 

 theory for explaining the relationship of 

 many microorganisms to disease, not as the 

 only agent, but one of several. 



The comprehensive and basic ideas con- 

 tained in fermentation permeate every 

 province of practical life, and none to a 



1 ' ' The Lower Organisms in Relation to Man 's 

 Welfare," Symposium, Soe. of Am. Bact., Sects. 

 C and K, A. A. A. S., Philadelphia, January 1, 

 1915. 



