September 24, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



425 



Yerticillium wilt. The variety was character- 

 istically rough and the powdery scah pustules 

 were not easily detected ; in fact only one speci- 

 men was noticed at the time the tubers were 

 being cut when examination was made for the 

 other trouble. This specimen was laid aside 

 and examination was not made for several 

 days, when the identity of the disease was 

 established, April 26, 1915. On reexamination 

 several other specimens were found in this lot. 



A rather hasty survey of Tillamook County 

 was made at once (May 3-8, 1915) and, except 

 on the farm from which the specimens above 

 noted had been sent, only one specimen was 

 found. This specimen was picked up in a 

 grocery store in Tillamook with no possible 

 chance of tracing it to the grower. At the 

 farm from which the first lot was received 

 about two dozen specimens were found on ex- 

 amining about three bushels of potatoes. 



The fact that the district is isolated and 

 that potatoes are not raised in sufficient quan- 

 tity for export possibly has been a natural 

 means of preventing a more general dissemina- 

 tion of the disease. F. D. Bailey 



Agricultueal Experiment Station, 

 CoKVALLis, Oregon, 

 July 10, 1915 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Spencer Fullerton Baird. A Biography. In- 

 cluding selections from Ms correspondence 

 with Audubon, Agassiz, Dana and others. 

 By William Healey Dall, A.M., D.Sc. 

 J. B. Lippincott Company. 1915. 8vo, 462 

 pages, 19 plates. 



Dr. Dall has conferred a distinct and lasting 

 benefit on American science and letters by his 

 presentation of the life of one of America's 

 most eminent and beloved men of science. In 

 the twenty-eight years that have elapsed since 

 death terminated the career of Spencer Fuller- 

 ton Baird, his fame has not diminished, the 

 respect in which he was held as a man and 

 scientist has not abated, and his example has 

 been an inspiration to thousands. For no 

 previous biogi-aphy has anything approaching 

 completeness been claimed; and it is safe to 

 say that posterity will demand nothing more 



than is herein contained, for no subsequent 

 biographer will have access to any essential 

 facts or data that were not available to and 

 utilized by Dr. Dall. Chief among the sources 

 of information were Professor Baird's journal, 

 extending, with certain breaks, from 1838 to 

 1887; letters selected by his daughter, which 

 for the period prior to 1865 are mostly from his 

 correspondents, as the official archives and 

 Baird's own official letters were destroyed in 

 the burning of the Smithsonian building in 

 that year; reminiscences written from Miss 

 Baird's dictation; and a mass of miscellaneous 

 documents and notes that had been collected 

 by Mr. Herbert A. Gill, who for many years 

 had been associated with Professor Baird in 

 the work of the Fish Commission. 



The volume is with great propriety dedicated 

 " To the memory of a devoted daughter, Lucy 

 Hunter Baird," the only child of Professor 

 Baird. It was she who began the collection of 

 material on which she intended to base a me- 

 moir of her father ; and it was she who, finding 

 that she would be unable to complete that task, 

 devised her own and her father's papers to the 

 executor of her will with the request that the 

 " memoir be completed by a suitable and com- 

 petent person." 



The task and the honor of writing a biog- 

 raphy of Professor Baird could have been en- 

 trusted to no person more competent and sym- 

 pathetic than Dr. DaU, who, as stated in his 

 preface, had known Professor Baird since 1862, 

 had had the benefit of his teaching and ex- 

 ample from 1865 to the time of his death, had 

 enjoyed the hospitality of the Baird home, and 

 from 1869 had knowledge, at the time of its 

 occurrence, of much that is recorded in the 

 biography. 



The biographer makes no attempt to enu- 

 merate or analyze Professor Baird's volumin- 

 ous publications, which have already been cov- 

 ered by Professor G. Brown Goode's exhaus- 

 tive bibliography. The author's " chief aim 

 has been to show the man as he lived and 

 worked; with glimpses of his relations to his 

 contemporaries, to the promotion of science, 

 and to great, and as yet hardly appreciated, 

 public services." 



