July 4, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



"habit" fixed the initiative may need to 

 come from the instructor in charge rather 

 than from the student. It may be a difficult 

 thing, but it may be the right thing not in- 

 frequently, to send our keenest man to some 

 one else for a semester or a year — even 

 though it be the last year and the degree. 



INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 



In addition to our home problems there 

 are the international aspects of these mat- 

 ters of interrelation and cooperation. It is 

 gratifying to realize that in some respects 

 these have received more definite attention, 

 and with better results, than those between 

 our own institutions. This is especially 

 true as relates to the two matters of indi- 

 vidual research and graduate training. 

 Dr. Farlow, in his delightful address,^ has 

 pictured the beginnings of American bo- 

 tanical student migration to Europe, and 

 the majority in almost any botanical gath- 

 ering have followed that lead. This matter 

 needs no emphasis other than an expression 

 of the hope that we shall not let provincial 

 pride or overesteem of the value of our ma- 

 terial equipments lessen the tide of student 

 migrants to Europe, although it may well 

 be that they continue to go with somewhat 

 different aims than in former years. 



There is, however, a broader aspect of 

 international phytopathological pi'oblems 

 which has not had adequate general recog- 

 nition. The recent passage of the Sim- 

 mons bill shows that, in some degree at 

 least, this is dawning upon our national 

 consciousness. This very bill, however, 

 emphasizes the necessity for studying phy- 

 topathological problems in their interna- 

 tional relations. Two things are especially 

 needed to this end. First, administrators 

 as well as investigators should recognize 

 the importance of occasional visits by the 

 American investigator to such foreign 



° See page 79 of the current volume of Science. 



countries as will enable him to see his prob- 

 lems in their foreign setting. The relation 

 of environment to the predisposition of the 

 host, as well as to the virulence of the para- 

 site, can not be over-emphasized and it is 

 often impossible for the investigator of the 

 local problem to realize this except as he 

 may be temporarily translocated.* 



Even more should our administrators see 

 from time to time how great may be the 

 gain from temporary or permanent em- 

 ployment of foreign experts. This has been 

 done in the Department of Agriculture 

 often enough and with sufficiently favor- 

 able results to justify its further trial. But 

 there are inherent difSculties in the ap- 

 pointment of foreigners to permanent gov- 

 ernment positions and, moreover, the best 

 of foreigners of mature experience can not 

 be thus transplanted. Neither of these 

 difficulties, however, arises in relation to 

 the temporary employment of foreign ex- 

 perts. It seems to me that the time has 

 come when this should be done with in- 

 creasing frequency. It would result not 

 only in giving us promptly the best expert 

 advice for immediate application, but, 

 what is scarcely less important, would give 

 the foreign specialist such an understand- 

 ing of the American problem as would 

 make his further investigations more 

 broadly inclusive of American conditions 

 and insure results proportionately more 

 valuable to us. Every student of the his- 

 tory of plant pathology recognizes the gain 

 to England directly, and to science indi- 

 rectly, which came from the employment 

 of De Bary by the Eoyal Agricultural So- 

 ciety as expert upon the problems which 

 arose in connection with the potato disease. 



'' This aspect of the discussion was set forth in 

 detail by Dr. C. L. Shear in the second paper of 

 the symposium before the American Phytopatho- 

 logical Society, January 2, 1913. Dr. Shear's 

 paper is published in Phytopathology, 3 : 77-87, 

 April, 1913. 



