Septembee 30, 1898.] 



SGIENGE. 



423 



and finally the reduction of certain oxy- 

 acids to dj^es of great value. 



My story is now told, and it only remains 

 for me to acknowledge my deep indebted- 

 ness to the various writers upon electro- 

 chemistry whose thoughts and words I 

 have freely drawn upon and utilized in px'e- 

 paring this very incomplete sketch of what 

 must be regarded as merely the beginnings 

 of the electrolysis of organic bodies. I 

 feel, however, that you will grant that they 

 have been most fruitful and are, indeed, 

 highly suggestive. It would be presumptu- 

 ous on my part to suggest, for I am satisfied 

 many new thoughts have come to you in 

 listening, as they have to me, in preparing 

 this review, and to them will be added 

 many more if we will but experiment in 

 the field now opening to us. 



I know of no more fitting conclusion to 

 these imperfect and fragmentary para- 

 graphs than the words of Michael Fara- 

 day, truly a father of electrochemistry, who 

 said : 



"It is the great beauty of our science 

 * * * that advancement in it, whether in 

 degree great or small, instead of exhausting 

 the subjects of research, opens the doors to 

 future and more abundant knowledge, over- 

 flowing with beauty and utility to those 

 who will be at the * * * pains of under- 

 •taking its experimental investigation." 

 Edgar F. Smith. 



University op Pennsylvania. 



THE CONCEPTION OF SPECIES AS AFFECTED 

 BY BECENI INVESIIGATIONS ON FUNGI* 



The fiftieth anniversary of the founda- 

 tion of the American Association is a fit- 

 ting occasion for a retrospective view of the 

 different branches of science represented in 

 our Society, and one would be glad to hear 

 from the lips of some botanist who was 



* Address of the Vice-President before Section G — 

 Botany — of tlie American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, August, 1898. 



present at the first meeting of the Associa- 

 tion an account of the changes which have 

 been brought about in the methods of bo- 

 tanical study and research and of the prog- 

 ress which has been made in North America 

 during the past half-century. Fifty years, 

 however, is a long time in the life of any 

 individual, and of those who in 1848 were 

 young, or comparatively young, even the 

 most favored could hardly be expected to 

 retain their scientific activity in 1898. On 

 glancing over the list of members in 1848 

 one sees the familiar names of a number of 

 botanists, including Ashmead, J. W. Bailey, 

 Barratt, Jacob Bigelow, Buckley, Dewey, 

 Emerson, Engelmann, L. E. Gibbes, Gray, 

 B. D. Greene, Edward Hitchcock, Oakes, 01- 

 ney, Pickering, Thurber, Torrey and Tuck- 

 erman. Not one of these leaders of Amer- 

 ican botany in their day remains to tell us 

 of the Association in its infancy and to trace 

 its development with the vividness which 

 personal experience alone can supply. 



It would scarcely be fitting in me to at- 

 tempt to give a general sketch of the part 

 which botany and botanists have played in 

 the life of the Association, nor, remember- 

 ing the review of recent investigations in 

 botany presented by Professor Marshall 

 Ward at the meeting in Toronto last year, 

 is it desirable that I should encroach on the 

 ground so thoroughly and so interestingly 

 covered by him. I may, however, on this 

 occasion, be permitted to say a few words 

 on a single question on which opinions have 

 changed very much during the last fifty 

 years and, avoiding a detailed history of 

 the subject, treat it somewhat abstractly in 

 its general bearings ; for the question, you 

 will admit, is one about which we should 

 occasionally ask ourselves what is probably 

 or possibly true, without, however, expect- 

 ing in most respects to be able to reach posi- 

 tive conclusions. "What do we mean by 

 species? Do species really exist in nature 

 or are they created by us for our own con- 



