52 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 445. 



lands in working out the problems of the 

 twentieth century. Scientific research has 

 not always found the most congenial at- 

 mosphere in American universities. It has 

 not been as thoroughly appreciated as it 

 might be and as it should be, and the 

 American university of to-day, like Oxford 

 and Cambridge, stands at the cross-roads. 

 Shall it be an enlarged and amplified high 

 school, or shall it become a center for the 

 evolution of knowledge and discovery. 

 Has not the state the right to ask of its 

 university the very best knowledge possible 

 upon every subject in which the welfare 

 of the people may be involved? 



My friends, my heart, always larger than 

 my head, overflows with the emotions which 

 my poor tongue can not adequately ex- 

 press. I desire to thank all of you for 

 this highly appreciated, but, I fear, poorly 

 deserved, tribute. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 A Text Book of Plant Physiology. By 

 George James Peirce, Ph.D., Associate 

 Professor of Plant Physiology, Leland 

 Stanford Junior University. New York, 

 Henry Holt and Company. 1903. 8vo. 

 Pp. vi 4- 293. 



The author of this work in his preface, 

 which bears date of December, 1902, says that 

 the book is the outcome of his own work in 

 Stanford University, and that after the ma- 

 terial had been worked over for some time in 

 lectures it finally took form in the present 

 volume. His intention is ' to present the 

 main facts of plant physiology and the saner 

 hypotheses regarding them, striving to express 

 safe views rather than to echo the most recent, 

 attempting here and there to suggest definite 

 problems for investigation and everywhere 

 trying to avoid giving the impression that the 

 science or any part of it has reached ultimate 

 knowledge and final conclusions.' This intent 

 on the part of the author has been well car- 

 ried out, and we may congratulate him upon 

 the book which he has added to American 



botanical literature. He has made no at- 

 tempt at giving directions for experiments, 

 ' believing that a laboratory manual and a 

 text-book must meet such different needs that 

 the style of the one is impossible for the 

 other.' However, the author insists that ac- 

 tual laboratory work must be carried on under 

 the guidance of a teacher in the study of the 

 subject. 



Dr. Peirce gives his ideas as to the aim of 

 physiology in the following words, which we 

 may well quote: 



" According to Pfeffer, ' the aim of physiology 

 is to study the nature of all vital phenomena in 

 such a manner that, by referring them to their 

 immediate causes, and subsequently tracing them 

 to their ultimate origin, we may arrive at a com- 

 plete knowledge of their importance in the life 

 of the organism.' Physiology is a study not 

 merely of structure, though to its successful 

 pursuit a knowledge of strvicture is indispensable; 

 nor of organized bodies, though a knowledge of 

 the laws which govern their organization (struc- 

 ture and form) is important. It is the study of 

 the living organism." 



On a later page he says : ' The physiologist 

 is now striving not only to know the functions 

 which are the manifestations of the life pos- 

 sessed by complicated living structures or or- 

 ganisms, but also to determine the causes, 

 both of structure and of functions.' 



These quotations will sufficiently indicate 

 the spirit in which the book is written. 



In the introductory chapter there is an in- 

 structive summary under the heading ' The 

 Conditions Essential to Life ' as follows : 



"1. Proper Food — -(a) the source of the ma- 

 terials of which the body is built, and (6) of the 

 energy by which the body is built and operated. 



"2. Water — -{a) the vehicle of the food-ma- 

 terials and of the foods absorbed into the body 

 and transferred from part to part, and also ( b } 

 an indispensable component of actively living 

 protoplasm. 



" .3. Proper Temperature — which makes possible 

 the vital, i. e., the chemical and physical, changes 

 which must go on within the body, and in all 

 of its parts, lest inaction and death ensue. 



" 4. Proper Illumination — which furnishes the 

 organism with the forms of energy — physical and 

 chemical — thermal, luminous and actinic — of 

 which it is directly or indirectly in need. 



