SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Editoeial Committee : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodwaed, Meohanios ; E. C. Pickebing, 

 Astronomy ; T. C- Mbndenhall, Physios ; R. H. Thubston, Engineering ; Iea Remsen, Chemistry ; 

 Chablks D. Walcott, Geology ; W. M. Davis, Physiography ; Heney F. Osboen, Paleon- 

 tology ; W. K. Beooks, C. Haet Mebeiam, Zoology ; S. H. Scuddee, Entomology ; C. E. 

 Bessey, N. L. Beitton, Botany ; C. S. Minot, Emhryology, Histology ; H. P. 

 Bowditch, Physiology ; William H. Welch, Pathology ; 

 J. McKeen Cattell, Psychology. 



Feidat, February 6, 1903. 



CONTENTS: 



The Rise and Progress of Ecology: Pbofessoe 

 V. M. Spalding 201 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 Section D, Mechanical Science and Engi- 

 neering : Elwood Mead 210 



Section E, Geology and Geography : Edmund 

 Otis Ho\"ey 217 



Opening Exercises of the Washington Post- 

 graduate Medical School 229 



Scientifio Books: — 



Postelsia: The Tear Book of the Minnesota 

 Seaside Station, 1901 : Pbofessoe Chaeles 

 E. Bessey 230 



Societies and Academies: — ■ 



The Biological Society of Washington: F. 

 A. Lucas. The San Francisco Section of 

 the American Mathematical Society: De. 

 G. A. MiLLEB. The Cornell Section of the 

 American Chemical Society: W. 0. Geeb. 

 The Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society: 

 Chas. Baskebville. Cohtmhia University 

 Geological Journal Club: H. W. SmMirE.. 231 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Use of the Word Oeest in Geology: Pbo- 

 fessoe Charles R. Dbyeb. Atavic Muta- 

 tion : John Muedoch 234 



Notes on Inorganic Chemistry : J. L. H 235 



Current Notes on Meteorology : — 



Report of the Chief of the Weather BureoAi; 

 Similar Barometric Variations over Large 

 Areas; Winter Aridity Indoors; Notes: 

 Pbofessoe R. DcG. Wabd 23.5 



Electrically Utilized Power at Niagara Falls: 

 R. H. T 236 



Scientific Notes and News 237 



University and Educational News 239 



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

 for review shoald be sent to the responsible editor, Pro- 

 fessor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



TBE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ECOLOGY.* 



The extraordinary development of botan- 

 ical science during the last decade, in which 

 so much hitherto unknown has passed so 

 rapidly into history, fully justifies the 

 usual review of progress at our great an- 

 nual gatherings. In following this time- 

 honored custom I have ventured to extend 

 the retrospect far enough to contrast some 

 of the aspects of present-day botany with 

 an earlier condition of the science, familiar 

 to a few of us, though known to most of 

 you only by tradition. The outlook, which 

 has also come to be expected, wiU be 

 limited to a single branch of the science, 

 which has shown remarkable vigor, but the 

 future of which is regarded by some as 

 problematical. The reminiscences will 

 naturally come first. 



Twenty-five years ago, in one of our 

 northern universities, a young instructor 

 with a single assistant was engaged in the 

 rather comprehensive task of teaching 

 botany and 'biology.' The botany con- 

 sisted in part in the analysis of flowering 

 plants by means of Gray's 'Manual,' and 

 in studying the minute anatomy of leaves, 

 stems and other parts of plants, which the 

 literary students pursued under the name 

 of structural botany, while, with a strong 



* Presidential address delivered at the Wash- 

 ington meeting of the Society for Plant Morphol- 

 ogy and Physiology, December 30, 1902. 



