62 i 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 515. 



be separated from those who study the 

 gametophyte. It is simply the develop- 

 ment of another line of attack upon mor- 

 phological problems. This anatomical 

 • moi-phology, as it may be called, has yet 

 to accumulate its share of results, and there 

 is no region of morphology more in present 

 need of investigators. From the small be- 

 ginnings it has made it is evident that it 

 must check the conclusions of the older 

 morphology at every point. Even now no 

 statement as to phylogeny can afford to 

 neglect the testimony of anatomy. 



This second phase of anatomy promises 

 to be accompanied by a third, which finds 

 its parallel and probably its suggestion in 

 experimental morphology. In its incipient 

 stage it is Imown as ecological anatomy, just 

 as another phase of ecology preceded and 

 then became merged in experimental mor- 

 phology. Ecological anatomy can make no 

 progress until it becomes an experimental 

 subject, and then it is experimental anat- 

 omy, which holds the same relation to ex- 

 perimental morphology that evolutionary 

 anatomy holds to evolutionary morphology. 

 In other words, it is the same subject, with 

 the same methods and purpose, and differ- 

 ing only in the structures investigated. 

 And thus anatomy reaches the physiolog- 

 ical basis, and as a part of morphology 

 fills out the structures to be investigated 

 from this standpoint. 



There remains a region of ecology so vast 

 and vague that it must be considered by 

 itself for a time. It deals with such com- 

 plex relationships as exist between soil, 

 topography, climate, etc., on the one hand, 

 and masses of vegetation, on the other. 

 Just because it is vast and vague ought it 

 to be attacked. The little incursions that 

 have been made indicate the possibilities. 

 It evidently includes some of the great ulti- 

 mate problems. As yet it can not define 

 itself, for it seems to have no boundaries. 

 Its materials were evident but entirely 



meaningless in the earlier history of bot- 

 any, for it needed all of our progress 

 before it could begin to ask intelligent 

 questions. By virtue of its late birth it 

 promises to develop more rapidly than any 

 other phase of botany. And yet, beyond 

 the inevitable preliminary classification of 

 material, its real progress is measured by 

 its experimental work conducted upon a 

 definite physiological basis. Tentative gen- 

 eralizations are numerous and necessary, 

 but they are merely suggestions for experi- 

 ment. When one understands the close 

 analysis necessary in the simplest physio- 

 logical experiment, the problems suggested 

 by this phase of plant ecology are appal- 

 ling ; but I see in the whole subject nothing 

 but the largest application of physiology 

 to the plant kingdom. 



And now that the various phases of bot- 

 any all seem to rest upon physiology, it 

 must be apparent that the most funda- 

 mental problems are physiological. It is 

 only recently that the development of plant 

 physiology has justified this relationship. 

 Its own history has been one of progress 

 from the superficial towards the funda- 

 mental, from the behavior of a plant organ 

 to the behavior of protoplasm. And here 

 it becomes identified with physics and 

 chemistry ; and in a very real sense botany 

 has become the application of physics and 

 chemistry to plants. 



John M. Coulteb. 



The University op Chicago. 



THE CONCEPTS AND METHODS OF 

 SOCIOLOGY.* 



To set forth in a brief paper the funda- 

 mental conceptions of any modern science 

 is a difficult task. The difficulty increases 

 as we pass from the relatively simple sci- 

 ences that have to do with inorganic matter, 



* An address delivered at the International 

 Congress of Arts and Science, Department of 

 Sociology, September, 1904. 



