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perfect spiral of the chambered nautilus. In this connection, 

 Professor Curtis writes as follows:* "The writer remembers how ' 

 when a student he was taken by the ' Mosquito-Malaria Theory,' 

 as it was then called; and at a later date the esthetic appreciation 

 with which he contemplated the apparent explanation of Men- 

 delian segregation and of the determination of sex in terms of 

 the bcha\-ior of chromosomes. In spite of uncertainties and 

 the need for further investigation, one felt himself gazing at a 

 picture near enough completion to show what it might become 

 — a sequence so wonderfully ordered as to call forth an esthetic 

 fervor." 



Then again, how without studying elementary botany, can 

 we count on an intelligent citizenry, a citizenry personally 

 interested in forest conservation, individual, municipal, national 

 and inter-national nutrition, including problems of soil fertility, 

 crop production, plant diseases and insect pests, improved 

 methods of transportation and preservation of foods, selection 

 and utilization of proper woods, and a host of related problems, 

 such as the substitution of kelp as a potash source, the ascer- 

 taining of new plants yielding rubber, etc., not to speak of applied 

 bacteriology and commercial products. The balance of the 

 year of biology includes the bases for the conservation of fishes, 

 birds and other wild Hfe and the economic relations of hundreds 

 of animal types, from parasites to makers of silk, producers of 

 fur, buttons, oil and so forth, together with an intelligent appre- 

 ciation of rational living for humans, themselves. 



The significance of botanical training has been lately tested 

 in a large way. We know how thousands of boys and girls 

 sprang with avidity to the gardens and farms of the nation, 

 during the past two years, and applied there the laboratory 

 methods of their botany and biology courses. Furthermore, 

 they were trained and ready to interpret the dietetic problems 

 for the rest of the family and thus they kept up the family morale 

 by doing their full share in emphasizing all phases of Hooverizing. 



Then there are legislative opportunities. For instance, to 

 refer to only one example among many, last year we needed 



♦Science, June 14, 1918. 



