No. 374.] EDITORIALS. I2I 
contact until the upper and lower surfaces of the cells had become 
cemented to the glass slides. Then I introduced between the two 
glass plates a very thin blade of copper (!), the edge of which had 
been sharpened to the very finest cutting surface possible. . . 
This blade is introduced between the two plates and pushed aa 
between them so as to separate them, and on its way it slices the 
cells in the middle. One of these plates is then cemented to another 
glass plate with the cut surfaces of the cells against the other glass 
plate and the slicing operation repeated,” ad infinitum. 
The same article proceeds next to the superlative. No longer 
will Spencer’s well-known characterization of life be quoted. Our 
brilliant professor has solved the problem. “I am satisfied,” says 
he, “that life is mind — that all vital phenomena are mental. A cell 
can feel stimuli and can adapt acts to ends (sic). Now, only mind can 
do this; only animate bodies have minds, and mind alone it is which 
constitutes their life.” There follows much more of the same sort, but 
we have no room for further quotations. Some years ago the Ameri- 
can Naturalist (vol. xxi, p. 549) advertised for an author for a much 
needed “ Unnatural History,” stating the qualifications necessary in 
the person who should undertake the work. The author is now found, 
and if the present flow of lucubrations be continued, the volume 
missing from all libraries will soon be an accomplished fact. 
The Society for Plant Morphology and Physiology. 
formation of the Society for Plant Morphology and Physiology an 
important step has been taken for the advancement of botany in 
America. We have no intention of assuming the functions of a 
scientific newspaper, but the first annual meeting of this society is an 
event of such significance that we are very glad to publish the report 
of its proceedings, which is presented on another page. At this 
meeting the workers on the morphological and physiological sides of 
botany have come together for the first time as a distinct body, and 
one is able to obtain for the first time a comprehensive view of what 
is being done in this country along these lines of investigation. There 
was, naturally, considerable variation in the quality of the papers 
presented, but one cannot fail to be impressed with the variety and 
amount of work which they represent and their generally excellent 
character. Certainly the society is to be congratulated upon the 
success of its first meeting, and no doubt its meetings in the future 
will be of even greater interest, and will exert a profound and 
broadening influence not alone upon the botany in this country but 
upon the biology in general. 
