SCIENCE. 



FKIDAY, JULY 10, 1885. 



A WESTERN SCHOOL OF BOTANY. 



In anticipation of the full development of 

 his noble foundation for botany and horticul- 

 ture at St. Louis, Mo., Mr. Henry Shaw, the 

 venerable founder, has speciall}^ endowed a 

 school of botany in Washington university, 

 which will for the present be served by a pro- 

 fessor and a laboratory assistant. Professor 

 William Trelease of the Wisconsin state uni- 

 versit}', a doctor of science of Harvard, has 

 been called to this chair ; and we understand 

 that he will accept this hopeful position. 

 When, in the course of time, the Missouri 

 botanic garden, which Mr. Shaw originated, 

 and has for many j^ears so sedulously nour- 

 ished and supported, comes with its generous 

 endowment into completer connection with this 

 school of botany, it will be seen that this 

 central city in the valley of the Mississippi, 

 happil}' placed for the purpose, is to have 

 within its bounds an ample establishment for 

 the promotion of botany and its dependent 

 branches (such as arboriculture and horticul- 

 ture) , in the way of scientific advancement as 

 well as of practical and educational teaching. 



We understand that a laboratory and its 

 appliances, suflScient for the present, will be 

 supplied at once at the university in the city. 

 But eventually the principal work of the school 

 will probably be carried on at the garden at 

 Tower Grove, adjacent to the park (a gift 

 of Mr. Shaw to the city), which of itself 

 will nearly serve for an arboretum. Here an 

 adequate botanical library and an herbarium 

 (both essentials) will doubtless be provided : 

 we believe there is already a foundation for 

 them. And so, if Mr. Shaw's long-cherished 

 intentions and bountiful provisions are wisely 

 carried into effect, the city in which Engel- 

 mann, alone and unaided, pursued his botan- 



No. 127.-1885. 



ical investigations for a lifetime, may before 

 long rejoice in the possession of much better 

 facilities and larger means for botany than any 

 other part of our country has now, or is likely 

 to have. May the success of the new school 

 of botany be commensurate with such advan- 

 tages ! 



SANITATION AND SCIENCE. 



Practical sanitation is devoted to the pre- 

 vention, avoidance, or destruction of the 

 causes of disease and death, and is founded on 

 our knowledge of these causes. This knowl- 

 edge is the scientific aspect of hygiene, or what 

 many call sanitary science. It is at present 

 very fragmentary and imperfect. Our powers 

 of prediction as to the effect which certain cir- 

 cumstances will produce on the health of an 

 individual or a community are limited, and 

 in many cases we cannot, with an}^ approach to 

 scientific precision, explain why a given local- 

 ity is, or is not, unhealthy. The first step 

 towards a scientific investigation of a phenom- 

 enon must be the verification of its existence ; 

 but in much the larger portion of this country 

 we can obtain little positive information as to 

 the extent to which the inhabitants of a given 

 place are liable to special forms of disease, or 

 even as to the death-rate to which the}^ are 

 subject. 



Until within a comparatively recent period, 

 the method which has been almost exclusively 

 employed in the investigation of problems of 

 public hygiene has been that of observation of 

 general and special mortality rates in different 

 communities, and of endeavoring to connect 

 the results of such observations with the cir- 

 cumstances of the environment in order to 

 discover the causal relation between the two. 

 But in such complicated biological problems as 

 these, in which the result observed may depend 

 on the concurrence of many causes or circum- 



