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. 



Friday, June 23, 1905. 



GOyTENTS. 



Plant riujsiology : Professor Benjamin M. 

 DUGGAR 937 



Scien t ific Bools : — 



iSliattuck on the Bahama Islands: W. M. D. 953 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Philosophical Society of Washington : 

 Charles K. Wead. The Science Club of 

 the University of Wisconsin : F. W. Woll. 

 The San Francisco Biological Club: Pro- 



fessor W. J. V. Osterhout. The Psycho- 

 logical Club of Cornell University 955 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



An Automatic Catalogue of Scientific Lit- 

 erature: G. N. Collins. 'Life and Chem- 

 istry ' : Professor M. A. Brannon 958 



Special Articles: — 



The Ideas and Terms of Modern Philosoph- 

 ical Anatomy: Professor Henry F. Os- 

 BORN. Some Ph.D. Statistics: Professor 

 Rudolf Tombo, Jr 959 



Botanical Notes: — 



Michigan Forestry; A New Book on Ecol- 

 ogy ; Original Descriptions of Species; 

 North American Rusts: Professor Charles 



E. Bessey 963 



Museography : C. R. E 964 



The University of Wisconsin 964 



The Museum of the Brooklyn Institute 965 



Award of the Barnard Medal 965 



The American Anthropological Association.. 966 



Scientific Notes and Neivs 966 



University and Educational Neics 96S 



MSS. iuteudedfoT publicatiou aud books, etc., intended 

 for review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Oarri- 

 son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



PLANT PBYSIOLOdY— PRESENT 

 PROBLEMS.* 



To the very year one century has elapsed 

 since Theodore de Saussure published his 

 remarkable investigations relating to the 

 nutrition of plants and to the intiuences 

 upon plants of certain well-known physical 

 forces. Although preceded by the publi- 

 cations of Duhamel, Hales, Ingenhouss and 

 Senebier, as well as by those in a somewhat 

 different line, by Konrad Sprengel and 

 others, we may look upon the work of de 

 Saussure as a wonderful production for 

 his time and as strikingly indicative of the 

 status of plant physiological problems a- 

 century ago. His paper may be regarded 

 in a sense as the original charter or consti- 

 tution of plant physiology. Fortunately, 

 it is assigned to an eminent and experi- 

 enced botanical historian to recite the 

 amendments which mark the wonderful 

 growth of this historic instrument. There 

 remains, therefore, the task of suggesting 

 some directions of future growth. 



No distinction need here be made be- 

 tween those problems which are readily 

 seen to involve the closest work in such 

 other sciences as physics and chemistry 

 and those which do not show a relationship 

 so close. There is certainly much in physi- 

 ology which must be based upon physics 

 and chemistry, but when dealing with the 

 causes of the activities of living organisms, 

 it is in relatively few cases that explana- 

 tions may ever be offered in terms of 



* Address read before Section C, Plant Physiol- 

 ogy, International Congress of Arts and Sciences, 

 St. Louis, September 22, 1904. 



