1899,’ make up a volume of about three hundred pages which represent
fairly the present tendencies of biological investigation in this
country. The most striking things about the lectures are the wide range
of topics which they treat, and the first-hand quality of the subject
matter in each case. This is most clearly seen by a careful reading of
the text, but a mere enumeration of a few of the sixteen titles and
lectures makes it fairly obvious. Thus, D. P. Penhallow writes on ‘The
Nature of the Evidence Exhibited by Fossil Plants, and its bearing upon
our Knowledge of the History of Plant Life;’ D. T. MacDougal writes
on the ‘Significance of Mycorrhizas,’ Edward Thorndike on ‘Instinct,’
Herbert S. Jennings on ‘The Behavior of Unicellular Organisms,’ Alpheus
Hyatt on ‘Some Governing Factors usually neglected in Biological
Investigations,’ T. H. Morgan on ‘Regeneration,’ C. B. Davenport on
‘The Aims of the Quantitative Study of Variation,’ Jacques Loeb on ‘The
Nature of the Process of Fertilization.’
To the professed scientist these lectures will furnish expert opinion
on certain important topics; the general reader will find in them a
presentation not too technical or detailed. Professor Loeb’s lecture,
for example, is for such readers the best account yet given of his
experiments in artificial fertilization.
The range and originality which characterize these lectures are really
characteristic of the general work and spirit of the Woods Holl
Laboratory. Few people realize the amount of research work which is
done there from summer to summer. Yet last year there were seventy-one
investigators there. Moreover, these represent a superior selection
from among the instructors and students of the various colleges.
It is a symptom of a healthy, vigorous condition in biological science
that the best workers of the country are glad to devote their vacation
season to research, and it is highly creditable to the Woods Holl
management that it offers them such attractive facilities. Similar
summer laboratories are now being established in other parts of the
country, and are to be reckoned with as very important factors in the
progress of biology.
_CYTOLOGY._
It is a somewhat surprising fact that among educated people of
scientific training there prevails generally the greatest ignorance as
to some of the most important problems of biology. We refer to those
problems connected with the structure and functions of the animal and
plant cell. Men who can understand and appreciate recent discoveries in
astronomy, physics, chemistry and geology are usually wholly lost in
cytology. In fact, in general writing or speech it is not safe to use
this name without at once defining it, since it is commonly supposed to
be a mispronunciation or a stupid misspelling of ‘psychology,’ while
to most people _nuclei_, _chromosomes_, _centrosomes_ and _mitotic
spindles_ are words without meaning, signifying nothing.
The reason for this is twofold: First, cytology is one of the newest
of the biological sciences and it has but recently found its way into
college curricula, and second, there have been few text-books or
general works on this subject to which an intelligent layman could turn
for information.
And yet, in spite of this fact, there are few fields of scientific
work possessing more general interest than that of cytology. At the
present day the greatest problems of biology are centered in the cell.
Assimilation, growth, metabolism, reproduction, differentiation,
inheritance and variation--these are at bottom cellular phenomena, the
result of the structure and functions of cells. It is not surprising,
therefore, that “all the searchlights of science have been turned
upon the cell,” and that cell studies during the past ten years have
received an amount of attention which is comparable only to that
devoted to evolution under the stimulus of Darwin’s work.
Professor Wilson’s book on the cell,[F] the second edition of which
has just appeared, is a work of more than ordinary interest, not only
to the biologist, but to all persons who are interested in the general
advance of science. Although there are several other good text-books
of cytology which have appeared during the past five or six years,
Professor Wilson’s book, in thoroughness of treatment, in philosophical
insight, in clearness and forcefulness of style and in wealth and
beauty of illustrations, easily surpasses them all.
[F] The Cell in Development and Inheritance. Edmund B. Wilson.
Second Edition Revised and Enlarged. Columbia University
Biological Series IV. New York and London, The Macmillan
Co., 1900. Pp. xxi, 483 with 194 Figures in the Text. $3.50
It is impossible in this brief note to give any adequate summary of
the volume or of the position of the author on questions of general
interest; the subjects of the chapters, however, may serve to give some
idea as to the scope of the work. After an introduction which gives a
brief historical sketch of the cell theory and its relation to the
evolution theory, there are taken up in successive chapters a general
sketch of cell structure, cell division, the germ cells, fertilization
of the ovum, the formation of the germ cells and the halving of their
nuclei preparatory to fertilization, cell organs and their relations
to each other and to the life of the cell, cell chemistry and cell
physiology, cell division in its relation to the development of the
egg, and finally, some theories of inheritance and development. In
addition, there is appended an excellent glossary and a list of all the
most important literature on the subject up to the current year.
While the work is undoubtedly intended as a reference book for
investigators and advanced students in biology, being marked by the
thoroughness of treatment of an original communication, it is yet
so well written and so copiously illustrated as to make it not only
intelligible but also intensely interesting to the general reader.
_EDUCATION._
The most important recent book on education is undoubtedly ‘Education
in the United States,’ a book prepared in connection with the
educational exhibit of this country at the Paris Exposition. It
consists of a series of monographs which cover all the important
phases of educational endeavor in the United States. The two volumes
include nearly a thousand pages, almost all of which present
definite and reliable facts. Only rarely is there any indulgence in
expressions of private opinion, and still more rarely is such opinion
questionable. The editor is justified in his statement that the book
is ‘a cross-section view of education in the United States in 1900.’
It will be of great value to the student of American institutions or
of education in general, and should be of interest to any citizen who
desires to be well informed about his country. The quality of the
monographs will be evident from the list of the author’s names. For
instance, those writing on higher education are Prof. A. F. West, of
Princeton; Prof. E. D. Perry, of Columbia; President Thomas, of Bryn
Mawr; Director Parsons, of the University of the State of New York;
President Mendenhall, of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Prof.
H. B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins.
THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.
The conditions in the United States have been favorable to the
development of geology. The varied forms of the land have offered
abundant opportunities for research, whereas the practical value of
the work has led to the establishment of surveys, the magnitude of
whose contribution to geology is only known to special students. The
Geological Society of America has about two hundred and fifty members,
nearly all of whom are actively engaged in geological research, perhaps
a larger number than in any other science. The U. S. Geological
Survey is the center of this movement, and its great efficiency is in
large measure due to Mr. G. K. Gilbert, now president of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. He was born in Rochester,
N. Y., in 1843, and after graduating from the university in that city,
acted for five years as assistant in the Ward Museum, where a number
of eminent naturalists have been trained. He then became geologist
in the Ohio Survey under Newberry, was engaged in the Wheeler and
Powell Surveys, and has been geologist in the U. S. Geological Survey
since its establishment in 1879. In the arid west, where the face of
the earth is bare, Mr. Gilbert made the observations and discoveries
in dynamical and physical geology which have done so much toward the
making of the science of physiography. His monographs on the Henry
Mountains and on Lake Bonneville, the name he gave to the ancient lake
that once filled the Utah basin, are models, both in regard to their
original discoveries and the methods of presentation. He has extended
his studies to the basins of the Laurentian Lakes and to other regions,
always with important results. Mr. Gilbert has been president of the
American Society of Naturalists, the Geological Society of America and
the Philosophical Society of Washington, and has received the Wollaston
Medal of the Geological Society of London. His presidential address
before the American Association will be given at the American Museum of
Natural History, New York City, on the evening of June 26, his subject
being ‘Geological Rhythm.’
* * * * *
The meeting of the American Association in New York City, opening as
this issue of the MONTHLY is published, promises to be of more than
usual importance. The preliminary programs of the different sections
show long lists of valuable papers and promise the attendance of
leading men of science from all parts of the country. A movement of
interest is the increasing tendency of special scientific societies
to meet in conjunction with the Association. No less than fifteen
societies will this year hold their sessions at Columbia University,
some of them joining with the sections of the Association, and
others holding independent meetings. The members of these different
societies have the advantage of the reduced railway rates and other
arrangements which can be made once for all, and the still greater
advantage of meeting scientific men in other departments. As science
grows in details and in range, there is on the one hand an increased
specialization, making it desirable for small groups of experts to
meet together to discuss their special problems, while, on the other
hand, almost every scientific question has ramifications extending to
many sciences. Hence, the need of many separate societies and at the
same time of a common meeting ground. When the American Association
was organized, in 1848, its members could meet in one body; later
they divided into two sections, one for the exact sciences and one
for natural history. In 1882 nine sections were organized, but it was
not until 1892 that botany was separated from zoölogy. At present
the sections no longer suffice, and there must be either a further
sub-division and a more efficient organization of the sections, or the
American Association must become an administrative body, that will
arrange for the simultaneous meetings of independent societies and the
union of these societies in support of their common interests.
* * * * *
The obvious advantages of meeting together have now led nearly all the
national scientific societies to select either the time of the American
Association or Christmas week for joint meetings. It is unfortunate
that they should be divided into two groups, and it must be admitted
that neither midsummer nor the Christmas holidays are altogether
suitable for the meetings. The American Association has this year made
the experiment of selecting the end of June, immediately after the
close of the college sessions, instead of a week in August. This has
some advantages, but even at the beginning of the summer many men of
science are either abroad or are engaged in scientific expeditions. The
heat is apt to be excessive, interfering not only with the meetings,
but also requiring some self-sacrifice on the part of scientific men
when they leave their comfortable summer homes to travel through heat
and dust to a hot and dusty city. Christmas week, divided by Sunday,
is too short for a series of scientific meetings, especially for those
who must travel from a distance. This led to the organization last
winter of the Cordillerean Geological Society, the Western Society
of Naturalists and the Western Philosophical Association. Local
associations are, of course, valuable, but they should not interfere
with one central meeting in the course of the year. The plan has been
suggested of taking one week, either immediately after the New Year or
in the early spring, for a general scientific gathering, which would
include not only the exact and natural sciences, but also philology,
history, etc. The plan would be to secure an adjournment of exercises
or leave of absence in the case of universities, colleges, museums,
Government departments, etc., with the understanding that it would be
the duty of all those who were released from their regular work to
attend the meetings.
* * * * *
The American Association last met in New York City in 1887, though
there was a meeting in Brooklyn in 1894. The past thirteen and even
the past six years have witnessed an extraordinary development in the
educational and scientific institutions of the city. Columbia College
and New York University have developed into great universities, each
having found a new site and erected upon it buildings which might have
been expected to come only as the growth of a century. The American
Museum of Natural History has become one of the great museums of the
world, millions of dollars having been spent on buildings. A botanical
garden and a zoölogical park have been established, which promise to
rival those of any of the European capitals. A well-equipped aquarium
has been opened under the auspices of the city; the Metropolitan
Museum of Art has been entirely rebuilt to accommodate its increasing
collections; a magnificent building is in course of erection for the
Public Library to contain its great assemblage of books, which with
its endowment is largely the result of recent years. While Boston
and Philadelphia have made great advances within the last few years,
and Washington has become the chief scientific center of the United
States, it is especially noteworthy that New York City has enjoyed an
educational and scientific development commensurate with its material
resources.
* * * * *
Jonas G. Clark, who ten years ago established at Worcester a
university and christened it with his name, has died and left to
the university several hundred thousand dollars, and on certain
conditions practically the whole of his estate, which is said to
be between five and ten million dollars. The will is a complicated
document with numerous codicils, somewhat difficult to interpret and
likely to give rise to legal complications. The history of Clark
University has been curious and interesting. As in the case of the
Johns Hopkins University, there was a difference of opinion between
the founder and the president as to the scope of the institution. In
both cases the founder had in view a more or less local college, while
the president believed that we had colleges in sufficient number, but
needed in the United States universities on German models, but going
even further than Germany in making research rather than instruction
the primary object of the institution. Johns Hopkins died very soon
after the establishment of his university, and though there was for a
while a good deal of difference of opinion in the board of trustees,
the university idea triumphed. A college was, however, established
in connection with it. At Clark University the founder lived for ten
years, and appears to have altered several times his point of view. He
withdrew his support, and the university work which began brilliantly
was much reduced in range and quality. The greater part of the faculty
removed in a body to the University of Chicago. It appears that at this
time Mr. Clark bequeathed his money to the university only on condition
that the president should resign, but later devised a compromise by
which the university should continue as at present, while a partly
independent college should be established in conjunction with it. The
interpretation of the will, the value of the estate and the development
of the university open problems that will only be settled in the course
of time.
* * * * *
Europeans who look upon the United States as a material and commercial
nation must find it difficult to interpret the great gifts that are
continually made for the cause of higher education. Twenty-five years
ago there were in America no universities in the sense in which the
term is most properly employed. During this comparatively brief period
the older institutions have become universities, and the great increase
in expenditure has been met chiefly by voluntary contributions. The
annual expenditure, for example, at Harvard and Columbia Universities
is about a half million dollars beyond the tuition fees, and the money
invested in grounds and buildings, is in the case of either university
many millions. Then this period has witnessed the establishment of new
universities, rivaling in endowment the older institutions. The Johns
Hopkins University and Clark University have been mentioned above, but
the most noteworthy instances are the University of Chicago, to which
one benefactor still living has given eight million dollars, and Leland
Stanford Junior University, the endowment of which reaches the enormous
sum of thirty-five million dollars. At the same time, the State
universities, directly supported by the people, are beginning to rival
privately endowed institutions. It may be confidently asserted that no
nation has ever so liberally supported higher education, and the wisdom
of this liberality is now demonstrated, even from the most mercenary
point of view, by the place the United States has taken in the world’s
commerce. It will be still further demonstrated in the course of the
next twenty-five years. It is possible that existing conditions are not
favorable to literature and to art, but the future of science in the
United States is assured beyond question.
* * * * *
It is sometimes said that Government control and individual initiative
can not be united, but there is no justification for this view in the
development of the educational and scientific institutions of the
United States. Institutions established by private initiative have
been assisted by the State, and State institutions have received large
sums from private individuals. The New York institutions referred to
above--the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, the Public Library, the Botanical Gardens and the Zoölogical
Park--are in almost equal measure supported by the city and by citizens
of the city. Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania,
Cornell University and other privately endowed institutions have
received assistance from the State, without any decrease in private
gifts, while the State universities, California for example, are
receiving large private endowments in addition to their support from
the State. These conditions may not last, but at all events they obtain
at the present time, and we find the country in which the largest gifts
from private individuals are made for education and science to be the
country in which they are most liberally supported by the Government.
* * * * *
Never before has any government made such great appropriations for
the development of the resources of the country or for the advance
of science as the Congress which has just adjourned. We may take for
example the Department of Agriculture, for which the appropriation is
$4,023,500, an increase of more than $280,000 over the appropriation
for the preceding year. Every one familiar with the conditions at
Washington and throughout the country will know that this large sum of
money is expended with the utmost economy, and there is no doubt but
what the money invested by the nation is returned to the people many
fold in the course of every year. Some of the items of the bill deserve
special notice. Thus, a new agricultural experiment station is to be
established in the Hawaiian Islands, and the work of the Weather Bureau
is to be extended to them. The agricultural resources and capabilities
of Porto Rico are to be investigated, and bulletins of information in
English and in Spanish are to be distributed to the inhabitants. The
division of chemistry is to investigate the use of food preservatives
and coloring matter, determine their relations to health and establish
the principles which should guide their use. The division of forestry
receives an increase of $40,000 and the Weather Bureau an increase of
over $35,000. Other items of the appropriation act are as follows:
Biological Survey, $30,300, an increase of $2,740; Division of Botany,
$43,080, an increase of $14,280; Nutrition Investigation, $17,500, an
increase of $2,500; Division of Pomology, $18,400; Public Road Inquiry,
$14,000, an increase of $6,000; Division of Statistics, $146,160;
Library, $14,000; and Museum, $2,260.
* * * * *
While American men of wealth have given freely of their means for the
promotion of education and science, they have not so often devoted
their own time to its service. This is natural, as the wealth has
in most cases been acquired by the present generation, and it is
in succeeding generations, when families have been established,
that leisure and wealth will give a class similar to that which has
accomplished so much for Great Britain and to a lesser extent for
Germany and France. Still, it is the case that the heads of two of
our chief universities are men of great wealth, who have devoted not
only their means, but also their services to the cause of education,
and there are in our universities and other institutions many who
hold their positions purely out of interest in their work, not as a
means for their support. In the next generation there will probably be
more representatives of a class to which belonged the Duke of Argyll,
whose death we were compelled to record last month. Another man has
since died of a somewhat similar type. When Colonel Lane-Fox somewhat
unexpectedly succeeded to large estates in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire
and assumed the name Pitt-Rivers, his chief interest seemed to be
in the earth works and tumuli of Cranbourne Chase, and the extensive
memoirs he has published and the museum he has established show what
good use he made of the excavations. Some of the results of his earlier
work will be found at Oxford, but he built at Farnham, in Dorsetshire,
a museum which contains collections of the greatest possible value.
* * * * *
The communication in this issue signed ‘Physicist’ is worthy of note.
If what its writer says is true, it is evident that a reputation as a
brilliant inventor does not insure that its possessor is a safe writer
about general physics. Our correspondent, who represents fairly the
opinion of scientific men in general, finds fault with Mr. Tesla’s
article in the June _Century_ in many important particulars. During the
years since Mr. Tesla’s notable invention of the polyphase alternate
current transformer, he seems to have become less definite and exact
in his thinking, and less productive as an inventor. The speculation
and rhetoric of the _Century_ article are certainly disappointing to
every one who is trying to bring about an intelligent and sound view of
science on the part of non-scientific people. Men of science everywhere
should certainly make it their business to instruct people in general
about the progress, and even the prospects, of science through the
press, but it takes wisdom on the part of both writers and editors to
know what is instructive and what is misleading. Honest criticism such
as that of our correspondent is therefore highly desirable.
* * * * *