TEE AMEBIC AN ASSOCIATION. 311 



justification, but the absolute necessity of an Association with a large 

 membership — it should be at least ten thousand — drawn from the 

 intelligent people of the whole country. 



5. The social intercourse and personal contact of scientific societies 

 and meetings are among their most important fvmctions. Men in 

 isolation become selfish and incompetent. Even a great genius does 

 not work in solitude, and certainly the ordinary man requires the 

 interest and enthusiasm that is only evoked in the give and take of 

 personal acquaintance and conversation. Eating together, drinking 

 together, smoking together, may have physiological drawbacks, but the 

 psychological stimulus has warranted the origin and survival of the 

 practices. Those studying similar problems, and those working in 

 diverse directions; the university professor, the school teacher and the 

 government officer; those who call their science pure and those who 

 seek to make it useful; the beginners and the old benchers, all should 

 be thrown together, ready to learn and help, to agree and differ. Each 

 should be prepared to profit much, and if need be to sacrifice a little 

 for the common good. The meetings of the Association do, of necessity, 

 accomplish a great deal in bringing men together, but perhaps not all 

 that could be desired. The cultivation of personal acquaintance 

 between professional men of science and the amateur and outsider is 

 also important, but more difficult to manage. The social features of 

 the British Association seem to be more successful than our own. A 

 thousand or more of the leading citizens of the place become temporary 

 members for each meeting, and freely offer entertainments of one 

 sort or another. The social conditions are, of course, different in 

 America, but it seems that the entertainments and excursions might be 

 made more pleasant and profitable in the future. 



6. Of all the important functions of a national scientific associa- 

 tion, the most essential is the general organization of science. The 

 science of the country absolutely requires a central legislative body. 

 Such bodies exist in other nations, having varying degrees of useful- 

 ness, and there is more need of an active and efficient representation 

 of scientific interests in the United States than in any other country. 

 London, Paris and the other European capitals, with their societies, 

 clubs, etc., bring together all the scientific men of the country, 

 whereas here they are widely scattered, and will become still more so 

 as the East loses its intellectual precedence. Washington will doubtless 

 be our chief center for scientific research, but under our system of 

 State governments and with our privately endowed institutions, it is 

 not likely that it will occupy the position of European capitals. The 

 great development of scientific work under the national government, 

 the numerous smaller centers under the State governments at their 

 capitals and universities, the municipalities with their increasing 



