THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



203 



THE PEOGBESS OF SCIENCE 



THE CONVOCATION WEEK MEET- 

 ING AT BOSTON 

 The meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science 

 and the national scientific societies 

 affiliated with it held at Boston during 

 the week following Christmas was as 

 large and important as any gathering 

 of scientific men that has hitherto 

 taken place in this country. The regis- 

 tration of members of the association 

 was 1,140 as compared with 975 in 

 Washington in 1902, 890 in Philadel- 

 phia in 1904, 934 in New York in 1900, 

 725 in Chicago in 1907 and 1,088 in 

 Baltimore in 1908. From this volun- 

 tary registration it is difficult to esti- 

 mate the attendance of scientific men. 

 200 chemists registered as members of 

 the association and 558 as members 



of the American Chemical Society. 

 Should a similar proportion have ob- 

 tained in the other sciences, the num- 

 ber of scientific men would have been 

 in the neighborhood of 3,000. It was 

 probably not so great as this, but well 

 above 2,000. 



Although Boston is at the northeast 

 corner of the field of scientific activity 

 of the United States, it is still central, 

 through the magnitude of its educa- 

 tional and scientific work and on ac- 

 count of its easy accessibility from 

 other centers. Harvard remains our 

 leading university and the Massachu- 

 setts Institute our leading school of 

 technology, although the gap between 

 them and other institutions is closing, 

 and their supremacy may not be un- 

 challenged when the association next 



Dr. Ernest W. Brown. 

 Professor of Mathematics in Yale Uni- 

 versity, Vice-president for Astronomy 

 and Mathematics. 



Dr. L. A. Bauer, 



Director of the Department of Research 

 in Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie In- 

 stitution, Vice-president for Physics. 



