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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



are besides not concerned with academic 

 holidays. Similar conditions have led 

 the engineers to meet apart from the 

 American Association, and the societies 

 devoted to economics, history, philology 

 and other sciences which have been 

 called "unnatural" and "inexact" 

 meet separately. The convocation week 

 meetings have consequently never fully 

 represented the whole weight of science 

 in America, and it is probably unde- 

 sirable that they should attempt to do 

 so every year. Such a gathering can 

 only be held in one of the great cities, 

 and there are advantages in small meet- 

 ings as well as in a large congress. It 

 would, however, be an admirable plan 

 if once in five years all organizations 

 concerned with research, higher educa- 

 tion and the applications of knowledge 

 could come together in order to demon- 

 strate to themselves and to the world 

 the great part that science plays in 

 modern civilization. 



Cleveland is perhaps the most central 

 city in the United States for a scientific 

 meeting. It is north and east of the 

 center of population, but very close to 

 the center of scientific population. A 

 radius of 500 miles may include nine 

 tenths of the scientific men of the coun- 

 try. The city has good hotel accommo- 

 dations and, what is even more impor- 

 tant, institutions which offer excellent 

 places for the sessions and themselves 

 add an attraction to the meeting. The 

 adjacent main buildings of the West- 

 ern Reserve University and the Case 

 School of Applied Science are shown in 

 the accompanying illustration. West- 

 ern Reserve College opened in Hudson 

 in 1827 and removed to Cleveland in 

 1882. As Western Reserve University 

 since 1804, it has enjoyed a prosperous 

 history, to the original Adelbert College 

 there having been added a college for 

 women and a graduate school, and in 

 addition to professional schools of 

 medicine and law, there are a dental 

 school, a school of pharmacy and a 

 library school. The medical school is 

 one of the strongest in the country. 



having ten years ago adopted the re- 

 quirement of three years of college 

 work for entrance and having an en- 

 dowment of one and a half million dol- 

 lars, two thirds of which has been re- 

 cently obtained. What is of even more 

 consequence, it has on its faculty men 

 of high distinction both in the scien- 

 tific and clinical departments. 



The Case School of Applied Science 

 in like manner takes a leading position 

 among our technical schools. It enjoys 

 an educational affiliation with Western 

 Reserve University by which students 

 may complete their course by taking 

 the first three years at the university 

 and the last two years at the technical 

 school. It will be a pleasure to physi- 

 cists and chemists to meet in the labo- 

 ratory named in honor of Professor 

 Edward W. Morley, for many years 

 professor in the university, a past 

 president of the American Association 

 and one of the most active of its sup- 

 porters. There are other personal asso- 

 ciations with the meeting in the fact 

 that the vice-president of the section 

 of mechanical science and engineering, 

 Dr. Charles S. Howe, is president of 

 the Case School, and Professor George 

 T. Ladd, vice-president for the section 

 of anthropology and psychology, is a 

 graduate of Western Reserve Univer- 

 sity and has been a lecturer there. The 

 other vice-presidents of the association 

 and the presidents of the affiliated so- 

 cieties will give addresses of general 

 interest, and there will be a number of 

 discussions and general meetings that 

 will bring together men of science 

 working in different departments and 

 should be attractive to those who are 

 not professionally engaged in scientific 

 work. The president of the association, 

 Professor Charles E. Bessey, of the 

 University of Nebraska, has chosen as 

 the subject of his address "Some of 

 the Next Steps in Botanical Science." 

 At the opening session he will intro- 

 duce the president of the meeting, Dr. 

 Edward C. Pickering, director of Har- 

 vard College Observatory. 



