THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



203 



THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE 



THE CLEVELAND CONVOCATION 

 WEEK MEETING 



There was an excellent meeting of 

 the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science and of the affili- 

 ated national scientific societies at 

 Cleveland during the week of January 

 first. The scope and magnitude of 

 their work can be indicated by a state- 

 ment of the number of papers on the 

 program for the different sciences, 

 namely : 



Mathematics 49 



Astronomy 35 



Physics 52 



Engineering 40 



Geology 27 



Zoology 84 



Entomology 73 



Botany 60 



Phytopathology 49 



Horticulture 53 



Anthropology 27 



Psychology 56 



Biological chemistry and phar- 

 macology 63 



Anatomy 63 



Physiology 67 



Education 11 



Economics and Sociology 13 



Total 822 



In no other country except Germany 

 could there have been brought together 

 such an extensive series of papers 

 nearly every one of which was based 

 on research work and contributed to 

 knowledge. Such a program demon- 

 strates an extraordinary extension of 

 scientific work in the United States in 

 the course of the past twenty years. 

 It may appear that men of great dis- 

 tinction and contributions of note- 

 worthy importance were not repre- 

 sented in proportion to the total number 

 of those who read papers. But this is 

 in part due to the circumstance that 



one does not see the trees on account 

 of the forest. If the only advances 

 made in science during the past year 

 were represented by a dozen of the 

 papers taken at random from the Cleve- 

 land program, each one of them would 

 appear to be an important scientific 

 contribution. 



It is noticeable that the different 

 sciences represented on the program 

 contributed papers not far from equal 

 in number, even though the sciences 

 themselves may vary greatly in impor- 

 tance and in the number of its workers. 

 Fifty to seventy papers are about as 

 many as can be presented in a three- 

 days' meeting, and most of the socie- 

 ties had about so many. Thus phyto- 

 pathology was as largely represented as 

 botany, entomology as zoology, physiol- 

 ogy as physics. This seems to demon- 

 strate the value of scientific organiza- 

 tion, for if there had not been societies 

 for the presentation of these papers, it 

 may be that the work would never have 

 been done. 



There are several cases in which the 

 program does not adequately represent 

 the scientific work of the country. 

 Thus the engineering societies do not 

 meet with the association and the sec- 

 tion of engineering is weakened. This 

 year the chemists decided to meet sepa- 

 rately like the engineers, partly because 

 New Year's week, chosen as a time 

 when college and university men can 

 be present, is inconvenient for those 

 engaged in industrial work. It seems 

 desirable to increase rather than to 

 decrease the contact of the pure and 

 applied sciences, and it may be hoped 

 that joint meetings may be arranged, 

 perhaps at periods of three years. In 

 that case the national societies devoted 

 to economics, history and philology 

 might also join in a great convocation 



