THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



99 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



THE CONVOCATION WEEK MEET- 

 INGS OF SCIENTIFIC 

 SOCIETIES 

 The sixty-third meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advence- 

 ment of Science will be held in Wash- 

 ington from December 27 to 30. This 

 is the tenth of the annual convocation 

 week meetings, the first of which was 

 in Washington in 1901-2. In consecu- 

 tive years meetings have been held in 

 St. Louis, Philadelphia, New Orleans, 

 New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Boston 

 and Minneapolis. Although the zoolo- 

 gists and anatomists meet at Prince- 

 ton, there will be in session at Wash- 

 ington some thirty-nine - societies and 

 sections with an attendance probably 

 exceeding two thousand scientific men. 

 The formal opening will be in the new 

 National Museum on Wednesday, when 

 President Taft will welcome the asso- 

 ciation, and the annual presidential 

 address will be given by Professor A. 

 A. Michelsou, of the University of 

 Chicago. 



Since the first meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Association in 1848, great changes 

 have taken place in the condition of 

 science in this country, in which the 

 association has been an important fac- 

 tor and to which it in turn has been 

 compelled to adjust itself. Sixty years 

 ago all the scientific men in the coun- 

 try could meet together in one room 

 and take an intelligent interest in the j 

 same problems. There are now some \ 

 ten thousand scientific men, scattered 

 over a wide area, engaged in special ) 

 problems, which in many cases are 

 comprehensible only to other special- 

 ists in the same field. 



It was not until 1875 that the asso- 

 ciation was divided into two sections — 

 one for mathematics, physics and chem- 



istry and one for the natural sciences. 

 In 1882 nine sections were organized, 

 each with a vice-president as its pre- 

 siding officer. But provision was 

 needed for still greater specialization, 

 and at about the same time national 

 societies began to be established for 

 the different sciences. The American 

 Chemical Society was organized in 

 1876, and the Geological Society of 

 America and the American Mathemat- 

 ical Society in 1888, and there are now 

 some thirty societies devoted to dif- 

 ferent departments of science. 



These special societies have to a con- 

 siderable extent taken over one of the 

 principal functions of the American 

 Association, namely, the presentation 

 and discussion of scientific work. The 

 association has adapted itself to these 

 conditions by becoming a center of 

 affiliation for the various societies, 

 omitting the reading of technical 

 papers before its sections when the 

 affiliated society devoted to the same 

 subject meets at the same time and 

 place. 



The second function of the American 

 Association — the diffusion of science — 

 it still performs, especially through its 

 publications. It seems impossible to 

 accomplish all that might be done at 

 the meetings, for even when attractive 

 programs of general interest are of- 

 fered, it is difficult to obtain an audi- 

 ence, and the newsjjapers and other 

 journals of the country give very in- 

 adequate accounts of the meetings. It 

 seems that there might be large num- 

 bers of people interested in the general 

 problems of science, who would like to 

 attend the meetings if the advantages 

 were brought properly to their atten- 

 tion. It is not intended that member- 

 ship shall be confined to those engaged 



