THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



205 



TPIE PROGEESS OF SCIENCE 



THE WASHINGTON MEETING OF 



THE AMEBIC AN ASSOCIATION 



FOB THE ADVANCEMENT 



OF SCIENCE 



The American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science and the socie- 

 ties affiliated with it held an unusually 

 successful meeting in Washington dur- 

 ing Christmas week. This, the sixty- 

 third meeting of the association, was 

 the largest in its history, the registra- 

 tion of its members being 1,306. There 

 is no practical advantage in registering 

 and at Washington the places of meet- 

 ing were so widely scattered that many 

 members failed to register. The secre- 

 tary of the council estimates the total 

 attendance of members of the associa- 

 tion and of affiliated societies at 2,800. 

 The association had the privilege of 

 being welcomed to the capital of the 

 nation by its president, who in his ad- 

 dress exhibited an appreciative interest 

 in the scientific work done .under the 

 government and in the investigations 

 of scientific men. He said that if he 

 had the power he would place an as- 

 tronomer at the head of the U. S. Naval 

 Observatory. President Taft must have 

 paid what he regarded as a high com- 

 pliment to the work of a scientific man 

 when he compared it with that of a judge. 

 Indeed he placed the work of the bench 

 even higher than might have been ex- 

 pected, for he said that it is the duty 

 of a judge to find a final solution in 

 accordance with "eternal justice," 

 whereas it is commonly supposed that 

 a judge must interpret temporary laws. 

 Dr. Charles E. Bessey, head of the 

 department of botany at the University 

 of Nebraska, president of the associa- 

 tion, in reply to the address of wel- 

 come, called attention to the fact that 

 scientific men are like those who occupy 

 legislative, judicial and executive posi- 



tions, in that they work for the good 

 of the community rather than for their 

 own advancement; but whereas the 

 politician works only in the present and 

 for the present, the scientific man, like 

 the statesman, must look before and 

 after. Dr. Bessey also called attention 

 to the need of giving scientific men in 

 the Washington bureaus the opportuni- 

 ties most favorable to scientific re- 

 search. The annual address was then 

 delivered by President A. A. Michelson, 

 head of the department of physics in 

 the University of Chicago, whose sub- 

 ject was " Eecent Progress in Spectro- 

 scopic Methods. ' ' Dr. Michelson traced 

 with such clearness as to hold the com- 

 plete attention of the audience the im- 

 portant researches in which he himself 

 has taken such a leading part. 



It is quite out of the question to 

 describe the work of the eleven sections 

 of the association and of the thirty 

 special societies which met at Washing- 

 ton. The titles of the papers presented 

 would fill a considerable part of an 

 issue of the Monthly, and the papers 

 themselves would fill its volumes for 

 years to come. The addresses of the 

 president and of the vice-presidents 

 have been printed in Science, where 

 also will be found accounts of the pro- 

 ceedings of the association and of the 

 various societies and some of the ad- 

 dresses and discussions presented be- 

 fore them. Here we can only call at- 

 tention to the wide scope and great 

 quantity of research work being car- 

 ried forward in this country and ade- 

 quately represented at the Washington 

 meeting. The only drawback to our 

 satisfaction is that there appear to be 

 no advances or discoveries of such out- 

 standing importance as to deserve spe- 

 cial recognition. 



