THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



443 



not always secure the best man possible 

 or for a sufficiently long term of years. 

 The director of the Observatory should 

 be appointed by the President, on the 

 recommendation of the Secretary of the 

 Navy, and the latter should select one 

 of two or three candidates nominated by 

 some expert body such as the National 

 Academy of Sciences. If such a plan 

 were properly brought before the Secre- 

 tary of the Navy, we believe that it 

 would secure his approval and also the 

 support of the officers of the Navy, who 

 take pride in the Observatory. They 

 would also probably agree that it would 

 be more appropriate to change the name 

 from 'Naval' to 'National' Observatory, 

 it being administered by the Navy for 

 the Nation. 



The scientific students of the coun- 

 try have two general gatherings in the 

 course of the year. In the summer the 

 American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science holds a migratory meet- 

 ing, and with it assemble a number of 

 special societies. During the Christmas 

 holidays the American Society of Natu- 

 ralists serves as a center for societies de- 

 voted to the natural sciences — morphol- 

 ogy, physiology, anatomy, bacteriology, 

 botany, psychology and anthropology. 

 The meetings of these societies were held 

 this winter at the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity, Baltimore, from the 26th to the 

 29th of December. There was no general 

 registration of members, but the attend- 

 ance was estimated at about three hun- 

 dred, and as it consisted exclusively of 

 working men of science, the number of 

 papers presented was nearly equal to 

 the attendance. The scientific work of 

 the Society of Naturalists consists of a 

 discussion on some subject of common 

 interest, a lecture preceding the usual 

 reception, and an address by the presi- 

 dent, given at the annual dinner, while 

 the 3pecial papers are presented to the 

 groups of experts who make up the spe- 

 cial societies. The discussion this year 

 was on the relations of the Government 

 to scientific research. It was opened by 

 Prof. H. F. Osborn, of Columbia Univer- 



sity, the American Museum of Natural 

 History and the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, who was followed by Prof. William 

 B. Clark, of the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity and the Maryland Geological Sur- 

 vey; Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of the Divi- 

 sion of Entomology of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture; Dr. B. T. Gallo- 

 way, Superintendent of Experimental 

 Gardens and Grounds, U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, and Prof. William T. 

 Sedgwick, of the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology. The evening lecture 

 on 'Indians of the Southwest,' elaborate- 

 ly illustrated, was given by Dr. Frank 

 Russell, of Harvard University. The 

 address of the president, Prof. E. B. 

 Wilson, of Columbia University, was 

 entitled 'Aims and Methods of Study in 

 Natural History.' While the naturalists 

 were meeting at Baltimore, the Geologic- 

 al Society of America held its thir- 

 teenth winter meeting at Albany, and 

 the American Chemical Society held its 

 twenty-second general meeting at Chi- 

 cago. The American Physical Society 

 and the American Mathematical Society 

 held their sessions as usual in New 

 York, while a branch of the latter soci- 

 ety met at Chicago. There was also in 

 Chicago a meeting of the Naturalists 

 of the Western and Central States, with 

 an attendance of one hundred members 

 and a program containing about forty 

 papers. The academies of a number of 

 the Central and Western States, includ- 

 ing Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin and 

 Nebraska, also held their annual meet- 

 ings. When it is stated that about five 

 hundred scientific papers were presented 

 before these societies, it will be seen how 

 impossible it is to give a report of their 

 great and far-reaching activity. W T e 

 may, however, illustrate the character 

 of their work by three or four examples. 



As an example of the scientific work 

 carried on by morphologists at the pres- 

 ent time, we may note two important 

 papers presented by Prof. E. B. Wilson, 

 of Columbia University, at Baltimore. 

 One of the most interesting biological 

 results of recent years is the discovery 



