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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE. 



THE PITTSBURGH MEETING OF 

 THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 

 The American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science held its fifty- 

 first annual meeting at Pittsburgh on 

 the last day of June and the first three 

 days of July. There was a registra- 

 tion of 435 members, and some 350 

 addresses and papers were presented 

 before the several sections and affiliated 

 societies. As the number of papers 

 so nearly equaled the number of mem- 

 bers, it is evident that those present 

 were chiefly working men of science. 

 It must also be remembered that some 

 members of the affiliated societies are 

 not members of the Association, so 

 that the gathering of scientific men 

 numbered about 600. They were al- 

 most entirely different from the 300 

 students of the natural sciences who 

 met in Chicago last winter. At the 

 next meeting of the Association to be 

 held in Washington during convoca- 

 tion week, the two groups will come to- 

 gether, and the meeting will probably 

 exceed in size and importance any 

 similar congress of scientific men held 

 outside of Germany. 



The address of the retiring presi- 

 dent of the Association, Dr. Minot, of 

 the Harvard Medical School, is printed 

 above. Though admirably expressed 

 and on a topic that should be of gen- 

 eral interest, it must be confessed that 

 the relations of consciousness to or- 

 ganic evolution and the material world 

 is a subject outside the range of the 

 consciousness of the ordinary man. 

 The addresses of the vice-presidents 

 maintained a high scientific standard, 

 but were in most cases addressed to 

 specialists, whereas it seems that there 

 should be at the meetings of the Asso- 

 ciation some addresses and discussions 



that appeal to all scientific men and to 

 those who take an intelligent interest 

 in science. Of this character were the 

 interesting evening addresses by Pro- 

 fessor D. S. Kellicott and Dr. Robert T. 

 Hill, but otherwise the programs were 

 addressed to specialists. Indeed the 

 sectional meetings tend to be too 

 special even for the specialists. Some 

 method should be adopted for the pre- 

 sentation of scientific papers that will 

 make attendance more interesting and 

 profitable. A distinction should be 

 made between small groups of men in- 

 terested in a common topic and larger 

 numbers who even within the limits 

 of their own science should not be ex- 

 pected to listen to papers that they 

 would not read. Several amendments 

 to the constitution were adopted tend- 

 ing to strengthen the organization of 

 the sections and the permanence of 

 administration. The council will here- 

 after elect each year three members 

 at large who will doubtless add to 

 the efficiency of that body, and the 

 sectional committees will become more 

 nearly sub-councils, while the term of 

 office of the secretaries is extended 

 from one to five years. The member- 

 ship of the Association has consider- 

 ably increased during the year, being 

 now about 3,500, and the finances are 

 in excellent condition, the permanent 

 secretary, Dr. Howard, having handed 

 over $2,000 from current income to the 

 permanent fund. 



Professor Asaph Hall is succeeded 

 in the presidency by Dr. Ira Remsen, 

 the eminent chemist, president of the 

 Johns Hopkins University. The vice- 

 presidents are, for mathematics and as- 

 tronomy, Professor George Bruce Hal- 

 sted, of the University of Texas; for 

 physics, Professor E. F. Nichols, of 



