NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



ON THE 



PROGRESS OF SCIENCE FOR THE YEAR 185T. 



THE Eleventh Meeting of the American Association for the Promo- 

 tion of Science was held at Montreal, commencing August 12th. The 

 president elect, Professor J. W. Bailey, having died during the year, 

 the vice president, Professor Caswell, of Brown University, was the 

 acting President. The number of members in attendance was as large 

 as at any previous meeting. Mr. Ramsay was received as delegate 

 from the Geological Society of London, and Mr. B. Seeman, from the 

 Linnaean Society of London. 



The whole number of Papers presented was 109 ; 40 in the section 

 of Physics and Meteorology; 45 in Geology and Natural History ; and 

 24 in Ethnology, Chemistry, Statistics, etc. 



A biographical memoir of Mr. William C. Redfield, the first presi- 

 dent of the Association, was read by Professor D. Olmstead, and one 

 of Professor Bailey, by Dr. A. A. Gould of Boston. 



The following officers were elected for the ensuing year : Prof. 

 Jeffries Wyman of Cambridge, President ; Prof. J. E. Holbrook of 

 Charleston, S. C., Vice-President ; Prof. Chauvenet of Annapolis, 

 General Secretary ; Dr. A. S. Elwyn, Treasurer. The invitation of 

 the Maryland Institute and Historical Society, of that State, to the 

 Association to hold its next meeting at Baltimore, was accepted, and 

 the last Wednesday of April, 1858, fixed upon as the commencement 

 of the session. 



The Association appointed a Committee, consisting of Messrs. James 

 Wynne of New York City, E. B. Elliott of Boston, and Franklin Hough 

 of Albany, to report a plan for a uniform system of Registration of 

 Births, Deaths, and Marriages, applicable to the United States. This 

 Committee have, since the adjournment of the Association, issued a 

 circular, calling for information and suggestions, in which they say : 



/ j A 



