IV NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



Eaising the salary of the Permanent Secretary from $300 to 

 $500. 



That a Committee be appointed to memorialize the Legislature 

 of Ohio to cause a complete geological survey of that state to be 

 made. 



That foreign learned societies be invited to attend the meetings of 

 the Association. 



Some steps were also taken for obtaining the protection of the Na- 

 tional Government, as well as of the State government of California, for- 

 th e gigantic specimens of trees, Washing tonia gigantea, which exist 

 in the above named state. It is feared that, unless some measures are 

 taken, these most wonderful specimens of vegetable growth will be 

 soon sacrificed by the cupidity of private individuals. 



Notwithstanding the unusually large attendance, and the number of 

 Papers presented, the meeting of the American Association for 1856 

 was not eminently successful, so far as the progress of science and the 

 promotion of good feeling among the members was concerned. Of the 

 great majority of the papers presented, comparatively few contained 

 any really new contributions to science. Many, when examined criti- 

 cally, will be found to contain little else than a repetition of facts and 

 theories which have been before published in the proceedings of the 

 Association and of other societies. It may be very pleasant and agree- 

 able for some individuals to discourse popular science by the hour to 

 popular audiences ; to indulge in fulsome adulations of one another ; 

 for one to designate the other as a second Kepler, and for another to 

 rise in his place and " thank God that such men as Profs. X., Y., and 

 Z. existed." These occurrences may be well enough in a mutual 

 admiration society, but do not properly belong to the proceedings of 

 an American Association assembled for the discussion of abstract 

 science. 



The subject of the alterations of the Constitution, postponed from a 

 previous meeting, was brought up and discussed, with much feeling 

 and division of sentiment. The disagreement which existed in relation 

 to these matters, was augmented by the non-familiarity on the part of 

 the Chair with parliamentary laws and usages. 



The constitutional question was, however, settled at this meeting, 

 and it is to be hoped that no further difficulty will originate from this 

 source. 



There is much of truth in the following comments on the transac- 

 tions of the Albany Meeting, as expressed by one of the leading New 

 York Journals. " The undue prominence given by the Association to 

 papers of no practical utility whatever characterized the meeting. 

 The great mass of the papers presented were ponderable in quan- 

 tity, but imponderable in quality. No papers were read on new dis- 



