8 4 + 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Metric Bureau, Tufts College, the Wa- 

 tertown, Arsenal, the Old South, and 

 many other places of interest to stran- 

 gers. 



It has been objected that too much 

 time is generally spent at these meet- 

 ings in social enjoyment ; but it is not 

 to be forgotten that this is a cardinal 

 object of the organization. It is both 

 possible and desirable that in future 

 years the management will be so im- 

 proved that the social element with- 

 out being impaired will be so regulated 

 as to economize time and offer the 

 least hindrance to the legitimate and 

 solid work of the society. But the 

 Association grew out of a social need 

 which is more urgent, perhaps, in this 

 eountry than in any other. The organ- 

 ization of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, half a 

 century ago, was not only a very im- 

 portant movement in giving efficient 

 direction to scientific labor, but it was 

 an inevitable result of the growth of 

 scattered activities which required to 

 be brought into cooperative relations. 

 It was found that scientific observers, 

 experimenters, and discoverers are not 

 mere eccentric and infatuated devotees, 

 content to pass their lives in the clois- 

 tered seclusion of laboratories and ob- 

 servatories, but that they are normal 

 human beings with social sympathies 

 and necessities, who require to know 

 each other and to be brought into re- 

 lations of freer intercourse with the 

 people. The British Association was 

 formed for the promotion of the inter- 

 ests of science by systematizing the 

 work of research, and by bringing large 

 numbers of scientific men together an- 

 nually for several days, and it was made 

 migratory that its public influence 

 might become effective in all parts of 

 the country. The advantages of this 

 associated action were real and impor- 

 tant, and it was proved that the time 

 had fully come to enter upon it. A 

 new impulse was given to original 

 study; there were new accessions to 



the ranks of scientific students, scien- 

 tific work became more effective and 

 efficient, and the people extended to it 

 increasing encouragement and a more 

 hearty and liberal support. 



So successful was this plan of oper- 

 ations devised and carried out by the 

 English scientists, that it has been imi- 

 tated in different nations, and with the 

 same satisfactory results. In this coun- 

 try such a project was both more ne- 

 cessary and more difficult. The scien- 

 tific men were here widely distributed 

 over a continent, and generally worked 

 alone in the colleges, so that they very 

 rarely met their brethren to compare 

 notes and gain the benefits of mutual 

 criticism. In England it was different. 

 London was a great center of resources, 

 a sort of scientific world of itself, while 

 the country is so small that the me- 

 tropolis is readily accessible to every- 

 body. In the United States there was 

 no such commanding center of scien- 

 tific influence, and the distances and 

 the expenses of travel were so great 

 that scientific professors, generally liv- 

 ing upon small salaries, could hardly 

 afford to travel, even if there had been 

 any great central headquarters to visit. 

 The adoption of the English plan of a 

 movable scientific association, to hold 

 its meetings in different and widely 

 separated localities, met the require- 

 ments of our scientific men to a much 

 greater degree than it did the English. 

 This kind of association, therefore, 

 does a more important work here than 

 anywhere else. There are obstacles to 

 the advance of science which are more 

 refractory in the United States than 

 anywhere else. Institutions for train- 

 ing scientific men are neither so nu- 

 merous nor so thorough as in England 

 and on the Continent. Material inter- 

 ests are more absorbing, and the effect 

 of our " popular intelligence " is that 

 subjects and questions foreign to sci- 

 ence have an intense hold and a pre- 

 dominant control over the public mind. 

 There is no way to stem these tenden- 



