THE PI! OGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



39' 



L. O. Howard, 



Chief of the Division of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Permanent Secretary ol 



the American Association. 



there is at the same time a growing 

 class of problems which may be termed 

 synthetic, to which special students 

 must devote themselves without refer- 

 ence to the traditional boundaries of 

 the separate sciences. These include the 

 problems of evolution and many of the 

 most pressing problems of solar re- 

 search, geophysics, and the like, and 

 still more of such applied sciences as 

 medicine, agriculture and engineering. 

 This suggests one of the strongest rea- 

 sons, appealing to the interests of 

 pure research itself, for a common 

 meeting-ground of investigators in arti- 



ficially separated though not unrelated 

 fields, which shall serve as a clearing 

 house for different classes of students 

 at work on the same problems. 



Professor William James, the emi- 

 nent psychologist, who made a notable 

 presidential address before the psycho- 

 logical association this year, was 

 elected president of the American So- 

 ciety of Naturalists for the next meet- 

 ing. There will inevitably be some 

 separation of the societies next year, 

 but it is hoped that all will be re- 

 united for an especially good general 

 meeting at Boston the year following. 



