EDITOR'S TABLE. 



365 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly: 



DEAR SIR : Last summer, at the Hart- 

 ford meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, a 

 new constitution was adopted, and, under 

 its provisions, a permanent subsection of 

 " chemistry, chemical physics, chemical 

 technology, mineralogy, and metallurgy," 

 was organized. 



Prof. S. W. Johnson, of Yale College, 

 was elected chairman of the new subsec- 

 tion for the ensuing year, and the under- 

 signed was deputed to make the necessary 

 efforts to insure a full attendance of chem- 

 ists and others interested in the applica- 

 tion of chemistry. The meeting for the 

 summer will be held at Detroit, commenc- 



ing the 11th of August, and contiiniing 

 about a week. It is very desirable that 

 there should be a full attendance in the 

 new subsection, in order to make it a suc- 

 cess. Will you be so kind as to call the 

 attention of your readers to the subject, 

 either by printing this card, or by an edi- 

 toi'ial notice ? 



Any one who is interested in chemis- 

 try, mineralogy, or in any application of 

 these sciences, will be welcome. Hitherto, 

 chemistry has been but little represented 

 in the proceedings of the Association, and 

 the time now seems to have arrived in 

 which some good work can be done. 

 Respectfully, 



F. W. Clarke. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



UNDER FALSE COLORS. 



THE so-called "Association for the 

 Promotion of Social Science " 

 held its last meeting in May, in Detroit. 

 It is reported as a satisfactory session, 

 there having been a good attendance, 

 much interest, and a full invoice of pa- 

 pers upon tlie varied topics which it is 

 the habit of the body to consider. That 

 the Association performs a useful func- 

 tion in securing the discussion of grave 

 public questions, and in disseminating 

 information, more or less useful, con- 

 cerning them, we are not at all disposed 

 to question ; but we miss (as we did a 

 year ago) any thing in the proceedings 

 answering to the definite object of the 

 organization as put forth in its title. 

 The name of the Association is entirely 

 misleading: it avows one object, and 

 pursues others ; it professes to do a cer- 

 tain work of very great public impor- 

 tance, and then, by totally neglecting 

 it and doing something else under its 

 name, it produces a mischievous con- 



fusion in the public mind, and becomes 

 detrimental to the very purpose which 

 it distinctly professes to advance. 



As judged by its title, the Associ- 

 ation was instituted to do an explicit 

 thing, that is, to promote a certain sci- 

 ence. Now what does this imply? It 

 implies doing for the particular branch 

 of science chosen, just what other asso- 

 ciations do for the promotion of other 

 branches of science. It implies, first, a 

 branch of knowledge capable of assum- 

 ing a scientific shape, and of definition 

 and limitation in its objects ; secondly, 

 it implies efi"orts and measures for the 

 elucidation of the subject, the exten- 

 sion of observations upon it, the gen- 

 eralization of its facts, by the same 

 patient processes and cautious method 

 that are adopted in other sciences with 

 the single and supreme object of arriv- 

 ing at the truth ; and, lastly, it implies 

 men who will devote themselves to the 

 cultivation of the subject in the true 

 scientific spirit, men trained to original 



