Election of the President 75 



physics, 11 ; chemistry, 7; astronomy, 6; geology and geography, 13; zool- 

 ogy, 14; botany, 12, both zoology and botany, 15 ; anthropology, 4; psychol- 

 ogy, 7; social and economic sciences, 5; historical and philological sciences, 

 5; engineering, 18; medical sciences, 31 ; agriculture, 10, and education, 9. 

 The total number of members of the Council on January 1, 1940 was 240. 

 All of the 21,150 members of the Association, except 471, have been 

 recorded, at their request, as desiring affiliation with one or more of the 15 

 sections. It may be interesting to measure the correspondence between the 

 number of members interested in the various scientific fields and their repre- 

 sentation on the Council. The numbers of representatives on the Council for 

 the various sections for each 1000 members affiliated with the respective 

 sections are as follows: Mathematics, 4.3; physics, 3.1; chemistry, 1.3; 

 astronomy, 7 ; geology and geography, 6.3 ; zoology, 5.1 ; botany, 5.4 ; anthro- 

 pology, 4; psychology, 3.6; social and economic sciences, 6.0; historical and 

 philological sciences, 11.5 ; engineering, 6; medical sciences, 5.2 ; agriculture, 

 5.1 ; education, 4.5. 



Election of the President 



Perhaps nothing shows better the democratic organization and operation 

 of the Association than the election of its presidents. In July the office of the 

 Permanent Secretary sends to each member of the Council a preliminary 

 nomination ballot. There are on it the names of the past presidents for the 

 preceding 20 years and the field in which each of them was distinguished. 

 About 15 of the names receiving the greatest number of votes in the pre- 

 liminary ballot by the Council are included on the nomination ballot sent 

 out to the entire membership of the Association on October 1, and also the 

 names of the presidents for the preceding 20 years. The members are advised 

 that they may make nominations other than those made by the Council. 



At the election of the president by the Council at the annual meeting in 

 December the names of from 10 to 15 persons receiving the greatest number 

 of votes on the ballots returned from the entire membership are placed on 

 the blackboard in alphabetical order. The president calls for nominations 

 from the floor. Then the Council proceeds to the election by ballot of a presi- 

 dent of the Association for the following year. 



The Executive Committee 



The Constitution of the Association provides for an Executive Committee 

 of the Council for two reasons : ( 1 ) It is sometimes necessary to transact 

 business of the Association between meetings of the Council (it meets only 

 at meetings of the Association ) , and (2) it is practically necessary to have a 

 smaller group than the entire Council of nearly 250 members for intensive 

 study of the problems of the Association. For the first of these reasons the 



