142 Mathews Plan for American Biological Society [Oct. 



R. M. West, Univ. of Minnesota. I have followed the dis- 

 cussion of the Mathews plan for the Organization of an Amer. 

 Biolog. Soc'y with a great deal of interest. While it is based very 

 largely upon the present Organization of the Amer. Chem. Soc'y, it 

 appears to me to differ in one very vital particular. The Amer. 

 Chem. Soc'y Journals have been siiccessful largely through the fact 

 that in the two publications which are issued, the articles are of suffi- 

 cient general interest to encourage chemists in all lines of the science 

 to become members of the society, while Chem. Ahstr. has of course 

 provided a very thorough review of current literature in all branches 

 of chemistry. According to the Mathe ws plan, it apparently is the 

 idea to continue the publication of all or nearly all of the present 

 Journals in biological science. Even with a clubbing arrangement, 

 the subscription to the number of Journals which it would still be 

 necessary to take would be very considerable. If it could be ar- 

 ranged, a much more feasible plan, as it appears to me, would be 

 for a number of the present biological Journals to combine to form 

 a nucleus for the proposed society publication. That some such 

 central Organization is desirable seems indisputable, and I would be 

 heartily in favor of any plan which would tend to put biological 

 science on the same extensive plane that the Amer. Chem. Soc'y is 

 on at present. 



In the January number of the Biochemical Bulletin, Pro- 

 fessor Mathews outlined in detail a plan for the Organization of an 

 Amer. Biolog. Soc'y. Shortly after its publication, an invitation to 

 The Mathews plan: comment on the plan was forwarded to the mem- 

 A summary of bers of several of the leading biological societies. 

 published opinions ^ sufficient number of replies have been published 

 in the Bulletin^ to reflect very definitely the views of biologists 

 generally on the subject. We have collated, in this summary, ap- 

 provals and objections for the convenience of all concerned in fur- 

 ther consideration of the matter. 



In Order that the points of view may be shown clearly in their 

 relation to the plan, the essentials of Professor Mathews' sugges- 

 tions are recapitulated on the succeeding pages : 



1 Biochemical Bulletin, 1913, ii, pp. 490 and 582 ; iii, p. 134. 



