1914] Editoriais 343 



may be relied upon to carry the Standards of professional and scien- 

 tific effort and efficiency farther forward toward ideal attainment 

 than ever. 



For the purpose of recording further " inside " evidence on the 

 sentiment of the constituent societies, as they entered the Federa- 

 tion, we present additional details on a point referred to by Dr. 

 Auer, which is stated by him, on p. 279, as follows : 



Another regulation was one designed to aid in the administration 

 of the Federation affairs if the chairman and secretary of the executive 

 committee* should be retired. The motion provides that the chairman 

 and secretary of the executive committee, in the event of retirement 

 from office in their society, become members of the executive committee 

 for the ensuing year but in an advisory capacity only. The committee 

 will thus always enjoy the advice of the chairman and secretary of the 

 preceding year, but there is no danger that one society will have at its 

 disposal four votes out of ten in the deliberations of the executive com- 

 mittee of the Federation. 



This "regulation" in its original form, as ratified first by the 

 Physiological Society, gave to the retiring "chairman and secre- 

 tary of the executive committee, in the event of retirement from 

 office in their society," füll voting privileges on any question that 

 might come before the executive committee, thus making it possible, 

 on occasion, for one society of the four to exercise a disproportion- 

 ate numerical influence in the deliberations of the executive com- 

 mittee. The resolution, when presented to the Biochemical Society 

 for consideration, was at once amended into the final form in which 

 it appears in Dr. Auer's account (quoted above). The Federation 

 approved the regulation as amended, which insures an equal maxi- 

 mum number of votes in the executive committee for each of the 

 four constituent societies. This action emphasized, in unmistake- 

 able terms, the equality (and independence) of the constituent so- 

 cieties. 



Dr. Auer's account presents a special Illustration of the prevail- 



4 The reader may recoUect that the President and secretary of the presiding 

 society are chairman and secretary, respectively, of the executive committee of 

 the Federation. The societies preside regularly in this rotation : Physiological, 

 Biochemical, Pharmacological, Pathological, 



