A PLAN FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE AMER- 

 ICAN BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY^ 



ALBERT P. MATHEWS 



The present condition of the biological interests of the country 

 may be called chaotic. There is no general Organization and little 

 Cooperation between various subdivisions of the science; there are 

 a multitude of small societies and a large number of Journals, few 

 with any permanent support. This condition renders the science as 

 a whole less effective in the Community than it ought to be, and is 

 expensive both of time and money. The time has come to effect 

 some kind of Cooperation of all biologists to secure the advantages 

 which come f rom Cooperation. These advantages could be obtained 

 by the formation of a general society, to be called the American 

 Biological Society, along the lines of the American Chemical 

 Society. (This Society might act as the Biological Section of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science.) 



Objects of the society: (i) To unite the biological interests of 

 the country for purposes of education; mutual support; increased 

 Cooperation, defense and encouragement of scientific investigation; 

 and to increase the influence of biological knowledge in the country; 

 (2) to Start and support a Biological Abstract Journal; (3) to pro- 

 vide for the permanent support of the biological Journals of the 

 country and to provide for new ones as necessity arises ; (4) to 



^ This plan was proposed by Professor Mathews in 1908, in multigraphed 

 circular form, to the members of the American Physiological Society. The plan 

 was formally laid before the Council of the Physiological Society in December, 

 1908, in the hope that the Physiological Society would endorse the essential fea- 

 tures of the Suggestion. The author was appointed a committee of one to 

 agitate the matter. Nothing further was done, however. Theunsuccessful eflfort 

 in December, 191 1, to bring about an Organization of a greater American Physio- 

 logical Society, and the recent formation of the Federation of American Societies 

 for Experimental Biology, give new interest to Professor Mathews' plan, which 

 is published here in its original form, at our reqiiest, and with the permission of 

 the author. See pages 269 and 271 of this issue of the Biochemical Bulletin. 

 [Ed.] 



261 



