492 Mathews Plan for American Biological Society [April 



about. I think we must face the fact that the special societies have 

 not only come to stay, but that specialization will increase as the years 

 go by. There is strength in smaller organizations of men of similar 

 training and aim not found in larger and more heterogeneous societies. 

 There wonld be little gained and much lost by Converting the present 

 special societies into sections of a general Organization. In my opinion 

 the Biolog. See. of the Amer. Chem. Soc'y is not as effective as the 

 Amer. Soc. of Biolog. Chemists. It seems to me that the essentials 

 hoped for by the Organization of an all-inclusive Biolog. Soc'y, namely 

 Cooperation and encouragement in biological research, would be se- 

 cured — so far as mere Organization will secure it — by a Federation 

 similar to that recently effected between the physiologists, the bio- 

 chemists, and the pharmacologists. Such a federation would leave the 

 present societies intact, but it would bring us all together at our annual 

 meetings, thus affording opportunities for personal control and facili- 

 tating concerted action in matters of general scientific or public interest. 



I do not favor the starting of a new Biolog. Abstract Jour. The 

 Centr. f. Biochem. u. Bioph. is already on the ground. To duplicate 

 abstract Journals is waste of energy and money. 



The figures showing how we may, by increasing the subscription list 

 froni 500 to 1,500 or 2,000, cut the price of some thirteen of our biolog- 

 ical Journals in half seem too good to be true. I would have been more 

 convinced by these figures, had they been submitted by the respective 

 publishers. Most biologists, undoubtedly, feel obliged to subscribe for 

 Journals that they actually cannot afford to take. But I do not think 

 that even a considerable increase in the subscription lists would go far 

 enough as a remedy. The number of subscribers to the Amer. Jour. 

 of Physiol. is increasing, and so is the price of the Journal. Our re- 

 search Journals must be subsidized or endowed. The attempt to run 

 them as seif supporting (or paying) propositions retards scientific 

 progress. 



The Suggestion that men of no Standing as biologists, but who have 

 sufficient means and public spirit to pay annual dues of $25.oo-$40.oo, 

 be elected to membership in the proposed Biolog. Soc'y is contrary to 

 the best tradition of all the present societies, with the possible exception 

 of the anatomists. These societies are primarily organizations of re- 

 search men. The qualification for membership is not willingness or 

 ability to pay the dues, but scientific attainments. I think a reorgani- 

 zation involving the abandoning of this ideal would be fatal. We see 

 thepractical results of such a policy in the Virtual demise of several^^c- 



