49^ Mathews Plan for American Biological Society [April 



preferable. Two of Mathevvs' proposals do, however, appeal to me: 

 those to establish a biological abstract Journal, and to seek endowments 

 for it and various existent periodicals devoted to the publication of 

 biological research. If the matter were properly brought to the atten- 

 tion of philanthropists who desire to support scientific research the 

 necessary money would doubtless be forthcoming. 



Theodore Hough, Univ. of Va. I have been greatly interested in 

 the proposals of Dr. Mathews for the Organization of a Biolog. Soc'y 

 of Amer. Naturally there are many details which have a very material 

 bearing on the carrying out of such a scheme and these would have to 

 be worked out very carefully before the success of the plan can be 

 assured. The two great questions raised by Dr. Mathews' paper, as I 

 see them are, (i) the advisability and feasibility of organizing all lines 

 of biological work in the same manner as all kinds of chemical work 

 have been organized; and (2) the advisability and feasibility of the 

 Journal feature of the plan. 



I fully believe in the importance of Organization of the various 

 specialties which are sufficiently cognate in their subject matter to form 

 a sufficiently homogeneous group. This condition of success was real- 

 ized in the Amer. Chem. Soc'y and also in the Amer. Med. Assoc. 

 Whether it can be realized among the biologists I am not quite so sure. 

 The biological scientists have, perhaps more than the chemists or phy- 

 sicians, double allegiances. Anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, neu- 

 rology are as closely related to the medical group as they are to zoology, 

 botany, and psychology. Psychology is as closely related to pedagogics 

 as to botany or infectious diseases. When this is the case I think it an 

 open question whether the " chaos " of which Dr. Mathews speaks is 

 an undesirable condition. Sometimes it is desirable — despite disad- 

 vantages, of course ; sometimes it is not desirable. How it is in the 

 present case at the present time I am unable to decide. But I do think 

 the question should be very seriously considered by representatives of 

 the various groups ; for I think that the establishment of larger groups 

 of sufficiently homogeneous subjects should go on as rapidly as possible 

 to increase the influence of science in our national life. 



As to the Journal feature, I cannot quite see how the proposed 

 scheme will success fully finance it. The estimate is that 500 copies of 

 each of the Journals mentioned will cost $50,000.00 to publish, while 

 the scheme of dues calls for an income of some $60,000.00. But for 

 each of the 2000 members to receive all these Journals will mean the 

 publication of 2000 copies of each, not 500. The additional 1500 copies 



