I9I3] Editorials 501 



mainly, that the " pure " biologists will not coöperate with the workers 

 in applied lines and to a streng tendency, also, to subdivide the field 

 and segregate the investigators into their several societies. The chem- 

 ists are successful in that they associate the practica! with the pure 

 aspects of their science and it is principally the former group which 

 maintain the Organization, owing to their financial abilities being en- 

 hanced over those of the " pure " chemist. Could there be a Biologists' 

 Club maintained as successfully as the Chemists' Club on 41 st St., N. 

 Y. ? There might if the pure and applied departments would coöperate. 

 In much the same way, the biologists could maintain a national Organi- 

 zation if they coöperate with their " applied " brethren, who are often 

 more fully equipped with this world's goods than others. The first 

 thing to do is to found a national Organization with minimum dues, 

 after which the problem of an abstract and other Journals could be 

 taken up. As to the former, I should like to see the Zent. f. Zool. allg. 

 u. exper. Biolog., of the press of B. G. Teubner, subsidized and adapted 

 to Amer. readers, for it is already founded and organized. Whatever 

 is done, it is important to establish a paid permanent secretary-treasurer 

 with adequate ofifice assistance to correlate the various interests and to 

 take care of the financial and business end of the venture; then the 

 Journal question could be worked out when the data as to subscriptions, 

 dues, etc., are in. 



Raymond C. Osburn, A^. F. Aquarium. I am heartily in favor of 

 any scheme that will bring the workers in the various fields of biolog- 

 ical research into closer touch. The Amer. Chemical Soc. is no longer 

 an experiment and a biological society based on a similar plan of Organi- 

 zation ought to be equally successful. Especially does the plan for 

 the Abstract Journal seem commendable, as there is nothing covering 

 this field and nothing could be more useful. Even if the plan were car- 

 ried no farther than the issuing of such a Journal it would be worth 

 while, and very much so, in my mind. Moreover, coming from the 

 ranks of the biological chemists, I believe there is more chance of such 

 a plan being successful than if it had emanated from the zoologists or 

 botanists, since biochemistry is more and more the common meeting 

 ground for all investigators. 



William H. Park, N. Y. City Dep't of Health. I have read over 

 the Mathews plan for the Biolog. Soc'y. If it could be carried out, I 

 think it would make a most useful society. It seems to me, however, 

 that it will be very difficult to get the individual societies to merge them- 

 selves in the new one. Such a society as the Amer. Assoc. of Pathol. 



