424 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



A resume of the papers of agricultural interest which were presented 

 at the meeting of the American Association will be given in the next 

 issue. Many of these will naturally be published in full in various 

 scientific journals. Indeed, even to many persons who attended the 

 meeting the published form will often prove quite as profitable, espe- 

 cially in the case of papers presented in much detail. In a large meet- 

 ing of this sort, where so much has to be crowded into three or four 

 days, delegates arc satiated with papers and fatigued, so that they are 

 compelled to select those of more special interest to them, and for the 

 rest can only carry away certain generalizations. With the multiplic- 

 ity of organs which we now have for the publication of scientific 

 papers, there is less excuse than formerly for the presentation of prog- 

 ress reports in the ordinary lines of research or upon relatively 

 narrow subjects, whose publication in a scientific periodical would 

 serve every purpose. At all events, the presentation of such subjects 

 should be brief and confined to a summary of the findings which have 

 a bearing on the general progress of investigation. 



It has frequently been suggested that the time of the meetings might 

 well be reserved for papers presenting some new features of a subject 

 of widespread interest, or involving principles in the progress of the 

 science, or conferences or discussions on some topics in w T hich an 

 exchange of views by selected speakers would help to illuminate the 

 subjects and suggest points where the evidence needed strengthen- 

 ing. A case in point is the annual discussion of the American Society 

 of Naturalists, which always forms an interesting feature of the Amer- 

 ican Association meeting. These discussions are participated in by a 

 number of men selected beforehand, and representing different 

 branches of science or different points of view. 



This year the subject of the discussion before that society was The 

 Mutation Theory of Organic Evolution, which was treated from the 

 botanical, cytological, anatomical, and paleontological standpoints, and 

 also from that of animal breeding. Such an exchange of views can 

 hardly fail to be instructive and helpful, and the oral presentation by 

 prepared speakers lends an added interest. 



We are prone to multiply scientific organizations and to subdivide 

 into specialties, but in doing so much of the advantage of contact with 

 men representing the more general aspects of science is lost. Too 

 close specialization in work and in association tends to narrowness, 

 and the failure of the investigator to consider his own work and that 

 of others in their broad relations endangers the accuracy of his gen- 

 eralizations. 



Already there is a revulsion against so large a number of independ- 

 ent societies, and we find a movement toward a union of common 

 interests or the holding of joint sessions. At the meeting last month 



