EDITOR'S TABLE. 



741 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE AMERICA!^ SCIENTIFIC ASSO- 

 CIATI02!r. 



THE American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science held its 

 twenty-third meeting at Hartford, in 

 August, under the presidency of Dr. 

 Le Conte, with a very good attendance. 

 The address of the retiring president, 

 Prof. Lovering, was an elaborate and 

 able document, devoted to the discus- 

 sion of prominent questions in modern 

 physics; and a large number of miscel- 

 laneous papers, of the usual interest, 

 were contributed to the proceedings. 

 But while the Hartford meeting was one 

 of average interest, in respect of the 

 amount and quality of its scientific work, 

 it was especially important in relation 

 to the history of the domestic manage- 

 ment of the Association. The consti- 

 tution was revised, and the revision had 

 reference to old and radical difficulties 

 in the organization. As the American 

 Association is the leading representative 

 of the interests of American science, 

 and as there is not a little misapprehen- 

 sion on the part of the public regarding 

 its aims and policy, it will be desirable 

 to give a brief account of its origin and 

 character, that the import of the recent 

 changes may be made intelligible. 



The usefulness of organizations for 

 the promotion of scientific objects is 

 nowhere questioned. It is indispensa- 

 ble that scientific men should associate 

 in order to carry on their work, and 

 societies devoted to scientific objects, 

 general and special, have accordingly 

 sprung up within the last two centuries 

 in all the.leading civilized nations. The 

 astronomers, the botanists, the geolo- 

 gists, the zoologists, the chemists, have 

 all had their societies for the promo- 

 tion of research and the extension of 

 knowledge in their respective depart- 

 ments, while other institutions have 

 aimed at the same ends by more compre- 



hensive plans of organization. These as- 

 sociations naturally confined their mem- 

 bership to the cultivators of special 

 original research in their several de- 

 partments. But, with the rapid growth 

 of science in later years, with the mul- 

 tipUcation of its interests and the rec- 

 ognition of their powerful bearing upon 

 public welfare, it began to be seen that 

 the old organizations were inadequate 

 to the general wants, and that new as- 

 sociations must be called into existence 

 better adapted to meet them. One of 

 the earliest expressions of this tendency 

 was seen in the formation of the " Brit- 

 ish Association for the Advancement of 

 Science," which was established in 1831, 

 and held its first meeting at York, un- 

 der the presidency of Earl Fitzwilliam, 

 F. E. S. It was to be of a migratory 

 character, holding its annual sessions 

 in diff'erent towns ; and it admitted to 

 membership all who attended the first 

 meeting, and in general all members of 

 scientific societies, scientific professors, 

 and those devoting themselves in any 

 way to the promotion of scientific ob- 

 jects. There was obviously no intention 

 that membership of the British Asso- 

 ciation was to be used or construed in 

 the way of valuable indorsement of sci- 

 entific position. The objects to be at- 

 tained were general, and by no means 

 the least of them was to act upon the 

 public mind in such a way as to awaken 

 a taste for scientific pursuits, to difiTuse 

 information, and incite an increasing 

 interest in scientific matters. The aim 

 of the organization was thus stated in 

 the constitution : " The Association con- 

 templates no interference with the 

 ground occupied by other institutions.. 

 Its objects are — to give a 'stronger im^- 

 pulse and a more systematic direction 

 to scientific inquiry ; to promote the in- 

 tercourse of those who cultivate science 

 in ditferent parts of the British Empire., 



