Sjo POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lege and university professors can best gather in the summer, while 

 the field workers in the United States Geological Survey are apt to 

 be far away at that time, and can better convene in the winter or 

 spring. So far as this department is concerned, moreover, and 

 probably in others also, the number of papers offered for reading and 

 discussion is amply sufficient to fill the whole available time of both 

 the Geological Society and Section E of the association; and there 

 is room enough and- work enough for all, without fear of conflict. 

 The same is true of Section H and the Folklore Society, and of 

 Section G and forestry; while the stimulus and the freedom of 

 separate and special organizations tend strongly to the advantage of 

 those branches of science, so long as there is co-operation with the 

 general body of the association. 



The question has some resemblance to that of State rights, or 

 " home rule," and national unity, in American politics. Elements 

 of advantage and of power there are, in local associations and local 

 pride and local tradition, that are of the highest value, not only to 

 the community that cherishes them, but to the entire nation, and 

 which could not be developed under a centralized government, while 

 they should never be carried to the danger of disintegration. So it is 

 with the specialist societies: so long as they are willing and ready 

 to co-operate w^ith the broader work of the association, each can help 

 the other in the interest of science as a whole. 



Another change, of a different kind, has also taken place, and 

 has perhaps weakened the association. Some years since there was 

 organized the more advanced and select body known as the I^ational 

 Academy of Sciences, limited in number, confined altogether to men 

 who had achieved important results, holding aloof from the more 

 popular aspects of science, and standing at certain times in a some- 

 what advisory relation to the general Government. It had its proto- 

 type in the Institute of France, and admission into it is a distin- 

 guished honor. Here again was a natural outgrowth of the progress 

 of science, for which the association had prepared the way, much as 

 the college does for the university. But it is a matter for regret that, 

 in many cases, the men who have reached the " inner circle " of the 

 academy have thenceforth disappeared from the association, or at 

 least from active interest in it. This is not a just course; the sci- 

 entist has no right to withdraw himself from the needs and interests 

 of the people, even under the plea of lofty devotion to science for its 

 own sake. To any who are so disposed, whether consciously or un- 

 consciously, the words of Professor McGee, above quoted, may be 

 earnestly recalled, when he speaks of " science-builders, who have 

 freely contributed their mental and moral riches to their younger 

 and poorer fellows," and also the strong and wise expressions of 



