832 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for the time in toucli witli the great national association. Xor is 

 this aspect dependent upon a large attendance: indeed, the meetings 

 in smaller cities and at less conspicuous and accessible points have 

 had perhaps quite as important an influence on the country as the 

 great gatherings that are regarded as most " successful." The asso- 

 ciation has a twofold work — for its own membership and for the 

 public; — and it may be that while the large meetings yield more of 

 enjoyment and advantage to the former, tlie small meetings have 

 relatively more important influence on the latter. 



Amid the overwhelming attentions and courtesies of the recent 

 meeting in Boston, there were some who felt almost embarrassed by 

 the sense of being so largely recipients rather than givers. The cir- 

 cumstances, however, gave this character to the meeting; Boston 

 was able to do it, and proud to do it. Younger or smaller cities, 

 with less wealth of institutions and resources — literary, scientific, and 

 historical — could not do the like. There the conditions would be 

 reversed, and the association would be the giver rather than the re- 

 ceiver. One marked circumstance may illustrate this aspect. It has 

 been the custom of the association to give one or two public evening 

 lectures, '' complimentary to the citizens " of the place, on important 

 or attractive scientific topics; these have been prominent features of 

 popular interest during the week of the meeting. This year the only 

 evening lecture was rather for the benefit of the members, an ex- 

 position of the elaborate system of parks and water works of the city, 

 in which engineering, sanitation, and aesthetic taste have been united 

 to a degree unequaled elsewhere in the country. 



If we turn, in closing, to the future of the association, and present 

 some suggestions as to its enlarged usefulness and success, this would 

 be one of the most important lines of thought — the association as an 

 educating force. Standing as it does between both the local societies 

 and the specialist societies, limited as these are by neighborhood and 

 by subjects respectively, and the more advanced and select ISTational 

 Academy, the association may be likened in position to the college, 

 standing between the schools and academies and the advanced work 

 of the universities and professional institutions. It is the only body, 

 in its very nature and scope, that can bring genuine science before 

 and among the people at large. The " advancement of science " 

 has two aspects — the increase of numbers, of intercourse, and of 

 quality, among scientific students and workers, and the diifusion of 

 sound and accurate scientific information among the intelligent but 

 nonprofessional public. Both these ideas were aimed at in the plan 

 of the association; both of them have been largely realized in its 

 history, but the latter has rather been subordinate to the former. In 

 its new half century, the educational function should doubtless hold 



