THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 833 



a larger place; nor will this involve the least diminution, but rather 

 an increase, in its other aspects of usefulness. 



As to how this end may be attained, a few closing hints may 

 be offered. Every meeting of the association should aim to leave 

 a distinct impress on the community where it is held. In a general 

 way, as we have said, this has been done; but it has been rather 

 incidental than designed. Every community has its limited circle 

 of science-lovers, with perhaps a local society, little known, however, 

 and little recognized, amid the interests of business and politics; it 

 has its library and museum, its colleges and high schools, often 

 struggling, with limited facilities, to arouse or to maintain an interest 

 in scientific culture. All such local agencies should receive a definite 

 accession of strength from a visit of the association; this result 

 should be distinctly held in view as one of the objects of the meeting, 

 and the city or tov/n should find itself not only stirred and quickened 

 by the temporary assemblage of scientists and scholars, but perma- 

 nently enriched and uplifted. The association might well have a 

 special committee, composed of one or two representatives from each 

 of its sections, whose function should be to ascertain in advance the 

 status of local societies and institutions in the place of meeting, amd 

 provide for some enduring advantage to them, as a memorial of the 

 gathering and a return for the courtesies and hospitalities of the 

 community. AVhat forms such action should take would depend 

 altogether upon local conditions, and would vary greatly in conse- 

 quence thereof; but such a policy could not fail of important advan- 

 tages to the cities visited and conduce to the strength and prosperity 

 of the association. 



In the matter of lectures, too, the association can accomplish 

 much. The custom referred to, of giving one or more such lectures 

 by leading members of the body to the people of the city, should 

 be carefully maintained at each meeting. The recent case of Boston 

 was exceptional in its conditions, but ordinarily this should be one 

 of the " strong points." The character of the lectures should be 

 high, and yet popular in the best sense; not merely interesting or 

 attractive, but instructive. There are many important departments 

 of science bearing upon practical questions — of health, of social con- 

 ditions, of public advantage — upon which either little is generally 

 known or the partial knowledge derived from magazines, newspapers, 

 and irresponsible lecturers is crude and unreliable. To furnish a 

 clear, careful, and " up-to-date " presentation of some subjects of this 

 kind, in a form at once interesting and accurate, should form a part 

 of every meeting, and would be highly valued by the community. 

 Such addresses would probably be widely published by the higher- 

 class newspapers of the country, and would not only be useful to the 



VOL. LIU. — 58 



