66 



/ THE HISTORY OF ECOLOGY 



Table 3. American Ecological Symposia, 1930-42 (Continued) 



terly Review reflected the positive bias of 

 the editor (Pearl), or whether other factors 

 are involved. 



Symposia 



During the decade, particularly the lat- 

 ter part, the symposium became a more 

 popular and important medium for the ex- 

 change of ideas. It allowed speciaUsts to 

 meet, to discuss a topic of current interest, 

 and, in many cases, to pubhsh the entire 

 record of the proceedings. From the histori- 

 cal view the symposia are excellent criteria 

 of the temper of the times. They are data 

 on subject matter and personaUties. In this 

 light we present the following tabulation 

 of those American symposia held between 

 1930 and 1942 (including one held in 

 1946) that contributed more or less directly 

 to ecological thought (Table 3). 



The following generalizations seem war- 



ranted from an examination of the table: 



1. There was an active interest in ecolog- 

 ical problems per se. 



2. There was also a keen interest in co- 

 ordinating ecologic with other phases of 

 biology. 



3. The two topics most frequently dis- 

 cussed were ecological relations of popula- 

 tions and ecological aspects of evolution and 

 speciation. 



4. A variety of societies and many inves- 

 tigators cooperated in the entei-prises. 



5. Apparently, no great difiiculties were 

 encountered in getting such symposia pub- 

 lished. 



Synthesis Articles 



Our final method of appraising the eco- 

 logical trends of the period is to examine 

 certain articles that were concerned with 

 synthesizing an aspect of ecological theory 



