48 



till ill actual use would be of great lu'actieal value. Such displays have 

 become cue of the most acceptable features of the meetings of the sec- 

 tions of the American Association iind of its affiliated societies and witli 

 our smaller and more intimate membership they might well prove of equal 

 or greater value. Reference is not made here to the elaborate display of 

 a single worker so much as to the exhibition of a number of less preten- 

 tious bits of apparatus or ingenious devices or illustrative specimens. For 

 example, one scarcely ever visits a laboratory for the first time withoiit 

 seeing some ingenious device that has been worked out to meet a real need. 

 Usually the same need is found elsewhere, and the display of the device at 

 such a meeting as ours would command an appreciative welcome and be 

 both suggestive and helpful. 



The most important function of the Academy lies outside of tlie reg- 

 ular program, though in a large measure the latter conditions its success. 

 I refer to the social side of the meetings — the intercourse ol members ior 

 personal association and ins])iration. Tlie testimony of all older members 

 agrees uiion tins as the pleasantest and most profitable feature of the 

 Academy. During the imsiness or teaching year we are largely isolated 

 from each other. Sometimes a want of sympathy witli or even distrust ol 

 the work of others arises from a lack of personal acquaintance and a knowl- 

 edge of what they are doings. President Wilson has said that "Unless the 

 hearts of men ai-e bound together, the policies of men will fail ; because 

 the only thing that makes classes in a great nation is that they do mjt 

 understand that their interests are identical." Personal acquaintance will 

 do more than any other one thing to bring about a common good fellow- 

 ship and mutual apiireciation which will insure that the other obiects oC 

 the Academy will lioui-ish through stimulus to thought and work and wider 

 usefulness. The political boundaries of a state may not serve best as 

 limits to a scientific organization, but at least tbcy do serve to bind 

 together into a practical working unit for the purpose of actpiaintance, 

 friendship, and cordial relations the scientific workers of a limited geo- 

 graphical community. This alone is an all-sufiicient justification for tlie 

 existence of our stjite organization. 



Man is a social being, and nothing elsi' is so potent in his develop- 

 ment as jiersonal coiifa<t with liis fellows. \\'agner has iii;ide much of 

 isolation as a factor in cxoliition. .loi-dan insists iiiton its necessity if 

 animals ;ire to maintain themsehcs .iiid (le\ci<i|i into a sp(>cies. 'I'liis 



