4 GILBERT 



Committee of Philos.opJncal Society. Cojiimittee of Biological Society. 



John W. Powell. Lester F. Ward. 



Theodore Gill. G. Brown Goode. 



James C. Welling. Charles V. Riley. 



John S. Billings. Richard Rathbun. 



William B. Taylor. John W. Chickering, Jr. 



Committee of Anthropological Society. 



John W. Powell. 

 Garrick Mallery. 

 James C. Welling. 



The plan was adopted in its entirety by the Anthropological 

 and Biological Societies but was rejected by the Philosophical, 

 and thus failed of realization. 



In 1884 were organized the Chemical Society of Washington 

 and the Entomological Society of Washington, in 1893 the Geo- 

 logical Society of Washington, and in 1888 the National Geo- 

 graphic Society with headquarters in Washington. The Chem- 

 ical, Geological, and Geographic trenched on the field of the 

 Philosophical Society, and the Entomological on that of the 

 Biological. 



During the period characterized by this rapid differentiation 

 the opposite tendency found expression in cooperation. Follow- 

 ing the initiative of the Philosophical Society, in 1883, all of 

 the organizations except the Medical adopted the custom of in- 

 viting the members of the other organizations to listen to the 

 annual address of the presiding officer. This custom has con- 

 tinued to the present time with occasional exceptions due chiefly 

 to the technical nature of subjects chosen for addresses. 



In the spring of 1882 the Anthropological and Biological So- 

 cieties, through the agency of a joint committee, gave a course 

 of nine popular lectures in the National Museum, thus initiating 

 the series since known as the Saturday lectures. Similar courses 

 were provided in the following years, and in 1885 and 1886 the 

 Philosophical Society joined in the work. 



Early in the year 1888 the desire for federation which had 

 inspired the attempt to organize an Academy, led to a move- 

 ment to secure a permanent committee to deal with questions of 



