48 



till ill actual use woulrt be of great practical value. Such displays have 

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

 tions of the American Association and of its affiliated societies and with 

 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 

 examjile, one scarcely e\'er visits a laboratory for the first time without 

 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 the 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 tor 

 personal association jind ins])natioii. The testimony of all older members 

 agrees upon this as tiie pleasantest and most profitable feature of the 

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

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

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

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

 heaits of men ai'c bonnd toir<'tlier. tiie policies of men will fail; liecause 

 the only thing that makes cla>:ses in a great nation is that they do not 

 understiiiid that their interests are identical." Tersonal acquaintance will 

 do more than ;iny otiier one thing to liring about a common gooil fellow- 

 slii[) and mutual ai)pri'ciatioii which will insure that the other objects of 

 the .Vcademy will flourish througli stimulus to thought and work and wider 

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

 limits to a scientific organization, lait at least they do serve to bind 

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

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

 graphical community. This alone is an iill-sufticieiit justification for the 

 existence of our stjite organization. 



Man is a social l)eing, and nothing else is so potent in his develop- 

 ment as personal contact with his fellows. Wagner has made much of 

 isolation as a factor in evolution. .Jordan insists upon its necessity if 

 animals are to maintain tliemselves and develop into a species. This 



