PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 287 



country during the past quarter of a century shows a strong 

 movement in a direction contrary to that which I have suggested 

 as desirable. Forty years ago the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science was divided into two sections, one of 

 which included those members who were most interested in the 

 so-called "exact sciences," mathematics, astronomy, physics and 

 chemistry, while the other was made up of students of the 

 "natural history sciences." During the week or ten days of its 

 annual meeting there were daily morning sessions in which both 

 sections participated and there were frequent evening meetings 

 at which addresses and lectures were given by eminent scholars 

 representing both grand divisions of science, each chosen for his 

 skill in presenting his subject in such a way that it was intelligible 

 and interesting to members who were on the other side of the 

 dividing line. " In this way the mathematician or physicist might 

 always have a fairly correct knowledge of the more important de- 

 velopments or the larger generalizations in biology or geology. 

 The doctrine of evolution, which came first from that side, was 

 quickly appreciated by students of exact science to which it has 

 since been profitably applied. They, in their turn, gave to the 

 naturalists the great principle of the conservation of energy, of 

 which great use has been made in the study of life in its various 

 forms. The psychological effect of the mingling of these two 

 rather diverse elements of the scientific body was also of great 

 value, and there is not the slightest doubt that both were greatly 

 benefited. 



In this bi-partite classification of its membership the asso- 

 ciation had followed the example of its English forerunner in a 

 practice which the latter still maintains. In the American Asso- 

 ciation the disintegration began about thirty years ago and at 

 present it is divided into twelve sections. 



In addition to this specialization within the largest scientific 

 body of the country, during the past twenty years an astonishing- 

 ly large number of other scientific societies have come into ex- 

 istence, each of which is specially devoted to a particular depart- 

 ment or, more often, to a subdivision of a particular department 

 of science. Indeed the pressing need of the hour is the 



