Editorial 111 



New Societies : The writer of Proverbs complained in 

 his day that "of the making of books there is no end." 

 The same might with almost equal propriety be applied 

 at the present time to the formation of scientific societies. 

 However, this seems to be a necessary condition of the 

 increase and specialization of knowledge and interests. 

 Two societies recently formed will no doubt be welcomed 

 by various members of The American Fisheries Society. 



The Ecological Society of America was formally or- 

 ganized at Columbus, during Convocation Week, and be- 

 gins work with a membership of more than a hundred. 

 Officers were elected as follows: President, Prof. V. E. 

 Shelf ord, of the University of Illinois; Vice-President, 

 Prof. W. M. Wheeler, of Harvard University ; and Secre- 

 tary-Treasurer, Dr. Forrest Shreve, of the Desert Labor- 

 atory. It is the intention of the society to hold frequent 

 field meetings for the study of ecological problems. Nu- 

 merous members of the new society are well known for 

 their work on various phases of aquatic biology. 



The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetol- 

 ogists is a still more recent organization formed at the 

 first general meeting held in New York City on March 

 8, 1916. The purpose of the society, according to the 

 by-laws, is to advance the science of fishes, batrachians 

 and reptiles. As the new society is likely to be much 

 more technical than the American Fisheries Society and 

 has a different purpose in dealing with fishes, it is not 

 likely that the two societies will overlap in much of their 

 work even in this group. Most of the officers are well 

 known to our Society: President, Professor Bashford 

 Dean; Vice-Presidents, Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, Dr. Bar- 

 ton W. Evermann and Dr. Charles R. Eastman; Treas- 

 urer, Mr. Raymond L. Ditmars , and Secretary, Mr. John 

 T. Nichols. 



At the first general meeting twenty-two papers deal- 

 ing with various phases of the society's work were read. 

 The little journal Copeia, which has been running a 

 couple of years, has been adopted as the official publica- 

 tion of the society, and will no doubt be greatly enlarged. 



