ASSOCIATIONS FOR ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (AMERICAN.) 



116 persons were passed for election and the pro- 

 gramme of the week arranged, including the 

 consideration of the papers presented for ap- 

 proval. The actual exercises began on the morn- 

 ing of Aug. 20, when, in the Hall of Representa- 

 tives, President Mendenhall called the organiza- 

 tion to order. After a prayer by Rev. Carmi A. 

 Van Anda, the presiding officer introduced Pres- 

 ident Goodale, who then took the chair, after 

 which addresses of welcome by George W. Sloan 

 (chairman of the local committee), Lieut.-Gov. 

 Ira J. Chase, and Mayor Thomas L. Sulli- 

 van were made and appropriately responded to. 

 The announcements and reports followed. 

 Of these, that by the permanent secretary re- 

 ferred to the rapid growth of the association, 

 which, when it met in Indianapolis, in 1871, had 

 668 members, of whom 196 were present during 

 the meetings. The association now had 2,099 

 members, and 219 members in attendance. The 

 financial statement showed that after the meet- 

 ing at Toronto last year there was a deficit of 33 

 cents. Since then there had been received $7,- 

 014.42, of which $400 was a gift from the local 

 committee at Toronto and $500 a gift from a 

 lady member of that city. These two gifts were 

 placed in the Research fund, which now amounts 

 to more than $6,000, the interest only being used 

 for defraying expenses in intelligent research. 

 The new account showed a cash balance for the 

 year of $977.42, after deduction of expenses. 



Address of the Retiring- President Prof. 

 Mendenhall chose as the subject of his address 

 " The Relations of Science and Scientific Men to 

 the General Public." After some introductory 

 remarks, he referred to the work of the associa- 

 tion and told how, in fulfillment of its mission 

 as defined by the constitution, " the organization 

 had been singularly fortunate in giving a 

 stronger and more general impulse and a more 

 systematic direction to scientific research in this 

 country, and its meetings have been the means 

 of disseminating proper methods of investiga- 

 tion and study throughout the land. In procur- 

 ing for the labors of scientific men increased 

 facilities and a wider usefulness it had been less 

 successful." Then, passing directly to his theme 

 and in criticism of the relation between the man 

 of science and the public, he said : " The scien- 

 tific dilettante, or worse, the charlatan, is often 

 much nearer the public than the genuine man of 

 science, and the inability to discriminate some- 

 times results in disaster, in which both science 

 and the public suffer." But too often this is the 

 fault of the scientist, for " many scientific men 

 of excellent reputation are to-day guilty of the 

 crime of unnecessary and deliberately planned 

 mystifications ; in fact, almost by common con- 

 sent, this fault is overlooked in men of distin- 

 guished ability, if indeed it does not add a luster 

 to the brilliancy of their attainments." Discus- 

 sing this thought at length, he closed that por- 

 tion of his address with : " Even the great mas- 

 ters in science, then, can well afford to do what 

 is in their power to popularize their work and 

 that of their colleagues, so that through closer re- 

 lations with a more appreciative public their op- 

 portunities may be enlarged and their numbers 

 increased." He then criticised the man of sci- 

 ence for assuming superior wisdom on subjects 

 outside his own specialty thus : " A distinguished 



botanist is consulted and advises concerning the 

 location of the natural-gas field ; a mathema- 

 tician advises a company in which he is a stock- 

 holder in regard to the best locality for boring 

 for oil ; and a celebrated biologist examines and 

 makes public a report upon a much talked-of 

 invention in which the principles of physics and 

 engineering are alone involved." Prof. Menden- 

 hall found another element of weakness in the 

 scientific man, because " he is often less of a 

 utilitarian than he should be," and deplored the 

 tendency among scientists " to despise the useful 

 and the practical in science." As illustrating the 

 injustice of such an opinion among the best men, 

 Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry were men- 

 tioned as scientists who were intensely practical 

 and gave the world valuable inventions. The 

 common belief that scientific men were narrow 

 and incompetent to take an interest in public 

 affairs was considered. He said : " This was not 

 the case in earlier times, as the names of Frank- 

 lin, Jefferson, and the Adamses prove. In 

 France scientific men have distinguished them- 

 selves in public affairs, the present President hav- 

 ing been an engineer." His closing remarks 

 were on the obligations of the general public to 

 the man of science, and concluded with : " Prove 

 this by comparing the world with science with 

 the world without science. Take as an illustra- 

 tion that which less than two hundred years ago 

 was but a spark, a faint spark exhibited on rare 

 occasions by the scientific men of that time. 

 With this spark, thanks to science, the whole 

 world is now aflame. Time and space are prac- 

 tically annihilated ; night is turned into day ; 

 social life is almost revolutionized ; and scores 

 of things which only a few years ago would have 

 been pronounced impossible are being accom- 

 plished daily. Many millions of dollars of cap- 

 ital and many thousands of men are engaged in 

 the development of this agent so purely a crea- 

 tion of science that the Supreme Court of the 

 land has already decided that it has no material 

 existence. Surely science, which has brought us 

 all these blessings, with thousands besides, is 

 worthy of every care and consideration at the 

 hands of a generous and appreciative public." 



Proceeding's of the Sections. The associa- 

 tion is divided into eight sections, each of which 

 meets separately and is presided over by an of- 

 ficer having the rank of vice-president of the 

 association. Each section perfects its own or- 

 ganization by electing a fellow to represent it in 

 the council, a sectional committee of three fel- 

 lows, a fellow or member to the nominating 

 committee, and a committee of three members 

 or fellows to nominate officers of the section for 

 the next meeting. As soon as this organization 

 is effected the secretary of the section reports to 

 the general secretary, who then provides him 

 with a list of papers that, having been consid- 

 ered suitable by the council, may be read before 

 the section. The proceedings on the first day are 

 usually confined to organization and the delivery 

 of the vice-presidential address. 



Sections. A. Mathematics and Astronomy. 

 This section was presided over by Seth. C. Chand- 

 ler, of Harvard University, whose address was on 

 "Variable Stars." He described the discovery 

 of how the light variations follow a moderately 

 regular course and the star gradually declines 



