420 A CENTURY OF SCIENCE 



matic papers in the Proceedings of the United States 

 National Museum, the practical reports in the Bulletin of 

 the United States Fish Commission, the vast literature 

 issued yearly by the various divisions of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Public Health Service 

 and other Governmental departments, while the list of 

 publications by scientific societies, museums, and other 

 institutes is constantly increasing and covers all fields of 

 biological research. 



At the present time facilities for the publication of 

 research on any branch of zoology are as a rule entirely 

 adequate. For this highly satisfactory condition the 

 science is indebted to the support given five of its most 

 important journals by the Wistar Institute of Anatomy 

 and Biology. 



^Biological Associations. 



An important light on the history of biology in Amer- 

 ica can be thrown by a glance at the rise and development 

 of societies or associations for the report and discussion of 

 papers relating to that branch of science. In the first half 

 of the nineteenth century natural history societies were 

 formed in most cities and centers of learning. These 

 were very important factors in the promotion of scientific 

 research as well as in the diffusion of popular knowledge 

 of living things. The aims and activities of twenty-nine 

 such scientific societies, many of which were devoted 

 especially to natural history, are described in one of the 

 early volumes of the Journal (10, 369, 1826). The Con- 

 necticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, dating from 1799, 

 the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences from 1812, 

 and the New York Lyceum of Natural History (in 1876 

 name changed to New York Academy of Sciences) from 

 1817 are among the oldest of those which still exist. 



Of national institutions the American Philosophical 

 Society was founded in 1743, the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences in 1780, and the National Academy of 

 Sciences in 1863. 



The American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, with its thousands of members, now has separate 

 sections for each of the special branches of science. This 



