1897] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL, 261 



ing-. The thirteen papers which were read occupy one 

 hundred and thirty-five pag-es. Why should people g-o 

 hundreds of miles to the meeting- to hear — 



13 papers which will occupy 135 pages and to miss — 



11 papers which will occupy 128 pag"es when every word 

 uttered at the meeting will be sent out in type? 



Notice this sample of wasted space : 



"Secretary. — This completes the list, Mr. President." 



"President. — We are now under the head of ordinary 

 business." 



"Secretary. — I wish to say that all members who have 

 read papers and have not handed them in are requested 

 to do so as soon as possible as I wish to have the Transac- 

 tions out about the first of December, if possible, and 

 surely before the holidays [Applause]." 



The Proceedings were out the following- June with 

 "March, 1897" printed on the cover. By waiting, one may 

 read every word and need not go to the meeting to hear any- 

 thing. 



There is probably not another society in the world that 

 prints all this minutiae. It is a waste of money. The most 

 successful societies now relegate all the business to secret 

 meetings of an executive board. Who cares to go from 

 New York to Toledo to hear the full society discuss the 

 advisability of printing 400 copies of the constitution ? The 

 excuse for this printing is that not one in twenty of the 

 members are present and that they must be informed of 

 what g-oes on. Many of them pa}'^ their dues and if they 

 do not get what is in the book, they g-et nothing therefor. 

 But this in turn becomes a cause of small meeting-s. 



Men do not like to confess their ambitions. If they did, 

 we should probably hear from nearly all those who con- 

 tribute to the Proceedings that they are candidates for 

 the un-American English honor of F. R, M. S. The Eng- 

 lish society judges candidates by their technical publica- 

 tions and judges Americans by this volume in question. 

 This fact is known by the members of this little g-roup. 

 Do not they act with this fact in view? And do they not 

 largely forg-et and ignore matters of general interest or 



