Sept. 9, 1875J 



NATURE 



425 



its previous^meetings have surpassed this one in respect 

 to the number of members present, but none can be 

 regarded as superior to it in the general excellence of the 

 communications presented. The causes of the slight 

 falling off in attendance may be briefly mentioned. The 

 cities of the Atlantic sea-board where local scientific 

 societies have been longest in existence, and where a 

 large proportion of the membership of the Association is 

 resident, are 750 to i.ooo miles, chiefly eastward, from 

 Detroit. That city, on the boundary line between the 

 United States and Canada, is also considerably to the 

 northward of the larger centres of population in the 

 Western States. Thus, then, the assembling at Detroit 

 required, in the great majority of instances, a long, 

 tedious, and rather expensive journey. It need not be 

 concealed that, owing to the widespread effects of the 

 depression in all branches of business in the United 

 States — extending even to the learned professions — the 

 pecuniary means of members were in many cases more 

 restricted than usual ; and this fact in many cases 

 decided adversely the question of attendance at the 

 meeting. 



A protracted series of discussions in that and previous 

 years resulted at the meeting of 1874 in the Association's 

 adopting a new constitution, which first displayed its 

 general effects at Detroit. The two prominent features 

 of change were modelled upon the system of the British 

 Association. A division was made between Fellows and 

 the ,rest of the members, prominence or usefulness in 

 science being required for election to the honours of 

 Fellowship. This elective process did not, however, apply 

 to the Fellows who became such between the meetings at 

 Hartford and Detroit, and consequently many have been 

 admitted to the dignity who have no claim to it by scien- 

 tific labours. To the Fellows rather than to the general 

 membership, the guidance and management of the Asso- 

 ciation is confided. The effect of this change was very 

 apparent at Detroit in the exclusion of a large number of 

 communications which would easily have passed the 

 ordeal of committees and been read at the meetings of 

 previous years. The chosen remainder reached a higher 

 average of excellence than has been hitherto attained, and 

 in the section of Physic?, Mathematics, and Chemistry, 

 the weeding process so reduced the number of communi- 

 cations that the supply gave out before the close of the 

 meetini? ; but this may also be accounted for by the fact 

 that the sub-section of Chemistry, for the first time orga- 

 nised and separately at work, much facilitated the dis- 

 patch of business in Section A. A variety of concurrent 

 causes presented a like result from being reached in 

 Secnon B, devoted to Geology and Biology. The geo- 

 logists are always largely in force when the Association 

 meets west of the Alleghanies, the development of the 

 mining resources of the newer States and Temtories 

 rendering their labours of immediate economic interest 

 and value. There was an extraordinary accession of 

 ethnological papers, prompted chiefly by numerous dis- 

 coveries recently made in new and very thorough explo- 

 rations of Indian mounds. The great injuries which the 

 food crops of the United States have suftered from insects 

 within a year or two, called forth several papers of merit 

 from the leading entomologists, as well as much debate 

 and some action on the part of the Association. Besides 

 all the foregoing subjects, there was an unusual number 

 of papers on specific investigations in natural his- 

 tory. These were largely the fruit of the seed sown 

 at the Anderson School on Penikese Island, by the 

 lamented Agassiz. The pupils there instructed, mostly 

 for the first time, in observing the habits of animals, 

 dissecting their forms and studying their differences, were 

 from all parts of the Union. Nearly all of them are 

 teachers in high schools and the smaller colleges. Having 

 been thus started on the path of original investigation, 

 they already find something new to relate, and their 



papers had a charm of freshness, very different from 

 those of older members who have found their own easier 

 grooves of thought and lapsed into routine, j 



Another important feature introduced at this year's 

 meeting by the new constitution, resulted from the elec- 

 tion of two vice-presidents, who were the presiding 

 officers respectively of Sections A and B. Following in 

 this respect the system of the British Association, each of 

 these officers opened his Section with an address, in 

 which a department of science was made the subject of a 

 broad survey. Hitherto the address of the retiring 

 President has been the only one at each meeting of this 

 character ; the change gives two such addresses in addi- 

 tion, and may in future years give a greater number. At 

 the Detroit meeting the address of Prof John L. Le 

 Conte, of Philadelphia, the retiring President, brought 

 forward in a general way the aid to a knowledge of past 

 conditions on the globe, which might be derived from a 

 study of existing forms. Prof Le Conte's own lines of 

 investigation have been more especially confined to the 

 study of insects, and from the facts thus derived he drew 

 most of his illustrations. He regards organic life as fur- 

 nishing everywhere evidences of design, and a principal 

 portion of the address was devoted to deprecating the 

 conflict between science and religion, and to urging 

 patience rather than controversy. Prof H. A. Newton, 

 the astronomer, of Yale College, delivered the opening 

 address of Section A, He urged the study of pure 

 mathematics as a basis for work in all the sciences ; 

 adducing, through a wide range of illustration, the evi- 

 dences ofits value in advancing knowledge. The want 

 of a thorough knowledge of the higher mathematics he 

 regarded as a frequent defect among American men of 

 science, while their dependence upon mathematical 

 methods in all branches of investigation was every day 

 becoming more absolute. 



The address of Prof. J. W. Dawson, Principal of 

 McGill College, Montreal, before Section B, was one of the 

 most important given at the meeting. He is well known as 

 the most able and prominent anti- Darwinian in America. 

 His address took the form of a discussion of the question, 

 " What do we know of the origin and history of life on 

 our planet ? " Space will not permit an analysis of this 

 address, which reviewed the evidence furnished by the 

 Silurian fossils at great length, regarding it as incon- 

 clusive when applied to the support of evolution theories. 

 Prof Dawson vigorously opposed the hypothesis that 

 organic life is a product of mere physical forces. 



Thus the weight of utterance in two of the ad- 

 dresses is adverse to Darwinian theories, but this is 

 no index to the general sentiment of the leading students 

 of biology in the Association. The officers chosen for 

 next year include names noted in connection with the 

 advocacy of the most advanced evolutionary doctrines. 

 The venerable President-elect, Prof Wm. B. Rogers, of 

 Boston, was, in yeais gone by, the most successful 

 antagonist, in discussions of the new theories, that Prof. 

 Agassiz encountered in America. Prof Edward S. 

 Morse, Vice-presidefit-elect, of Section *B, has attained 

 prominence in the expression of strong Darwinian views 

 before large popular audiences in almost every city of the 

 United States. Prof. Charles A. Young, of Dartmouth 

 College, well known by his spectroscopic researches on the 

 sun's chromosphere, was elected Vice-president to preside 

 over Section A. It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance 

 that six out of eightof the officers fornext year are residents 

 of the New England States, the three highest positions fall- 

 ing to their share. The citizens of Detroit did everything in 

 their power to make the visit of the Association pleasant. 

 Several social entertainments and excursions by boat and 

 rail were provided, and the Detroit Scientific Association 

 aided materially in these hospitalities. The next meeting 

 will be held August 23, 1876, at Buflalo.* W. C. W. 



* Next week we shall referjto some of the principal papers in detail. 



