CHAPTEK XX. 

 RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION. 



What, then, is the Agassiz Association as it ap- 

 pears to-day? And what claims has it upon the interest 

 of the public ? It is a union of local societies, each num- 

 bering from 4 to 120 members, of all ages from 4 to 84. 

 Our total membership is above ten thousand. We are 

 distributed in all the States and Territories with very 

 few exceptions and have strong branch societies and ac- 

 tive members in Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, 

 France, Chili, and Japan. 



The local societies are known as chapters. They 

 take their names from the towns where they are es- 

 tablished, and are further distinguished by the letters 

 of the alphabet. Thus the first chapter established in 

 New York City was called New York (A); the second, 

 New York (B), and so on. They also have the privilege, 

 if desired, of adopting such other distinctive names as 

 they may choose, such as 'The Manhatta.n Chapter,' 'The 

 Hyatt Chapter,' 'The Cuvier Chapter,' etc. 



The word 'association' was chosen instead of 'so- 

 ciety' from an impression, perhaps not entirely well 

 founded, that that word could be taken to mean 'a union 

 of societies,' just as society means 'a union of individu- 

 als.' And our first plan was to have these local socie- 

 ties entirely independent of one another, except in the 

 general name and in the purpose of studying nature. At 

 that time no conventions were thought of, assemblies 

 were not in mind, courses of study had not been con- 

 templated, a badge was not designed, nor had we sup- 

 posed it possible that thorough scientific work could 

 be systematically done by many of the chapters, if at 

 all. 



