300 
the subject “Applied Botany—Retrospective and Pro- 
spective.” Prof. C. R. Van Hise, of the University of 
Wisconsin, before the Section of Geology and Geography, 
on the subject “The Training and Work of a Geologist.” 
Prof. David Starr Jordan, of Stanford University, before 
the Section of Zoology, on the subject “The History of 
Ichthyology.” Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology, before the Section of Anthropology, 
on the subject “Prehistoric Porto Rico.” Mr. John 
Hyde, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, before the 
Section of Social and Economic Science, on the subject 
“Some Statistical and Economic Aspects of Preventable 
Diseases.” 
Certain important amendments to the constitution were 
made. The terms of office of secretaries of sections were 
lengthened from one year to five years. The council was 
given the power to add to its number nine Fellows whose 
terms of office shall be three years. The sectional com- 
mittees were given greater permanency by provision for 
the election of one member each year who shall serve five 
years. All the recent changes in the constitution have 
aimed towards a greater permanency in the executive 
officers of the Association, of the council and of the sec- 
tional committees, and have increased the powers of the 
council. 
The report of the treasurer and the financial report of 
the permanent secretary show the finances of the Associa- 
tion to be in a prosperous condition, and although they 
have by no means reached the standing of those of the 
British Association, the American Association is able 
this year to devote more funds to research grants. This 
year grants were made to committees on anthropometric 
measurements, the study of blind vertebrates, the rela- 
tions of plants and climate, the atomic weight of thorium, 
and the determination of the velocity of light. 
The next meeting of the Association will be held at 
Washington, from December 29, 1902, to January 3, 1903. 
The change in the time of meeting is a very important 
one and was made only after the most careful consider- 
ation. American universities and colleges have length- 
ened their Christmas holidays so as to enable the 
members of the scientific faculties to attend such winter 
meetings, and the week which contains the first day of 
January each year has been designated as ‘“‘Convoca- 
tion Week.” Not only will the national scientific societies 
of the United States meet during this week under the 
auspices of the American Association, but the other 
learned societies of the country will also adopt this plan. 
The president elected for the Washington meeting is 
Prof. Ira Remsen, the well-known chemist, recently made 
president of Johns Hopkins University. The vice- 
presidents of the different sections will be as follows :— 
Mathematics and Astronomy, Prof. George Bruce 
Halsted, of the University of Texas; Physics, Prof. 
E. F. Nichols, of Dartmouth College ; Chemistry, Prof. 
Charles Baskerville, of the University of North Carolina ; 
Mechanical Science and Engineering, Prof. C. A. 
Waldo, of Purdue University ; Geology and Geography, 
Prof. W. M. Davis, of Harvard University ; Zoology, 
Prof. C. W. Hargitt, of Syracuse University ; Botany, Mr. 
F. V. Coville, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture ; 
Anthropology, Mr. G. M. Dorsey, of the Field Columbian 
Museum, Chicago; Social and Economic Science, Mr. 
H. T. Newcomb, of Philadelphia, editor of 7ze Rat/way 
World. 
At the Washington meeting many additional societies 
will come into affiliation with the American Association, 
notably the American Society of Naturalists, with its 
group of special societies which have always held a mid- 
winter meeting, namely, the Society of Morphologists, 
the Society of Anatomists, the Society of Physiologists, 
the Society of Psychologists, the Society of Bacterio- 
logists, the Society of Plant Morphologists, and others. 
NO. 1708, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[JuLy 24, 1902 
ADDRESS BY PROF. C. S. MINOT, PRESIDENT OF THE 
ASSOCIATION. 
The Problem of Consctousness tn its Biological Aspects. 
UR Association meets in Pittsburg for the first time. We 
are glad to indicate by our assembling here our appreciation 
of the immense work for the promotion of education and science 
which has been begun in this city and already is of national 
value. It has been initiated with so great wisdom and zeal 
that we expect it to render services to knowledge of the highest 
character, and we are glad to be the guests of a city and of 
institutions which are contributing so nobly to the cause of 
science. ‘ 
We may congratulate ourselves on the bright prospects of the 
Association. Our membership has grown rapidly, and ought 
soon to exceed four thousand. Every member should endeavour 
to secure new adherents. For our next meeting we are to break 
with the long tradition of summer gatherings and assemble in- 
stead at New Year’s time, presumably at Washington. To 
render this possible it was necessary to secure the cooperation 
of our universities, colleges and technical schools to set aside 
the week in which the first of January falls as ‘‘ Convocation 
Week ” for the meetings of learned societies. The plan, owing 
to the cordial and almost universal support given by the higher 
educational institutions, has been successfully carried through. 
For the winter meetings we have, further, succeeded in securing 
the cooperation of numerous national societies. The change in 
our time of meeting is an experiment, which we venture upon 
with the greater confidence because of the success of our 
present meeting in Pittsburg. 
For my address this evening I have chosen the theme, 
“The Problem of Consciousness in sits Biological Aspects.” 
I hope both to convince you that the time has come to take 
up consciousness as a strictly biological problem, and also to 
indicate the nature of that problem and some of the actual 
opportunities for investigating it. It is necessary to begin with 
a few words on the philosophical interpretation. We shall 
then describe the function of consciousness in animal life, and 
consider its part in the evolution of animals and of man. The 
views to be stated suggest certain practical recommendations, 
after presenting which I shall conclude by ‘offering an hypo- 
thesis of the relation of consciousness to matter and force. 
Consciousness is at once the oldest problem of philosophy and 
one of the youngest problems of science. The time is not yet 
for giving a satisfactory definition of consciousness, and we must 
fain content ourselves. with the decision of the metaphysician, 
who postulates consciousness as an ultimate datum or concept 
of thought, making the brief dictum cogito, ergo sem the pivot 
about which his system revolves. I have endeavoured vainly 
to discover, by reading and by questioning those philosophers 
and psychologists whom I know, some deeper analysis of 
consciousness, if possible, resolving it into something more 
ultimate. 
Opinions concerning consciousness are many, and often so 
diverse as to be mutually exclusive, but they may be divided 
into two principal classes. The first class includes all those 
views which make of consciousness a real phenomenon, the 
second those views which interpret itas an epiphenomenon. We 
are, I think, practically all agreed that the fundamental question 
is, Does or does not consciousness affect directly the course of 
events? Or stated in other words, Is consciousness a true 
cause? In short, we encounter at the outset the problem of free- 
will, of which more later. 
The opinion that consciousness is an epiphenomenon has 
gained renewed prominence in recent times, for it is, so to speak, 
a collateral result of that great movement of European thought 
which has culminated in the development of the doctrine of 
monism. Monism itself is postulated chiefly upon the two 
greatest discoveries of the nineteenth century, the law of the 
conservation of energy and the law of the evolution of species. 
Both laws establish a greater unity in the phenomena of the 
universe than mankind had previously been able to accept. In 
the physical world, instead of many forces we now recognise only 
one force,’ which assumes various forms of energy, and in the 
living world we recognise one life, which manifests itself in 
many types of form. With these two unities in mind, what 
could be nearer than the thought that the unity goes still deeper, 
1 Force is used throughout this address as more likely to be understood 
by a general audience. It would be more correct to use ‘‘energy” in the 
sense in which the word is now applied technically in physics. 
