January 23, 1913] 



NATURE 



5«i 



THE CLEVELAND MEETING OF THE 

 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



THE sixty-fourth meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science was held 

 in Cleveland, Ohio, from December 30, 1912, to 

 January 4, 1913, under the presidency of Prof. E. C. 

 Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observa- 

 tory. The meetings of the association were accom- 

 panied, as usual, by the meetings of a large number 

 of affiliated societies of national scope but of specific 

 object. Twenty-five such societies met this year in 

 Cleveland at the same time, and, in part, in close 

 cooperation with the eleven sections of the American 

 Association. 



The meetings were held in the buildings of the 

 Western Reserve University and of the Case School 

 of Applied Science, which, with the exception of the 

 Medical College of the Western Reserve University, 

 stand upon the same campus in the eastern part of 

 the city. The facilities for the meetings were admir- 

 able, and have seldom been excelled in the history of 

 such meetings. There were about one thousand 

 scientific men and women in attendance, or about 

 one-half the attendance of the Washington meeting 

 of last year, which is accounted for by the fact that 

 while Cleveland is a large city and a manufacturing 

 and commercial centre, it has not the large museums 

 and scientific organisations of Washington. Never- 

 theless, some of the meetings were more largely 

 attended than last year. The physicists, for example, 

 and the psychologists, as well, held the largest sessions 

 in their history, and most of the meetings were 

 marked by exceptionally full programmes of great 

 interest. 



The growing tendency of the past few years to 

 emphasise the work of the affiliated societies, more or 

 less at the expense of the sections themselves, was in 

 evidence, and the recent movement was continued 

 whereby it has been arranged that when a national 

 scientific society corresponding in its subject with a 

 given section meets with the association, the sec- 

 tional programme is abandoned except for a session 

 of general interest, other papers offered to the section 

 being transferred to the corresponding society. It is 

 an interesting movement, and quite different from 

 the general tendency in the British Association. 



The titles of the addresses of the retiring vice- 

 presidents of the different sections were as follows : — 

 Section A, Mathematics and Astronomy, "The Spec- 

 troscopic Determination of Stellar Velocities, con- 

 sidered Practically," by Dr. E. B. Frost, Yerkes 

 Observatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin ; Section B, 

 Physics, " Unitary Theories in Physics," by Dr. R. A. 

 Miilikan, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; 

 Section E, Geology and Geography, "The Significance 

 of the Pleistocene Molluscs," by Dr. B. Shimek, State 

 University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa ; Section F, 

 Zoology, "Is it Worth While?" bv Dr. H. F. Nach- 

 trieb. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minne- 

 sota; Section G, Botany, "The Scope of State Natural 

 History Surveys," by Dr. F. C. Newcombe, Univer- 

 sity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Section H, 

 Anthropology and Psychology, "The Study of Man," 

 bv Dr. G. T. Ladd, Yale University, New Haven, 

 Conn.; Section I, Social and Economic Science, "The 

 Comparative Measurements of the Changing Cost of 

 Living," by Dr. J. P. Norton, Yale University, New 

 Haven, Conn. ; Section K, Physiology and Experi- 

 mental Medicine, "The Function of Individual Cells 

 in Nerve Centres." by Dr. W. T. Porter, Harvard 

 Medical School, Boston, Mass.; Section L, Educa- 

 tion, " Educational Diagnosis," by Dr. E. L. Thorn- 

 dike, Columbia University. 



In a number of instances, the meetings for the 



NO. 2256. VOL. qol 



delivery of the vice-presidential addresses were 

 arranged with following symposia often in joint 

 session between one or more societies and sections on 

 subjects closely related to the subjects of the vice- 

 presidential addresses. In Section G (Botany), an 

 interesting symposium was held on permeability and 

 osmotic pressure, the leading paper on this title being 

 presented by Dr. Jacques Loeb, now of Columbia 

 University. To this discussion, Dr. H. C. Jones con- 

 tributed a paper on the bearing of osmotic pressure 

 on the development of physical or general chemistry; 

 Dr. W. J. V. Osterhout discussed the permeability 

 of plant cells ; and Dr. B. E. Livingston discussed the 

 part played by osmotic pressure and related forces as 

 environmental factors. 



Section B (Physics) and the American Physical 

 Society presented as a joint interest programme papers 

 on photographing and analysing sound waveSj by 

 Dr. D. C. Miller, of the Case School of Applied 

 Science, Cleveland, Ohio ; the reaction of the room 

 on the source of sound, by Dr. W. C. Sabine, Har- 

 vard University, Cambridge, Mass. ; and some points 

 concerning absolute measurements of sound, by Dr. 

 A. G. Webster, Clarlc University, Worcester, Mass. 



The programme of Section I (Social and Economic 

 Science) was largely devoted to conservation topics, 

 one day being given to a symposium on the con- 

 servation of human life and health. The American 

 Association of Anatomists and the American Physio- 

 logical Society had especially long and interesting 

 programmes. The American Society of Zoologists 

 divided its programme into sections on the following 

 topics : ecology and behaviour ; comparative anatomy ; 

 comparative physiology ; embryology and develop- 

 ment ; cytology ; and genetics. 



The American Chemical Society, an organisation of 

 great strength, this year for the first time in many 

 years has decided not to meet at the same time and 

 place with the American Association. This is a new 

 policy which will be given a trial. The Chemical 

 Section of the association (Section C) will, it is hoped, 

 continue its activities, but at the present meeting the 

 address of the vice-president was not given. Owing 

 to the absence, on account of ill-health, of the vice- 

 president of Section D (Mechanical Science and 

 Engineering), no address was delivered before this 

 section. 



At the opening meeting, the retiring president, Dr. 

 C. E. Bessey, of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 

 Nebraska, introduced the president-elect. Prof. E. C. 

 Pickering, and addresses of welcome were delivered 

 bv Mayor Baker, of Cleveland, by President C. F. 

 Thwing, of the Western Reserve University, and by 

 ."Xcting-President Comstock, of the Case School of 

 .Applied Science. President Pickering responded to 

 these addresses of welcome, and was followed by Dr. 

 Bessey with his address as the retiring vice-president, 

 the title of the address being "Some of the Next Steps 

 in Botany." This opening session was held in the 

 large ball-room of the Hotel Statler, and was followed 

 bv a reception tendered by the local committee. 



.\t the meeting of the general committee, Atlanta, 

 Georgia, was chosen as the place of the next meeting 

 during Convocation Week, 1913-14 (the week in which 

 the first day of January falls), and Philadelphia was 

 recommended as the place of meeting for the following 

 year. Arrangements were made to make an earnest 

 effort to bring about a large and important meeting 

 in the summer of 101.=; on the Pacific coast during the 

 International Exposition to be held at San Francisco 

 to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. 



The following officers were elected for the year 

 1913 : — President, Dr. E. B. Wilson, Columbia Uni- 

 versity, New York, N.Y. ; vice-presidents: Section A. 



