EDITORIAL 95 



except for the acoustic properties of the large lecture hall. The 

 opportunities for luncheon were adequate and agreeable. The 

 social features of the meeting, consisting of receptions at the 

 American Museum of Natural History and at Professor Osborn's 

 residence, and the annual dinner, were eminently successful. The 

 dinner was pronounced the most satisfactory yet enjoyed by the 

 society. 



The program was varied and attractive, no one branch of 

 the subject being greatly in excess of others. General geology, 

 stratigraphy, physiography, glacial geology, palaeontologic geol- 

 ogy, and petrology were each represented by able exponents. 

 But to those who attempted to follow the programs, it was 

 evident that the shortness of the time devoted to the meetings, 

 together with the length of the program of a well attended 

 session, necessitate a better regulation of the proceedings than it 

 has heretofore been the custom of the presiding officers to enforce. 

 The evident hesitation on their part to interfere with the presen- 

 tation of papers by Fellows of the society, while agreeable to the 

 individual at the time, is not conducive to the best interests of 

 the society as a whole, that is to say, to the other Fellows in gen- 

 eral. Interference may properly be exercised in the case of those 

 who exceed the time allotted them for the presentation of papers, 

 especially since in most instances the time is that determined by 

 themselves. 



There should also be some rule limiting debate both as to 

 length and matter. The exhibition of lantern views is a most 

 valuable aid to the presentation of many subjects, which was very 

 well shown at the meeting just held, but the selection of illustra- 

 tions should be limited to those which actually illustrate the sub- 

 ject, and should be made to avoid unnecessary repetition. 



The result of these abuses, the overrunning of time in pre- 

 sentation and discussion, and the introduction of unnecessary 

 illustrations, is the crowding of papers on the last day of the 

 meeting, the consequent haste in their delivery or the curtailing 

 of considerable parts of them, and a general sense of dissatisfac- 

 tion ; first, with those who said too much, and last, with those 



