23 
Che Canadian Œntomlovist 
ACTA NE LONDON, ONT., OCTOBER, 1872: te INO. TG 
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 
The fwenty-jirst meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science was held at Dubuque, Iowa, in the month of August last, 
commencng on the 21st and closing on the 27th inst. As regards the 
attendance and number of papers read, the meeting was certainly quite 
up to the average, but in scientific interest and value we cannot think it 
. comparable to many in previous years. This deficiency was owing very 
largely, no- doubt, to the change of locality almost at the last moment, | 
viz., from San Francisco to Dubuque—the shores of the Pacific to the 
banks of the Mississipi. Several leading scientific men in the eastern 
States, finding the time and expenditure necessarily required for a visit 
to California beyond what they could well afford, had made other arrange- 
ments for the employment of their summer holiday, which the late change 
of place gave them no opportunity of altering. Others again, notably 
Prof. Agassiz and his party, were absent from the country, and could not 
in any case have taken part in the proceedings. Hence the meeting was 
shorn of many of its usual attractions, and has failed, we think, to Hae 
any very decided mark upon the scientific annals of the country. 
While the meeting was thus defective in one point of view, it certainly 
Was a great success in another. Soca/ly, it left nothing to be desired. 
The kindness and hospitality of the good people of Dubuque was so 
universal and unvaried, that all must have thoroughly enjoyed their visit, 
even though it was not especially distinguished by gorgeous receptions . 
and gay fashionable entertainments, such as have sometimes rather inter- 
rupted the proper proceedings of the Association in cities cf greater size 
and wealth. , 
We do not propose to give a detailed - history of the’ meeting, or a 
particular account of the papers read ; the former can be obtained by 
those desiring it in the current issues of many leading newspapers, 
especially those of Dubuque, Chicago, and New York; and the latter 
will no doubt be furnished, as usual, in the pages of the excellent 
American Naturalist, as well as in the Annual Transactions of the Asso- 
ciation. We shall merely regard the meeting from an Entomological 
point of. view—the most interesting, probably, to the majority of our 
