498 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1453 



ship of over 6,000, but, with the exception of 

 the Federation of American Societies for Ex- 

 perimental Biology which involves four socie- 

 ties, these have been almost wholly uncori-e- 

 lated. 



Recently, however, there has developed a 

 movement whdeh may provide an organization 

 comprehensive enough to measure up to the 

 task. I refer to the proposed federation of 

 American biological organizations which are of 

 a research character and wihieh are essentially 

 national in scope. This movement, as seems 

 not generally realized, began over a year ago 

 when the Botanical Society of America, the 

 American Society of Zoologists, and the Amer- 

 ican Society of Naturalists endeavored to work 

 out some plan to provide for the organization 

 desired by the geneticists without at the same 

 time increasing the already large number of 

 separate and distinct biological organizations 

 and thereby making it still more difficult to 

 handle prdblems of common concern to all 

 biologists. It was recognized that the oppor- 

 tunity for the organization of special groups 

 must be provided, but also that there are cer- 

 tain large problems which can be properly 

 handled only by a larger, stronger organization, 

 including, if possible, all the societies. As re- 

 gards the immediate problem of the genetics 

 organization, the committee of the three socie- 

 ties recommended ithat sections in genetics with 

 common offtcers be created in both the Amer- 

 ican Society of Zoologists and the Botanical 

 Society of America. This recommendation was 

 carried out by both societies, and programs of 

 the joint sections were held at Toronto. 



The committee went further, however. It 

 recognized that similar organization problems 

 would continue to arise and that something 

 should be done to make such organization of 

 special groups possible and at the same time 

 maintain a certain solidarity of biologists for 

 handling problems of common concern requiring 

 concerted action for their successful solution. 

 It was felt that this could be accomplished by 

 a federation of at least the national research 

 biological organizations. 



The Division of Biology and Agriculture of 

 the National Research Council was requested 

 to call an informal conference at Toronto of 

 officers of the national societies to consider the 



possibility of a federation. This meeting was 

 held- and, after a general discussion, it was 

 voted to hold an adjourned meeting in Wash- 

 ington in the spring. This was held in April 

 of this year^ and was participated in by official 

 representatives from the following organiza- 

 tions : 



American Society of Zoologists. 



American Genetic Association. 



American Society of Naturalists. 



American Phj'topathological Society. 



Ecological Society of America. 



Botanical Society of America. 



American Society for Horticultural Science. 



Society of American Foresters. 



Society of American Bacteriologists. 



American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, and its Sections G, F, 0, and N. 



American Association of Economic Entomolo- 

 gists. 



American Society of Agronomy. 



Entomological Society of America. 



Federation of American Soeieities for Experi- 

 mental Biology. 



American Dairy Science Association. 



American Society of Animal Produotion. 



An executive committee pro tern, was ap- 

 pointed to draw up a constitution to be sub- 

 mitted this fall to the societies represented in 

 the federation conference. While I am not 

 authorized to speak for ithe committee, I think 

 it may be said with perfect propriety that the 

 federation, if established, will not in the least 

 affect the autonomy of the member societies 

 and that it will concern itself with problems 

 of common concern to biologists.* The Wash- 

 ington conference recognized that one of these 

 problems, perhaps the chief one at present, is 

 publication, and, in particular, abstracts. It 

 therefore appointed a committee to study the 

 problem of providing all of biology with ade- 

 quate abstracting and indexing services. This 

 committee is a joint one, half appointed by 

 the Conference and half by the Division of 



2 See ShuU, A. F. : " The Proposed Federation 

 of Biological Soeieities," Science, 55, 245-246, 

 1922. 



3 See Shull, A. F. : " Proposed Federation of 

 American Biological Societies," Science, 56, 184- 

 185, 1922. 



4 See Shull A. F. : "Proposed Federation of 

 Biological Societies," Science, 56, 359-361, 1922. 



