December 1, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



619 



week meetings during the Christmas holidays 

 as necessarily final. There is much to be said 

 for placing convocation week in the scholastic 

 year, so that attendance at the meetings may 

 be i-egarded both toy teaoliers and administra- 

 tors as part of the privileges and duties of 

 scientific men. It is doubtful whether students 

 would suffer by the absence of part of their 

 teachers for a week, and it is icertain that it 

 would be to their advantage for their teachers 

 to attend scientific meetings. It is further the 

 case that 'neither midsummer nor midwinter is 

 the best time for itraveling or for the holding 

 of meetings. Apart from inconvenience, 

 dysentery in summer and colds in winter are a 

 common sequence. A convocation week in 

 autumn or in spring might be ibest for scien- 

 tific men and ultimately in the interest of the 

 institutions with which they are connected. 



It is perhaps not necessary for the com- 

 mittee to enter into a discussion of the advan- 

 tages and disadvantages of large meetings. 

 ■The inter-relations of the sciences are so fun- 

 daimentall, h'o-ivever, that it is difficult to make 

 separation in time and place of meetings of 

 societies that is not inconvenient to some and 

 perhaps adverse to tihe development of inter- 

 relations that are importanit for the advance- 

 ment of science. It as also the case that a large 

 meeting may impress the magnitude and 

 importance of science on ithe general public. 

 In addition it may be noted that it is not so 

 difficult either for executive officers or for 

 hosts to arrange for one large meeting as for 

 many small meetings, and there are other ex- 

 trinsic advantages, such as reduced railway 

 rates. 



On the 6ther hand, it is desirable for men 

 whose "work is in the same science to meet to- 

 gether intimately, and the social arrangements 

 for a small and isolated group are usually 

 more agreeable than those for a large gather- 

 ing. The compromise that has been worked 

 out appears to be working with reasonable 

 success, namely, that there be a general con- 

 vocation-week meeting once in four yeai-s in 

 three large scientific centers, Washington, New 

 York and Chicago. In New York and Chicago, 

 at least, there as ample accommodation, so that 

 societies can ^have headquarters and pHatees of 



meeting that will give them any desired degree 

 of isolation. 



It might also be useful ito arrange a twelve 

 year soliedule for convocation-week meetings of 

 tihe second class, say, in Philadelphia, Balti- 

 more, Pittsburgh or Buffalo four years hence; 

 ia St. Louis, Cincinnati, Columbus or Cleve- 

 land eight years tence; in Boston again, or in 

 another New England city, such as Provi- 

 dence, Worcester or New Haven, twelve years 

 hence. Then it might be convenient to ar- 

 range a provisional schedule for minor convo- 

 cation-week meetings for the alternate yeaa-s, 

 including those cities mentioned w'hen not 

 selected for the twelve-year notation and oities 

 such as Montreal, Toronto, Albany, Rochester, 

 Richmond, Louisville, Atlanta, Nashville, New 

 Orleans, Houston, Indianapolis, Detroit, Kan- 

 sas City, Omajha, Mitmeapolis, Denver, Salt 

 Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Port- 

 land and Seattle. 



The committee consequently i-ecommends that 

 all national soienbifie societies arrange to meet 

 in Washington at the end of the year 1924, in 

 New York iu 1928 and in Chicago in 1932, and 

 arrange their intervening meetings with a view 

 to this program. The council of the American 

 Association, which is primarily composed of 

 representatives of the affiliated societies, will 

 in accordance with its present policy arrang-e 

 places of meeting that will be convenient for 

 all societies for the intervening even years, 

 namely, 1926, 1930, etc. For the intei-vening 

 odd yeai-s .the association will arrange a pro- 

 grajn for places of meeting to which the affili- 

 ated societies will be welcome, but which will, 

 as a rule, 'be in cities that are smaller and more 

 distant from the center of scientific population. 

 The meeting at the end of 1923 will be in 

 Cincinnati. 



In pursuance of these considerations the 

 committee recommends the following resolu- 

 tions for passage by the council: 



Sesolved, That the greaiter convocation-week 

 meetings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science and the afftliated na- 

 tional scientific societies be continued as for the 

 past twenty y.ears at four year periods iu succes- 

 sion in Washington, New York and Chicago, and 

 that all national scientific societies be invited and 

 urged to join in these meetings. 



