620 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. MoT 



Besolved, That a corresponding twelve-year 

 cycle of meetings for the intervening two-year 

 periods be arranged for large cities in succession 

 in the New England, the Central and the Atlantic 

 States, in which it is desirable that the national 

 scientific societies join. 



Mesolved, That a provisional schedule of meet- 

 ings in other cities for the odd years be arranged 

 in advance for the convenience of the scientific 

 societies that may find it desirable ito meet with 

 the association. 



Besolved, That arrangements be made for a 

 summer meeting in 1923. 



Resolved, That scientific councils, boards and 

 committees can to advantage hold their meetings 

 in "Washington during the fourth week of April, 

 in New York at the end of Thanksgiving week, 

 in Chicago on or about February 1, and in "Wood 's 

 Hole in August. 



Mesolved, That Gonvocation-'Week be the week 

 in which New Year's day falls when this is 

 Thursday, Friday or Saturday; that when New 

 Year's day falls on Sunday, it be the preceding 

 week, that when it falls on Monday, Tuesday or 

 "Wednesday, it begin two days after Christmas 

 and continue into New Year's week. 



J. McKeen Cattell 

 Chairman 



FUNCTIONS OF THE DIVISION OF 



GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY OF 



THE NATIONAL RESEARCH 



COUNCILi 



The purpose of tMs paper is to ask itlie 

 geologists of the country "wbat oiigiit to be done 

 witli tlie National Research Council. I do not 

 mean to imply that there is any trouMe, or any 

 disappointment, or that tOie right thing is not 

 being done now. But itihe counoil is young, 

 very young, and also very plastic, as it should 

 be. lit has the possibilities, and the dangers, 

 of an infant. 



It may be well to state first certain dangers 

 that do not exist. The organization is not 

 likely to die, in the sense of ceasing to exist. 

 If it does there will be left a million dollar 

 building bearing the words National Research 



1 Published in advance to be discussed at a 

 round table of the Geological Society of America 

 at Ann Arbor, December 28. Discussion to be led 

 by David "White. 



Council carved in marble along with the words 

 National Academy of Sciences. In the second 

 place there is no immediate danger of its not 

 having an organization and officers. The- 

 income from a few million dollars of per- 

 manent endoAvment is enough to settle the ques- 

 tion of continued Existence in some form. So,, 

 for better or for worse, the National Eesearch 

 Council is here, probably to stay. But what 

 the council will be like in ten years or fifty 

 years from now is what no mam knows. 



"When all foreseeable possibilities have been 

 assembled, they gravitate into two main groups. 

 The council may become, on the one hand, a 

 dispenser of "grants" or, on the other, an 

 agency for promoting research in other ways^ 

 mainly by stimulating, organizing or feder- 

 ating ithe research activity which arises with- 

 out grants. In either case money is paid out 

 and research comes in, more directly in the 

 former case, indirectly in the latter. One of 

 the questions for the future will be whether 

 research comes higher by direct purchase or by 

 the more roundabout m&thod. 



The above statements apply to the council 

 as a whole, but our own interest is in a single 

 division, Geology and Geography, which is one 

 of seven covering Science and Technology. It 

 does not follow that the seven will, or ought 

 to, develop alike. Exactly opposite divisional 

 tendencies are among the possibilities and may 

 even prove desirable. 



Before setting forth more fully the option 

 which lies before geologists, it will be well to 

 describe more exactly several of the possible 

 functions of a national council of scientific 

 men. On the approach of war in 1916-17 it 

 suddenly became necessary to find out what 

 rras known and who knew it; also what had 

 to be done and who could do it. It was mainly 

 for such purposes that the National Research 

 Council was organized under the 'Council of 

 National Defense. The details of this war 

 organization were not suited to times of peace, 

 but the central idea held over, namely, that it 

 paid to get scientific men together in groups to 

 take stock of what had been done and what is 

 being done and to advise together concerning 

 the things that remain to be done, especially 

 those which ought to be done soon. 



