March 11, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



225 



svlt of tte epocli-makiiig discoveries in the 

 field of crystal structure it is now an exact 

 science of fundamental importance. 



) 



THE MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 



During the first fifteen years of the exist- 

 ence of the Geological Society of America, 

 comparatively few of its members were pri- 

 marily interested in mineralogy. However, 

 beginning with the latter half of the first 

 decade of the twentieth century the number of 

 professional mineralogists who became mem- 

 bers of the society increased rapidly. This 

 group, however, soon felt that aside from the 

 social aspect of the meetings, the society offered 

 them but little in their own field. Accordingly 

 in January, 1913, Professor Alexander N. 

 WinOhell, of the University of "Wisconsin, in 

 a letter addressed to those especially interested 

 in mineralogy and petrography, raised the 

 question as to the advisability of organizing a 

 National Association of Mineralogists and 

 Petrographers. The responses were, however, 

 of such a character that a postjwnement of a 

 separate organization was decided upon. This 

 question, however, would not be downed and 

 it came up annually at the meetings of the 

 Geological Society of America, so that finally 

 at the Albany meeting, December, 1916, a small 

 group consisting of Phillips, Van Horn, 

 Walker, Wherry, Whitlock, and the speaker, 

 decided to launch an active campaign looking 

 toward the formation of the Mineralogical So- 

 ciety of America. A circular letter, signed by 

 the above-named committee, was sent out to 

 those most vitally interested and the replies 

 received clearly indicated the great desirabil- 

 ity of such an organization. However, the 

 United States entered the World War in the 

 following April, and consequently plans for 

 organization were held in abeyance. But in 

 the meantime, there had been much corre- 

 spondence among those taking a lively interest 

 in the organization, and in the fall of 1919 the 

 new society was again actively agitated. A 

 call was issued for an organization meeting 

 to be held at the time of the meeting of the 

 Geological Society of America in Boston, and 



on December 30, 1919, a group of 28 mineralo- 

 gists met in the Mineralogical Museum of 

 Harvard University and organized the society 

 under whose auspices we are meeting to-day, 

 and adopted a provisional constitution. 



At this meeting arrangements were made 

 whereby the lists of charter fellows and mem- 

 bers would remain open for one year. The 

 question of affiliation with the Geological So- 

 ciety of Am,erica was discussed and it is in- 

 deed gratifying to know that during the year 

 this has been accomplished. On December 20, 

 the Mineralogical Society had 55 fellows and 

 126 members. There were in addition 139 sub- 

 scribers to the American Mineralogist. The 

 most enthusiastic advocates of an independent 

 mineralogical society never expected that such 

 widespread interest could be stimulated dur- 

 ing the organization year. 



AMERICAN MINERALOGIST 



As already indicated the American Mineral- 

 ogist, which was founded in 1916, became the 

 Journal of the Mineralogical Society under 

 the editorship of one of the founders. Dr. E. T. 

 Wherry. A board of associate editors was ap- 

 pointed by the council to assist Dr. Wherry. 

 During the past year the Journal has appeared 

 regularly, the earlier numbers being consider- 

 ably larger in size than had previously been 

 the case. However, on account of increased 

 cost of paper and printing it was necessary to 

 reduce the size of the later numbers. It is 

 hoped that as a result of the general readjust- 

 ment of prices the issuing of monthly numbers 

 of from 24 to 32 pages each may soon become 

 possible. The exact character of the Journal 

 needs to receive the serious consideration of 

 the council, inasmuch as it must serve the 

 widely divergent interests of several groujw of 

 the society. We owe much to the energy, skill 

 and unselfish devotion of our editor, who is 

 constantly striving to make the Journal one 

 of which American mineralogists may be 

 justly proud. This, however, will require some 

 little time and I trust that we may all be some- 

 what patient in this matter. 



