Jttne 3, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



521 



7. The device may, of course, be made in 

 any desired size but the dimensions given 

 seem the most convenient, and the acircular 

 shape of the base facilitates locating index a. 

 Indelibility is obtained by engraving the lines 

 ■with a steel point and filling with India ink. 



8. Illustrations of the use of this compound 

 circular slide rule are given above. 



C. M. Kelley 

 Psychological Laboratoey ot 

 McLean Hospital 



MEETING OF COMMITTEES ON 

 CONSERVATION 



Committees on Conservation appointed by 

 the ITational Academy of Sciences, the Na- 

 tional Research Council, and the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 met jointly in the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History, New York City, April 9, to 

 consider the present status of the conservation 

 movement from the point of view of science, 

 means for increasing the coordination of the 

 numerous agencies interested in the various 

 aspects of conservation, and particularly the 

 far-reaching relation of the principles of the 

 conservation of natural resources to the eco- 

 nomic and social welfare of the country. The 

 members present at this meeting were: J. C. 

 Merriam, chairman of three committees, 

 Isaiah Bowman, J. McK. Cattell, John M. 

 Clarke, Henry S. Graves, Vernon Kellogg, C. 

 E. McClung, and Barrington Moore, and by 

 invitation Willard G. Van Name. 



The point of view of the committees and the 

 major considerations discussed at this meet- 

 ing are stated in an address which Mr. Graves 

 presented at this meeting and which is pub- 

 lished in full elsewhere in this issue of Sci- 

 ence. 



It was the unanimous opinion of the mem- 

 bers of the committees that an organization 

 should be effected representing the scientific 

 men of the country, and that the functions of 

 this organization, broadly speaking, should be 

 as follows: 



1. To bring scientific research to bear more 

 effectively upon the problems of conservation. 



This involves the extension among research 

 men of a knowledge of the scope, the objec- 

 tives, and the economic problems of conserva- 

 tion, and the assurance that in the studies 

 of each resource there is an appreciation of 

 its relation to other resources, and the cor- 

 relation of the programs of research in each 

 field of work. 



2. To assemble the available data relating 

 to our natural resources, and the interpreta- 

 tion of these data from the standpoint of con- 

 servation and of the relation of the problems 

 of the various resources, severally and taken 

 together, to the economic, industrial, and so- 

 cial welfare of different regions and of the 

 nation as a whole. This work is essential for 

 an adequate definition of our conservation 

 problems, and to furnish the economic back- 

 ground for the many proposals for public ac- 

 tion by the states and by the federal govern- 

 ment. 



3. To bring about the introduction in our 

 educational institutions of instruction in the 

 principles underlying conservation. The plan 

 of instruction should be subject to great va- 

 riation in different institutions. The instruc- 

 tion might be given in connection with courses 

 in economic or political and social science, or 

 economic and industrial history, or in connec- 

 tion with various courses in engineering and 

 applied science, or in special courses in con- 

 servation. 



The undertaking would involve personal 

 contact and cooperation with the institutions 

 or educational organizations. It would in- 

 volve further suggestions as to the preparation 

 of text-books and special material for demon- 

 stration, such as charts, models and maps, and 

 suggestions regarding the methods of instruc- 

 tion. 



4. To effect leadership in a campaign of 

 popular education as to the meaning of con- 

 servation, and the necessity for the adoption 

 of its principles. 



5. To bring into effective harmony the ef- 

 forts of the different forces of the country 

 concerned with conservation based upon sci- 

 entific research which it is difficult for any of 

 the existing agencies to effect. 



