February 7, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



201 



working naturalists for the discussion of methods 

 of instruction, museum administration, and other 

 objects of general interest to investigators and 

 teachers of natural science; and for the adoption 

 of such measures as shall tend to the advance- 

 ment and diffusion of the knowledge of natural 

 science. 



The list of meeting places of this society 

 clearly indicates that the society practically 

 has been an eastern organization. The ad- 

 dresses and discussions, in so far as one' can 

 judge by their titles, indicate that some of 

 the objects announced in section 2 of the 

 constitution either have been overlooked or 

 are not what the language of the section 

 suggests. 



In 1899 a call was issued to the natural- 

 ists of the central and western states to 

 meet at Chicago for the purpose of consid- 

 ering the organization of a western branch 

 of the American Society of Naturalists. 

 This meeting was so encouraging that 

 another meeting was held at the University 

 of Chicago in 1900. The second gathering 

 was even more successful than the first. 

 Indeed it was so large that, in the language 

 of the minutes, it "became necessary to 

 hold two sections, a zoological and a botan- 

 ical. " 



The segregation thus forced upon the 

 botanists and zoologists in 1900 was again 

 observed in 1901, when the Eastern Branch 

 and the Central Branch of the American 

 Society of Naturalists and the American 

 Morphological Society met at the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago. At this meeting the zool- 

 ogists appointed a committee on organiza- 

 tion and during Convocation Week of 

 1902-03 organized the American Society of 

 Zoologists, consisting of an Eastern Branch 

 and a Central Branch. The constitution of 

 this society declares the objects to be 



the association of workers in the field of zoology 

 for the presentation and discussion of new or 

 important facts and problems in that department 

 of science and for the adoption of such measures 



as shall tend to the advancement of investigation 

 in that science in this country. 



The scope of the society is further indi- 

 cated by the restriction of membership to 

 "active workers in the field of zoology and 

 who have contribvtted to the advancement 

 of the science." 



The American Morphological Society 

 was organized in 1890 in recognition of "a 

 very noticeable increase in the number of 

 persons in this country who are devoting 

 themselves to the study of animal morphol- 

 ogy, " and also with a desire to break up 

 the "scientific isolation" resulting from 

 "the vast extent of territory over which 

 our students are scattered. ' ' Prom the be- 

 ginning this society was distinctively east- 

 ern, notwithstanding the fact that it rec- 

 ognized the vastness of our territory and 

 expressed a desire to break up "scientific 

 isolation." 



In addition to the above there have been 

 organized since the establishment of Sec- 

 tion F, the American Association of Anat- 

 omists, the American Society of Biological 

 Chemists, two societies of entomologists, 

 the American Nature-study Society, the 

 American Physiological Society, the Amer- 

 ican Psychological Association, the Amer- 

 ican Association of Museums and the 

 American Breeders Association with a 

 special section on eugenics. Each of these 

 organizations has come into existence in 

 response to a demand and each has some 

 specific and circumscribed end or ends in 

 view. All have drawn from the group of 

 workers that but about twenty years ago 

 constituted Section F. Membership in 

 some of them naturally means separation 

 from Section F, while membership in others 

 ought to just as naturally mean active 

 membership in Section F. For even when, 

 as I have intimated, the declared objects of 

 these organizations suggest a field of use- 

 fulness outside of the circle of the select 



