254 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 165. 



''plislied by division into sections, and, as the 

 scientific body grew, the students of special 

 subjects organized separate societies, the 

 Anthropologists in 1879, the Biologists in 

 1880, the Chemists and Entomologists in 

 1884, the Geographers in 1888, and the 

 Geologists in 1893. The interest drawn 

 toward these associations tended naturally 

 to narrow the field of the Philosophical So- 

 ciety, and the only subjects remaining in 

 its exclusive possession were physics, mathe- 

 matics and astronomy. 



There should be noted, however, an im- 

 portant difference between the National and 

 Washington conditions. The American 

 Association, although started by specialists, 

 became a somewhat popular body and was 

 peculiarly effective as an instrument for 

 enlarging and extending popular interest 

 in research. The special societies after- 

 ward organized are for the most part com- 

 paratively exclusive, being composed of ex- 

 perts and dealing with technical subjects. 

 The Philosophical Society, on the other 

 hand, had no popular tendency ; it limited 

 its membership narrowly, and excluded the 

 press and public from its meetings, while 

 several of the newer, specialized societies 

 assumed popular functions. Their mem- 

 bership is practically open to all persons 

 having sufficient interest to desire to enter, 

 and the members are free to bring their 

 friends to the meetings. The Geographic 

 Society has gone much further than this, 

 and courts a popular membership, to 

 which it gives a generous course of illus- 

 trated lectures as compensation for annual 

 dues. 



Soon after differentiation began in Wash- 



ington it became evident that divided in- 

 terests were likely to affect unfavorably 

 the general influence and external relations 

 of the scientific body. Publishing through 

 many channels, ofi&cial and unofficial, 

 Washington research makes comparatively 

 little impression on the distant public, and 

 even in our own country the fact is hardly 

 realized that Washington is one of the 

 world's chief centers of scientific inves- 

 tigation. Lacking a unified organiza- 

 tion, workers in science were unable to 

 secure for their collective opinion, as to 

 matters of public policy affecting science, 

 the consideration to which it was entitled. 

 An effort was made in 1882 to unite all the 

 societies by making them sections of an 

 Academy, but the Philosophical Society, 

 having the whole field of science within its 

 designated scope, was unwilling to recognize 

 the specialized societies as coordinate, and 

 the project was abandoned. In 1888 a fed- 

 eration for business purposes was effected, 

 under the title of the Joint Commission, 

 and this has continued to the present time. 

 At first it was a committee of delegates, 

 but it was afterward enlarged so as to in- 

 clude the executive boards of all the so- 

 cieties. It published a joint directory of 

 the membership, conducted courses of popu- 

 lar lectures and assumed various minor 

 functions. In 1896 it became an instrument 

 for the expression of the opposition of scien- 

 tific men to the anti-vivisection bill, then 

 pending in Congress, and it also officially 

 endorsed the proposal of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture that the scientific bureaus of 

 the Department of Agriculture be placed 

 under a ' Director,' who should be a scientific 



