42 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 732 



fying and important. A very large meet- 

 ing has for those in attendance certain ad- 

 vantages and certain disadvantages. It is 

 irritating not to be able to attend the con- 

 flicting meetings of nearly equal interest 

 and not to be able to converse at leisure 

 ■with friends and acquaintances. It should, 

 however, be remembered that if the differ- 

 ent societies were meeting in different 

 cities, it would be still less possible to 

 attend the meetings that one would like to 

 attend and to see the friends that one 

 would like to see. It might be possible for 

 the sciences devoted to the biological 

 sciences to meet in one city and for the 

 sciences devoted to the physical sciences 

 to meet elsewhere; perhaps for the geol- 

 ogists and the philosophers to meet by 

 themselves. But in such a case what are 

 the biological chemists, the biometricians, 

 the students of evolution, the cosmical 

 physicists, the geographers, the psycholo- 

 gists, etc., to do? 



The real conflict is not between the 

 chemists and the zoologists, for example, 

 but within the single science. Thus at 

 Baltimore the Zoological Society of Amer- 

 ica and the zoological section of the asso- 

 ciation each had some sixty papers on its 

 program; there were two entomological 

 societies and a society of vertebrate paleon- 

 tologists in session, the psychologists had 

 a morning devoted to animal intelligence, 

 etc. It is not possible to read and discuss 

 consecutively three hundred papers. The 

 best that can be done is to have sessions of 

 interest to all scientific men, to all biol- 

 ogists, to all zoologists, and then to divide 

 zoology into sections for the reading and 



discussion of special papers in different 

 departments. The chemists, whose num- 

 bers are the largest, have naturally led the 

 way in organization. They have well- 

 organized sections throughout the coimtry 

 for frequent local meetings; they have a 

 summer meeting, usually by themselves, 

 and meet with the other societies in con- 

 vocation week; they have certain general 

 meetings and then divide into numerous 

 sections; all the papers in chemistry are 

 referred to the American Chemical Society 

 which organizes the joint program. 



We may look back with certain regrets 

 to the "good old days" when there were 

 so few workers in each science that they 

 could all be acquainted with one another 

 and with one another's work, or stiU 

 further back to the age of academies when 

 all the scientific men of a city or county 

 could meet together with common inter- 

 ests; but no one imagines that we can go 

 back to these days, or that it would be 

 desirable to do so. It is like the man who 

 has acquired wealth and power and thinks 

 of past days when life was less complicated 

 and perhaps happier. 



Haply, the river of Time — 



As it grows, as the towns on its marge 



Fling their wavering lights 



On a wider, statelier stream — 



May acquire, if not the calm 



Of its early mountainous shore, 



Yet a solemn peace of its own. 



It is of course trae that the problems of 

 scientific organization are by no means 

 solved. Some of them may be settled in 

 a satisfactory manner ; others may be quite 

 unsolvable. There were at the present 

 meeting needless mistakes on the program, 



