January 8, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



43 



such as announcing tlie wrong building 

 for the address of the president and the 

 wrong afternoon for the meeting of the 

 Naturalists; needless dispersion, as in 

 sending the sections of anthropology and 

 of education to large auditoriums at a dis- 

 tance when the lecture rooms of the uni- 

 versity would have held and secured larger 

 audiences than were present; needless con- 

 flicts, as the programs of the Zoological 

 Society and the Section of Zoology in ad- 

 jacent rooms. There should be one man 

 thoroughly familiar with the situation 

 and competent to do the best that can be 

 done under the circumstances. We need a 

 secretary of science for the country, not 

 less influential and not less well paid than 

 the secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, who will devote his whole time to 

 the organization of science and of scien- 

 tific men. 



It is quite possible that it would be better 

 to have a convocation week meeting only on 

 alternate years, or even less often, leav- 

 ing the societies to scatter in intervening 

 years. Or it might be better to divide the 

 association into sections for the eastern, 

 central and western states and hold a joint 

 meeting once in three or in five years. 

 Again it might be well to have an associa- 

 tion devoted to the diffusion and populari- 

 zation of science, separate from an affilia- 

 tion of the scientific societies composed of 

 professional scientific men. At present 

 the association fails chiefly in the former 

 function. It has a considerable member- 

 ship in addition to the scientific workers 

 of the country, and there were many ses- 

 sions at Baltimore that would have been 



interesting and useful to them, but practi- 

 cally none were present. The association 

 also fails to exert an influence on the gen- 

 eral public through the press. 



But in spite of difficulties and partial 

 failures, the convocation week meetings 

 have since their establishment in "Washing- 

 ton six years ago performed a great service 

 for science and for scientific men. They 

 lead men of science to recognize the com- 

 munity of interest that should obtain; 

 they impress on the general public the 

 weight and magnitude of science; the 

 council, representing the scientific inter- 

 ests of the country, may become an im- 

 portant factor in their advancement. The 

 members of the association, all of whom 

 have the privilege, or at least the opportun- 

 ity, of reading this journal, have increased 

 from 1,721 in 1899 to over 7,500. AIL this 

 represents a coordination that may be used 

 effectively for the advancement of science ; 

 and whatever forwards the advancement 

 of science is for the benefit of every one. 



An account of the business transacted 

 by the council representing the association 

 and the affiliated societies will be given in 

 the report of the general secretary, and 

 this will be followed by accounts of the 

 proceedings of the several sections and of 

 the different societies and by some of the 

 more important addresses, papers and dis- 

 cussions. 



The association was fortunate in being 

 welcomed to the Johns Hopkins University 

 and to Baltimore by two of its distin- 

 guished recent presidents, and in having 

 as president of the meeting one of the 

 world's most eminent geologists whose 



