Januaby 15, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



115 



After the presidential address a reception to the 

 members of the association and afl&liated societies 

 was tendered by President Ira Kemsen at McCoy 

 Hall. The reception was largely attended and was 

 a very pleasant affair. 



Sectional meetings began on Monday afternoon, 

 and were continued till Friday evening, when all 

 papers were read or otherwise disposed of. Cer- 

 tain of these sectional meetings were favored with 

 record attendance, and with programs of excep- 

 tional interest and value. Section B reports the 

 most successful meeting of its history. The joint 

 meeting with the American Physical Society gave 

 a record attendance. It was probably the largest 

 gathering of physicists that has ever occurred in 

 America. Eight sessions were held, and 54 papers 

 presented. The dinner held at the Country Club 

 on Tuesday evening had an attendance of 91 and 

 was voted the pleasantest event in the history of 

 the section. 



Section E, in affiliation with the Geological 

 Society of America, held a memorable symposium 

 on " Correlation in Historical Geology." Sixteen 

 papers were presented in this symposium, running 

 through six sessions. A feature was a remarkable 

 series of maps by Mr. Bailey Willis, showing the 

 paleogeography of the continent of North America 

 in many stages of its formation up to the present, 

 showing what was certainly land, and certainly 

 sea, areas sometimes land and sometimes sea, and 

 the areas of uncertainty. Quite significant was 

 the presentation of the logic of correlation by 

 Professor T. C. Chamberlin, the first term in 

 every series of phenomena to be interpreted being 

 shown to be found in diastrophic changes. 



The most important event in the week for Sec- 

 tion F was the vice-presidential address by Pro- 

 fessor E. B. Wilson, on " The Determination and 

 Inheritance of Sex." 



Section L reported a very successful series of 

 meetings, thus proving the wisdom of its estab- 

 lishment last year. This section has adopted the 

 plan of devoting eacli session to the discussion of 

 a single topic. On Wednesday afternoon American 

 College Education was the theme, discussed by 

 Professors Josiah Royce, James H. Tufts and 

 others. In his address as retiring vice-president 

 Commissioner Elmer E. Brown pointed out eifect- 

 ively the chaos that exists in American educa- 

 tional standards, and defined clearly some of the 

 problems that must be solved to bring order out 

 of this chaos. A session was devoted to the dis- 

 cussion of the needs and possibilities of the U. S. 

 Bureau of Education. 



The affiliated societies meeting with the asso- 



ciation this year were the American Society of 

 Naturalists, the American Society of Biological 

 Chemists, the American Anthropological Associa- 

 tion, the American Folli Lore Society, the Amer- 

 ican Philosophical Association, the American 

 Physical Society, the American Psychological 

 Association, the American Physiological Society, 

 the American Society of Vertebrate Paleontolo- 

 gists, the American Chemical Society, the Amer- 

 ican Society of Zoologists, the American Nature- 

 study Society, the American Mathematical So- 

 ciety, the American Federation of Teachers of 

 the Mathematical and the Natural Sciences, the 

 American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the 

 American Alpine Club, the Association of Amer- 

 ican Geographers, the Association of American 

 Entomologists, the Botanical Society of America, 

 the Entomological Society of America, the Geo- 

 logical Society of America, the Society of Amer- 

 ican Bacteriologists, the Association of American 

 Anatomists, the Southern Society for Philosophy 

 and Psychology, the Sullivant Moss Society and 

 the Wild Flower Preservation Society. 



Some actions of the council of the association 

 are of general interest: A resolution was adopted 

 authorizing the permanent secretary to send a 

 letter of greeting to Dr. Martin H. Boyg, of 

 Cooperstown, Pa., the sole surviving founder of 

 the association. It was resolved that the pub- 

 lishers of Science and The Popular Science 

 Monthly be authorized to send The Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly in place of Science to any members 

 of the association who may specially request it. 



An amendment to the constitution was intro- 

 duced as follows : Amend Article 23, by the omis- 

 sion of the words " and secretary " after the 

 word " vice-president," in the third line, and to 

 insert alter the words " preceding meeting," in 

 the fourth line, the following words : " and the 

 preceding secretary, and the presidents and secre- 

 taries of those affiliated societies which shall be 

 designated by the council." 



One of the pleasantest features of the week was 

 the reception, largely attended, on Tuesday after- 

 noon from 4 to 6:30, by the Maryland Historical 

 Society at its rooms on Saratoga and St. Paul 

 streets. 



Quite significant and worthy of attention was 

 the symposium on "Tariff Revision," by Section 

 I on Tuesday afternoon; with papers by Messrs. 

 Farquahar, Hamilton, Orton and Holt, and dis- 

 cussion by Dr. J. Franklin Crowell, of the Wall 

 Street Journal, and Mr. Seymour C. Lewis. The 

 recommendation of the last named gentleman, that 

 the laboratory method be introduced into the tariff 



