682 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 748 



possible popular membership collected from 

 the population of the town or city in which 

 its meetings may be held. No one would 

 think of questioning the value of such a 

 proceeding for the particular purposes of 

 the association, but it will be readily ad- 

 mitted by all that such methods are not in 

 harmony with the purely scientific spirit, 

 that they are inconsistent with sober scien- 

 tific thought, and that the meetings are not 

 expected to be productive of the best results 

 of investigation. Indeed, it is a matter of 

 common repute that the meetings of the 

 association are not the places for specialists 

 to give serious attention to the problems 

 they are endeavoring to solve, but rather 

 that they afford convenient opportunities 

 for cultivating the social side of scientific 

 life. All this is eminently praiseworthy 

 and desirable, but such work must not be 

 confounded with or allowed to intrude upon 

 opportunities for purely scientific delibera- 

 tions. 



Members of the Society of Naturalists 

 are also in most, if not in all cases, likewise 

 members of the American Association. In 

 such joint membership there is nothing 

 which need imply antagonism or duplica- 

 tion of work, but, on the contrary, such a 

 oerfectly natural relation should operate to 

 he advancement of each, particularly of 

 he latter association, by bringing to its 

 ranks the very scientific strength it requires 

 in the execution of its chief function— the 

 popularization of scientific knowledge. 



Since the institution of joint meetings 

 there has been a growing feeling that it is 

 impossible to do justice to both interests, 

 that in the multiplicity of sections and so- 

 cieties, of meetings and social functions, 

 there is left no opportunity for the sober 

 work of the Naturalists which has, in con- 

 sequence, resolved itself into a perfunctory 

 discussion of some large problem of imme- 

 diate interest. The most recent phase of 

 this particular aspect of the question is 



found in the fact that other bodies are now 

 entering this field and thereby tending to 

 still further diminish the value of the work 

 originally undertaken by the Naturalists, 

 through useless duplication and dissipation 

 of energy. The members feel that their 

 time is not being occupied in the way they 

 could wish; that they do not gain from 

 their colleagues the interchange of ideas 

 and experience they had hoped for. Under 

 such circumstances dissatisfaction soon fol- 

 lows; fading enthusiasm treads hard upon 

 the heels of fleeting ideals, and we shortly 

 hear of moribund conditions ; references to 

 the greatness of the past and dismal fore- 

 bodings for the future, coupled with the 

 hope that the society may soon disband. 

 These results must be regarded as the log- 

 ical expression of forces set in motion when 

 it M^as decided to establish joint se.ssions, 

 since it has been observed that during the 

 six years this relation has been in operation, 

 there has been a gradual waning of interest 

 in the public debates, which have also ex- 

 hibited diminishing importance and force 

 as the leading function of an important 

 scientific body. 



It is worth while to recall in this con- 

 nection that the institution of joint sessions 

 did not affect the Naturalists alone, but 

 involved the Geological Society and all 

 those specialists' societies in affiliation with 

 the Naturalists. From these, complaints 

 and protests are already beginning to be 

 made, and I have it on the best of authority 

 that at least one society is now considering 

 what measures it shall adopt to counteract 

 the undesirable situation in which it finds 

 itself. 



It is quite possible that a feeling of in- 

 difference or of complacency may have de- 

 veloped among a certain section of the 

 society, and that in the annual house-clean- 

 ing which is supposed to take place with the 

 installation of a new executive, there has 

 not been sufficient removal of the waste 



