690 



SCIENCE 



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



■ways and means may be found to make it 

 more advantageous to all than in the past. 

 It is believed that under the proposed re- 

 organization, it would be highly advan- 

 tageous to include in the general scheme of 

 affiliation all specialists' societies whose 

 standard of membership is sufficiently high 

 to conform to the requirements of the So- 

 ciety of Naturalists. 



To further identify our interests with 

 those of the specialists' societies, it is pro- 

 posed that all matters of cooperation shall 

 be dealt with by the executive committee, 

 which shall be selected with a view to the 

 establishment of such external relations. 

 This phrase might well be interpreted to 

 mean that each affiliated society shall have 

 its chosen representative on the executive 

 committee of the Naturalists, thereby en- 

 suring the only relation between the several 

 societies through which it will be possible 

 to secure solidarity and identity of inter- 

 ests through cooperation. 



It is designed to redefine the general 

 policy in such a manner as to readjust it 

 more definitely to the encouragement of 

 research in the larger fields of science. It 

 should be one of the first objects of our 

 most earnest endeavor to secure a perma- 

 nent fund which should be devoted to the 

 encouragement of research by any properly 

 qualified investigator within the limits of 

 the United States and Canada, but the sub- 

 ject of investigation should fall within the 

 field occupied by one of the affiliated so- 

 cieties. 



The central idea of the society should 

 find expression in some one line of endeavor 

 which makes for the general progress of 

 scientific thought. Of all the societies enu- 

 merated, which may be fittingly associated 

 with the Naturalists, there is not one whose 

 work may not be regarded as comprised in 

 general biology, or as having an impor- 

 tant collateral bearing upon that science. 

 Whether expressed through the medium of 



the botanist, zoologist, physiologist or an- 

 atomist; through the more indirect chan- 

 nel of the anthropologist and the folk- 

 lorist; or through the yet less direct chan- 

 nel of the chemist, the geologist or the 

 physicist, the development of the earth, 

 organic life and even thought itself, is the 

 underlying motive for all. Evolution is, 

 therefore, a great central idea which ap- 

 peals to all investigators of natural phe- 

 nomena, and this subject is suggested as 

 one which should be the chief endeavor of 

 the parent body. 



In order to give working effect to this 

 idea, it is proposed that each year original 

 contributions dealing with one or more as- 

 pects of evolution should be presented to 

 one or more meetings of the Society of 

 Naturalists. Furthermore, it is regarded 

 as desirable that there should be a presenta- 

 tion, annually, of reports upon the most 

 important of recent works dealing with 

 evolution. Both reports and the special 

 contributions should be entrusted to men 

 eminent in their respective fields of re- 

 search. To occupy a position of this kind 

 should imply a compliment. 



It is believed that a general policy, wisely 

 carried out, which keeps alive the enthu- 

 siasm for research in the ways indicated, 

 would not only constitute a strong bond of 

 union between the members of the entire 

 organization, making for solidarity of in- 

 terests, but that it would enlist the sym- 

 pathy and cooperation of the younger gen- 

 eration of scientists. 



D. P. Penhallow 



McGiLL University 



GEORGE WASHINGTON HOVGH 

 On New Tear's morning, at about ten 

 o'clock, occurred the sudden and unexpected 

 death of Dr. George W. Hough, director of 

 the Dearborn Observatory, at Evanston, 111. 

 Death came suddenly and painlessly to him, 

 in the way that he had always hoped for it, 



