872 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 752 



The fact that the sixth part was out or was 

 daily expected would go far to prove that the 

 fifth part had been out about a month. Any way 

 we know that it was issued by Nov 6, 1817, and 

 are pretty safe in saying that October was the 

 month of issue, no doubt the first week. 



I am glad to have been able to settle this matter 

 for you, but the credit is due to Mr. Fox not 

 to me. Sincerely yours, 



WiTMEB Stone 



Tiie proper technical name for the common 

 eel of eastern North America is Anguilla 

 rostrata (Le Sueur), described from speci- 

 mens taken in Lakes Cayuga and Geneva, 

 New Tork. 



B. A. Bean 

 U. S. National Museum, 

 Washington, D. C, 

 March 20, 1909 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOB THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



SECTION L— EDUCATION 



The Baltimore meeting of Section L showed 

 that this new section is growing in strength and 

 usefulness. The section's policy of devoting each 

 session to a single topic with set papers by invited 

 speakers was tried and proved a great success. 

 The section plans to devote itself to a scientific 

 study of educational problems, and has appointed 

 a committee to study the distribution of students 

 in elective courses in college and report at the 

 next meeting. This committee consists of Pro- 

 fessor B. L. Thorndike, chairman, and Messrs. J. 

 G. Bowman, George E. Fellows, Abraham Flexner, 

 C. H. Judd, Frederick Keppel and C. R. Mann. 



Officers for the coming year were elected as 

 follows : 



Vice-president — Dean James E. Eussell, Colum- 

 bia University, New York. 



Memher of the Council — President Charles S. 

 Howe, Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland. 



Member of the General Committee — ^Professor 

 Charles H. Judd, Yale University, New Haven. 



Member of the Sectional Committee — Hon. 

 Elmer E. Brown, United States Commissioner of 

 Education, Washington. 



Vice-president John Dewey presided at all the 

 meetings. The address of the retiring vice-presi- 

 dent, Hon. Elmer E. Brown, dealt with great in- 

 sight with the subject " World Standards of Edu- 

 cation." This paper will be printed in Science. 



The first session of the section was devoted to 



a discussion of the United States Bureau of Edu- 

 cation by Mr. W. Dawson Johnson, librarian of 

 the bureau; Professor C. E. Elliott, of the State 

 University of Wisconsin, and Mr. E. C. Moore, 

 superintendent of schools, Los Angeles, Cal. 



Mr. Johnson showed that the Bureau of Educa- 

 tion is, on the one hand, the representative of the 

 nation among the nations of the world; and, on 

 the other hand, the representative of the common 

 interests of the several states of the United States. 

 As the representative of the United States in in- 

 ternational intercourse its duty is, first, to study 

 foreign educational experience with a view to 

 selecting that which best fits American needs, and, 

 second, to communicate to foreign countries offi- 

 cial information regarding our own educational 

 experience. This international intercourse may 

 take the form of expositions, or congresses, or 

 tours of investigation; it may require the direc- 

 tion of exchanges of professors and teachers be- 

 tween the United States and foreign countries, 

 and of interchanges of students. With the devel- 

 opment of international relations the work of the 

 bureau as an office of international communication 

 will become increasingly important, and as Amer- 

 ican conditions approximate those in European 

 countries its service as a bureau of information 

 regarding European educational experience will 

 become more and more necessary. The duties of 

 the bureau to the state departments are two- 

 fold: first, to relieve them of the duty of carrying 

 on scientific investigations which may be carried 

 on more economically or more efficiently by a 

 central bureau; second, to carry on such other 

 investigations as may facilitate and improve the 

 administrative source of the state offices. The 

 need of such work has been recognized in several 

 states by the creation of special educational com- 

 missions. It has been recognized by the leading 

 educational institutions and societies also. The 

 growing recognition of the importance of such 

 investigations and the advantages which a central 

 bureau has for carrying them on must lead in- 

 evitably to the strengthening of the federal office. 

 At present the bureau is being reorganized with 

 a view to more adequate performance of its duties. 

 The work of reorganization has begun in the 

 library of the bureau. Little progress can, how- 

 ever, be made without larger appropriations by 

 Congress, especially such appropriations as may 

 enable the office to be of greater service to state 

 school officers, educational commissions and legis- 

 lative committees. 



Professor Elliott pointed out that, notwith- 

 standing the evident phenomenal advance which 



