4 SCIENCE 
the government to secure the services of so many 
men of the highest scientific attainments. It now 
remains for you, Mr. President, as the executive 
head over all the scientific bureaus to see that the 
proper atmosphere is maintained in every bureau, 
and in every division where scientific men work. 
It has been hinted sometimes that with all that 
has been done so well to keep the outside poli- 
tician away from the scientist’s laboratory, we 
have not wholly sueceeded in keeping the inside 
Politician from creating an atmosphere quite in- 
imical to scientific work. For it must be remem- 
bered that scientific work is not all a digging out 
of facts as is so often supposed, but that the best 
of it calls for comparison, and reflection, and the 
careful drawing of conclusions, and this takes 
much time, and mental leisure, and a freedom 
from petty irritations. 
If the men who have to solve the scientific prob- 
lems of the government are to discharge their 
duties with the highest efficiency, they must have 
good appliances in the way of laboratories, ex- 
perimental stations, apparatus, reference libraries 
and such other material necessities as pertain to 
the particular work they have in hand, but more 
than these, far more I may say, is the necessity 
for a congenial and sympathetic environment. 
And rumor has it that this helpful environment is 
not always present in the splendidly equipped 
divisions, where it may be that the expert scientist 
is hampered and distracted by the necessity of 
making preliminary plans, and preliminary pro- 
jects, and final plans and final projects, and re- 
ports of progress, and preliminary reports, and 
final reports, and supplementary reports, to officials 
who neither understand the nature of the prob- 
lems nor the scientific methods of their study. 
We shall agree that these things ought not to 
be, and I am assured by the interest you have 
shown in the scientific work of the country at 
large, and especially by what you have done here 
in the capital that you will gladly help to free the 
government scientists from such trammels as may 
have sometimes hedged them in. Im these days 
when we are applying ‘‘scientific management’’ 
to business and the industries certainly we ought 
to have a scientific management of our bureaus of 
science. 
Mr. President, I regard it as a great honor to 
have had the privilege of responding to the wel- 
come extended to this Association, and doubly so 
when that welcome has been given by you, whom 
we all delight to honor, as the president of this 
good country of ours. 
{[N.S. Von. XXXV. No. 888 
The annual address was then delivered 
by the retiring president Dr. A. A. Michel- 
son, on ‘‘Recent Progress in Spectroscopic 
Methods,’’ after which the meeting was 
adjourned. 
The addresses by retiring vice-presidents 
of sections were made as follows: 
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON 
Vice-president Frankforter before the Section 
of Chemistry. Title: The Resins and their Chem- 
ical Relations to the Terpenes. 
Vice-president Harper before the Section of 
Botany. Title: Some Current Conceptions of the 
Germ Plasm. 
THURSDAY AFTERNOON 
Vice-president Rosa before the Section of Phys- 
ics. Title: Work of the Electrical Division of the 
Bureau of Standards. 
Vice-president Rotch before the Section of Me- 
chanical Science and Engineering. Title: Aerial 
Engineering. 
Vice-president Hill before the Section of Edu- 
cation. Title: The Teaching of General Courses 
in Science. 
FRIDAY MORNING 
Vice-president Moore before the Section of 
Mathematics and Astronomy. Title: On the 
Foundation of the Theory of Linear Integral 
Equations. 
FRIDAY AFTERNOON 
Vice-president Dixon before the Section of An- 
thropology and Psychology. Title: The Inde- 
pendence of the Culture of the American Indian. 
Vice-president Novy before the Section of 
Physiology and Experimental Medicine. Title: 
Carriers of Disease. 
Vice-president Burton before the Section of 
Social and Economie Science. Title: The Cause 
of High Prices. 
Among other addresses which were given 
and meetings for general discussion which 
were held, the following may be mentioned : 
On Thursday morning, there was a sym- 
posium on ‘‘The Ether’’ before the Ameri- 
can Physical Society, which was led by 
Professor A. A. Michelson, who was fol- 
lowed by Professor A. G. Webster and 
others. 
