SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1149 



to be overcrowded, the university and the 

 other educational and scientific institutions 

 of the city having grown in proportion to 

 the increase of scientific men since the meet- 

 ing in New York ten years ago. Tliere was 

 no delay in registration and no difficulty in 

 obtaining rooms at the hotels or elsewhere. 

 There was a very great conflict, in so far as 

 there were nearly always a number of dif- 

 ferent meetings or other events which mem- 

 bers would have been glad to attend. This 

 conflict may make a greater impression 

 than if the meetings were being held in fifty 

 different places throughout the country, 

 but obviously the real interference is much 

 less. 



The plan of holding the greater convoca- 

 tion week meetings once in four years 

 seems to have been justified by the event. 

 The meeting four years hence will be in 

 Chicago, that of eight years hence in Wash- 

 ington, and in twelve years there will be a 

 return to New York. It may be that ulti- 

 mately two events in the same year, the 

 presidential election and the convocation of 

 our scientific societies, will be recognized 

 as of comparable national importance. It 

 is hoped that at these greater convocation 

 week meetings the societies devoted to the 

 natural and exact sciences will meet with 

 all national organizations concerned with 

 science in its widest sense, not only engi- 

 neering and medicine, but also education, 

 economics, history, philology and indeed 

 all the subjects falling within the curric- 

 ulum of the modern university, subjects 

 which can be advanced by research. A 

 meeting of such magnitude would have 

 great advantages in bringing together men 



working in diverse directions but none the 

 less having common objects, and would 

 serve the purpose of impressing on the gen- 

 eral public the magnitude and importance 

 of the work accomplished in this country 

 for scholarship and science. 



The American Association of University 

 Professors and the American Congress of 

 Internal I\Iedicine met this year for the 

 first time in convocation week, and there 

 is no reason why all national societies 

 should not do so when the meeting is in 

 New York, Chicago or "Washington. The 

 arrangements for affiliation with the asso- 

 ciation are very simple, and apparently to 

 the advantage of all. The affiliated society 

 has the privilege of meeting with the asso- 

 ciation when it sees fit and of electing one 

 or two members of the council of the asso- 

 ciation. The association has no control of 

 any kind over the affiliated society. Even 

 when the affiliated society does not meet 

 at the same time and place as the associa- 

 tion, it is desirable that there be held once 

 a year a congress representing all the 

 scientific societies and scientific interests 

 of the country, and it seems that the coun- 

 cil of the association can serve this purpose 

 better than any other body. The National 

 Academy of Sciences, a small self-perpetu- 

 ating body, consisting of men elected for 

 eminence in science at the average age of 

 about fifty years, may be of use as a roll 

 of honor, but it can scarcely be expected 

 to be an efficient working body, and it is 

 not so well in accord with democratic con- 

 ditions as a body of delegates elected to 

 represent the scientific societies and the 

 scientific men of the country. 



