314 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 37. 



tlie members. Of the whole number regis- 

 tered, onlj' 1.5 were from the city of Spring- 

 field and hardly more than half a hundred 

 from the entire State of Massachusetts; 

 more than half of these, too, were elected 

 at the present meeting. 



While these strictures must in fairness 

 be passed upon the meeting, the work in 

 the individual sections was probably above 

 the average. The number of papers pre- 

 sented — over two hundred — was very large 

 and manj' of them were of unusual value 

 and interest. This was particularly true 

 in the Sections of Chemistry and Anthro- 

 pology, and members were heard to char- 

 acterize the meeting as far as regarded these 

 sections as the most helpful and best ever 

 held. In the Chemical Section this was 

 due to the labors of the Vice-President and 

 Sectional Committee in preparing the pro- 

 gram long in advance of the meeting. In 

 this connection it may be said that of the 

 184 new members elected 40 belong to sec- 

 tion C, and 21 out of 58 fellows elected at 

 the Springfield meeting are members of the 

 tlie same section. At the same time the 

 American Chemical Society is by far the 

 largest (over 900 members) and perhaps 

 the most active of the Affiliated Societies. In 

 this case it seems as if the Affiliated Society 

 is directly conducive to the prosperity of 

 the Section of the Association. The open- 

 ing session of the Association was held in 

 the Y. M. C. A. Hall on Thursday morn- 

 ing. In calling the meeting to order the 

 Permanent Secretary, Prof. F. W. Putnam, 

 read a letter from the President, Dr. D. G. 

 Brinton, announcing that owing to the con- 

 tinued serious illness of his wife it was 

 impossible for him to return from Europe 

 in time for the meeting. In Dr. Brinton's 

 absence, the Senior Vice-President, Prof. 

 Wm. H. Brewer, of New Haven, was called 

 to the chair, and referring in a few well- 

 chosen words to the labors of the President- 

 elect in his well-known determinations of 



the composition of water, introduced Prof. 

 Edward W. Morley, of Cleveland, as Presi- 

 dent of the forty-fourth meeting of the 

 Association. After an invocation by Eev. 

 Bradley Gilbert addresses of welcome were 

 delivered by ex-Lieutenant-Governor W. 

 H. Haile, and Mayor Charles L. Long. 

 This latter address, contrasting well the 

 periods at which the two Springfield meet- 

 ings were held, was as follows : 



More than a third of a century has passed 

 away since this Association last met in this 

 city, on the 3d day of August, 1859, for the 

 purpose of holding its 13th gathering. Prof. 

 Stephen Alexander, that distinguished as- 

 tronomer whose writings attracted the at- 

 tention of scientific scholars of this coun- 

 try and of other lands, presided at the meet- 

 ing. The political and scientific changes 

 which have taken place during the period 

 that has. passed have been many, and they 

 have been as remarkable as they have been 

 numerous. 



When that convention assembled, human 

 slavery was a legalized institution in the 

 Southern States, and the great question of 

 its extension into the Territories and of 

 their admission into the Union cursed with 

 its blight agitated the people. Two months 

 had scarcely passed after the Association 

 adjourned, before the country was con- 

 vulsed with excitement over the insurrec- 

 tion at Harper's Ferry, and within two 

 years the storm which had for so long been 

 gathering and which was to settle forever 

 the great questions of State rights and of 

 human slavery in this countrj^ broke with 

 terrific fiiry upon our beloved land, drench- 

 ing it in fraternal bloodshed and in a con- 

 flict unequal in its magnitude and unsur- 

 passed in the importance of the results 

 achieved. 



No doubt the learned men who assembled 

 at that gathering were proud of the success 

 which had thus far drowned scientific in- 

 vestigation, and gloried in the great ad- 



