June 5, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



821 



all but two of which spoke favorably of the 

 project. The secretary (Williams) reported 

 answers from thirty persons, and S. A. Miller 

 reported answers from six persons, all favor- 

 able, making a total of one hundred and 

 twenty-six opinions in favor of and only two 

 dissenting from the formation of the proposed 

 society. 



A committee consisting of Jed Hotchkiss, 

 E. Whitfield and C. H. Hitchcock, appointed 

 to consider the situation, recommended that 

 the first step to be taken should be the estab- 

 lishment of a geological magazine. This re- 

 port was accepted and adopted ; the Cincinnati 

 committee also reported a proposed constitu- 

 tion, which was discussed and laid upon the 

 table pending further labors by the committee 

 and a report at the Minneapolis meeting in 

 1883. 



At the Minneapolis meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 (1883) those who had been active for the pro- 

 posed geological society met August 21, and 

 listened to further discussions and some objec- 

 tions. Some dilatory motions were brought 

 forward, viz., that a committee be appointed to 

 confer with the Mineralogical and Geological 

 Section of the Philadelphia Academy of Sci- 

 ences with reference to the formation of an 

 American Society and the establishment of a 

 geological magazine. Prior to this a com- 

 mittee had been appointed with instructions 

 to confer with Major J. W. Powell to ascertain 

 what encouragement could be afforded by him 

 in the support of a geological magazine. These 

 special committees, however, accomplished noth- 

 ing, except to delay the project, and to discour- 

 age those who were in favor of the proposed so- 

 ciety; and the friends of the new movement 

 became very much discouraged by the expres- 

 sion of unfavorable views at Minneapolis. 

 These adverse opinions were stated by several 

 of the oldest and most prominent geologists; 

 and they served to dampen the ambition of 

 those who, though younger, had been zealously 

 promoting the proposition. 



Four years later various causes led some of 

 these opponents to change their minds and to 

 solicit a continuation of the plan that had 



been proposed. And in particular the speaker 

 recalls such correspondence with Dr. J. S. 

 Newberry. 



The chairman and the secretary of the mori- 

 bund organization, Winchell and Hitchcock, 

 convinced that nothing would be done by other 

 parties, under implied instructions and re- 

 sponsibility from the meeting at Minneapolis, 

 by virtue of their office sent out a call to meet 

 at Cleveland, Ohio, in connection with the 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, 1888. The call as issued provided 

 that the new society should be composed only 

 of members of Section E of the American As- 

 sociation. This was in consequence of fear, 

 expressed by some of the older geologists, that 

 such an organization would clash seriously 

 with the Association; and their love for the 

 Association, with which they had been con- 

 nected actively for many years, was greater 

 than for any new geological organization, 

 which appeared to them like a phantom which 

 would be likely to have only an ephemeral 

 existence. 



Meanwhile several geologists, depending 

 largely on the action of the Montreal meeting, 

 and on the frequently stated advice of indi- 

 vidual geologists, unwilling to delay longer the 

 issuance of a geological magazine, boldly took 

 the initiative and established the American 

 Geologist, the first number appearing January, 

 1888. The call for the Cleveland meeting ap- 

 peared in the Geologist for June, 1888. 



It is enough to say, further, that this call 

 met a cordial reception and that at Cleveland 

 very much renewed interest was evident. 

 Committees were appointed to prepare a con- 

 stitution, and this constitution was adopted at 

 a meeting held at Ithaca, New York, in De- 

 cember, 1888, the present meeting being the 

 twenty-fifth anniversary of its adoption. 



ALEXANDER FRANCIS CHAMBERLAIN 

 Db. Alexander Francis Chatviberlain, pro- 

 fessor of anthropology in Clark University, 

 died April 8, 1914. He was born in Kenning- 

 hall, England, in January, 1865. In early life 

 he came to Canada and took the degree of A.B. 

 at the University of Toronto in 1886, and A.M. 



