Aveust 11, 1899. ] 
ous or more mutually helpful than the joint 
meetings which have been held for the past 
three years of Section C of the Association 
Far 
from being a loser by the founding of this 
and the American Chemical Society. 
society, the Association has profited by it in 
no small degree. Is not this an indication 
of what may be done and, in fact, of what 
will be done with other sections and other 
societies not limited geographically ? 
Reference has been made to the fact that 
membership in the National Academy of 
Sciences has destroyed toa great degree the 
interest which certain of the most promi- 
nent men of science in the country once 
That 
this was and is still true cannot be doubted, 
felt in the American Association. 
but we trust we are not mistaken in saying 
that we think that we can see signs of a 
change. Hspecially since the meeting of 
the British Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science at Toronto, so much has 
been said in American scientific circles of 
the importance of the attendance of promi- 
nent men of science at the meetings of the 
British Association as a factor in its great 
success that prominent Americans cannot 
fail to have appreciated the point, and surely 
the large attendance of prominent men at 
last year’s meeting is an indication of a re- 
vival of interest on the part of this class, 
even when we consider that the Boston 
meeting was an anniversary of great im- 
portance. 
Apropos of the British Association we 
are reminded of the editorial published in - 
the American Naturalist for January, 1899, 
under the title 
British Association for the Advancement 
In this edi- 
‘The American vs. the 
of Science: A Comparison.’ 
SCIENCE. 
163 
torial were compared the membership, the 
invested funds, the average attendance, the 
expenses and the sums devoted to research 
grants of the two Associations, naturally 
much to the advantage of the British Asso- 
ciation. The main explanation pointed out 
was the geographical one—the wide extent 
of our own country as compared with that 
of Great Britain. 
were either to break up the American As- 
The remedies suggested 
sociation into Atlantic, Mississippi and Pa- 
cific branches or else to make the meeting 
so interesting and valuable that members 
will attend them in spite of individual ex- 
pense. Rightly enough, the last remedy 
was the one chosen as preferable, and the 
first step to bring this about was considered 
to be the determination of the best scien- 
tific men of the country to attend the meet- 
ings at a sacrifice of time and money. 
With this also we agree as well as with, in 
the main, the other suggestions of the editor 
of the Naturalist. 
however, that in his comparison of the two 
We are of the opinion, 
Associations the writer of the editorial too 
greatly favored the British Association. 
In point of relative attendance at the 
meetings it must be noted that the propor- 
tion of members who attend the meetings 
of the American Association is quite as 
great as a rule as is the case with the Brit- 
ish Association. The very large numbers 
recorded at the meetings of the latter As- 
sociation are due in the main to the large 
numbers of associates and ladies who pay 
fees and in this way become the principal 
Thus 
in the year of largest attendance of the 
British Association, at the Manchester 
meeting in 1887, when 3,838 persons regis- 
financial support of the Association. 
