February 14, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



243 



Continent. The celebration occupied three 

 entire days; the scientific meetings almost 

 four hours. May we not claim it as a merit 

 to thus maintain a higher standard for 

 national scientific meetings than we find 

 in other countries? 



Another important conti'ibution of our 

 Societywas the introduction of wintermeet- 

 ings. We were the first, I think, to use the 

 Christmas vacation regularly for this pur- 

 pose. Now many societies use it and ex- 

 perience has shown that it is the best time 

 in the whole year, under American condi- 

 tions, for the holding of national meetings. 

 It is, therefore, from our example that the 

 demand for the establishment of Convoca- 

 tion Week arose. 



The fourth achievement is the introduc- 

 tion of discussions of broader scope in 

 which topics of common interest to those 

 in allied branches of science are debated by 

 high authorities. Such discussions do much 

 to broaden our views and increase our ap- 

 preciation of the solidarity of all science. 



Now as to our future. I have already ex- 

 pressed my conviction that we should re- 

 sign our function as the central body of 

 affiliation in favor of the American Asso- 

 ciation, which, being so much larger, and 

 so much wider in its scope, can undertake 

 this work of affiliation on a larger scale and 

 therefore more efficiently. The Association 

 has adopted our plam of meeting during the 

 Christmas holidays so that the substitution 

 will be easy. It seems to those of us who 

 have been interested in these plans that it 

 vidll be of great value to the science of the 

 country to have from time to time a great 

 gathering, so great that its mere magnitude 

 will impress the public and impress our 

 public authorities. Science has yet to make 

 in this country enormous demands from the 

 public for support before it vnll attain the 

 proportions which are indispensable for 

 the maintenance of the national welfare. 

 It is a duty, therefore, both to science and 



to the country, for every scientific man to 

 contribute what he can to make known the 

 needs of science. We depend wholly upon 

 the dissemination of such knowledge for 

 our resources, whether we get them from 

 generous private individuals or by State 

 or national legislation. But it must be re- 

 membered further that though affiliation is 

 valuable, bringing together great numbers 

 at one place is not always the wisest plan. 

 Therefore it is necessary that every affili- 

 ated society should preserve absolute free- 

 dom and that it should be understood be- 

 tween the Society and the Association that 

 the former may meet with the Association 

 or not, as may be deemed expedient each 

 time by the Society. There should be no 

 compulsion from the Association, and I 

 think it will often happen that one or sev- 

 eral societies will find it advantageous to 

 meet apart. The only absolute obligation 

 which the affiliated societies ought to as- 

 sume is the election of one or more delegates 

 to represent the Society upon the Council 

 of the American Association. It is hoped 

 that by this means the Council will become, 

 so to speak, a national senate representing 

 the scientific interests of the country, and 

 representing them very fully. Such a sen- 

 ate will have great influence and may exert 

 its influence from time to time to the ad- 

 vantage of the country. It can speak with 

 authority in regard to problems of legis- 

 lation, of education and of scientific organ- 

 ization. It might make effective protests, 

 as, for instance, against the outrageous 

 system of duties upon scientific apparatus 

 by which all our work is now impeded; or 

 against the public clamor recently made in 

 one of our States for the reduction of the 

 income of the State University; or against 

 the abuses of arbitrary and ignorant au- 

 thority at some of our universities, of 

 which we have heard during the last year. 

 If we resign this part of our work to the 

 American Association, will there remain 



