Januaet 8, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



45 



apply scientific methods to their own 

 guidance. 



The American Association and a ma- 

 jority of our scientific societies will meet 

 next year at Philadelphia and the follow- 

 ing year at New Orleans. Other societies 

 should adjust their plans to this definite 

 program. It may he desirahle for the nat- 

 uralists of the central states to hold a 

 meeting of their own next year and for the 

 naturalists of the eastern states to hold 

 a separate meeting the following year, and 

 individual societies may like to meet some- 

 times apart from the general meeting. But 

 it would be unfortunate to have two com- 

 peting groups of naturalists meeting next 

 year at the same time and in the same re- 

 gion. If this should occur, it would not 

 he the result of the wishes of the general 

 body of naturalists, but through misunder- 

 standings on the part of a few officers. If 

 any of the societies that met at Philadel- 

 phia last week are unwilling to return next 

 year, or wish to hold meetings apart from 

 the main group, it is to be hoped that they 

 will meet separately in small university 

 towns, rather than undertake to organize a 

 conflicting group. 



It would be desirable for the council of 

 the American Association, representing 

 the association and affiliated societies, to 

 lay out its program even more than two 

 years in advance, it being of course always 

 adjustable to new conditions. There ap- 

 pears to be no valid argument against both 

 summer and winter meetings. It entails 

 extra labor on the secretaries, but they 

 should be adequately paid, and different 

 summer and winter secretaries could be 



elected should this prove desirable. The 

 council of the association should and does 

 meet twice a year, and it appears that a 

 summer meeting would be a better occa- 

 sion than the time of the meeting of the 

 National Academy at Washington. A 

 summer meeting, supposing waste on 

 printing programs and the like to be elim- 

 inated, would increase the receipts more 

 than the expenditures; in any case the as- 

 sociation has an ample income, having 

 been able in recent years to turn over 

 large sums from the income to the perma- 

 nent funds. Since the New York meeting 

 of the association, when it was decided to 

 send Science free of charge to all mem- 

 bers, the membership has increased from 

 1,700 to over 4,000. If seventeen hundred 

 members — there were actually but twelve 

 hundred who were in full standing— could 

 hold one meeting annually, four thousand 

 members can hold two. It is nearly always 

 a mistake for those who do not want to do 

 a thing to say to those who do : You must 

 not. "With the exception of certain officers, 

 most of whom might be elected in dupli- 

 cate, no one need attend any particular 

 meeting of the association. If the work 

 were somewhat differentiated there would 

 be ample room for two meetings a year, 

 with a satisfactory attendance and pro- 

 gram at each. 



We look forward to seeing the convoca- 

 tion week meeting in midwinter the great 

 assemblage of American men of science, 

 where all societies will be represented either 

 by a plebiscite or by delegates, which will 

 impress on the public at large the weight 

 and magnitude of scientific work. The 



