192 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 474. 



DT8CUSSWN AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



CONVOCATION WEEK. 



To THE Editor of Science : I am in hearty 

 sympathy with nearly all the opinions ex- 

 pressed in the recent article in Science en- 

 titled ' Convocation Week.' The American 

 Association has a large membership. One of 

 its chief functions is to provide for its mem- 

 bers the means of getting together for scien- 

 tific and social intercourse. The plan of a 

 convocation week into which might be gath- 

 ered so far as practicable the numerous scat- 

 tered meetings of special societies, which were 

 being held without any correlation of time or 

 place, was in my opinion a distinct step in 

 advance. 



When the question of winter meetings for 

 the American Association first began to be 

 considered it became evident that many 

 members of the association preferred the sum- 

 mer meeting. Comparatively few probably 

 would attend two meetings a year, but I thinlv 

 it safe to estimate that if by its present plan 

 of holding one meeting a year the association 

 succeeds on the average in securing an attend- 

 ance of 500 of its 4,000 members, it would, 

 by holding both summer and winter meetings, 

 in localities and at times selected with judg- 

 ment, have almost if not quite as large an 

 attendance at each. It would thus double its 

 usefulness by supplying the facilities for a 

 scientific meeting to twice as many of its 

 members every year. 



The general feeling in the west is for sum- 

 mer meetings. In the east the majority favors 

 meetings in the winter, but the geographical 

 lines are not sharply drawn. Many of us 

 would be glad of a choice between the summer 

 and the winter meeting with privilege of at- 

 tending one, both or neither at our conven- ' 

 lence. The summer meetings should be held, 

 as a rule, in some attractive , and accessible 

 resort; in the mountains, on the lakes or at 

 the seashore. By selecting the earliest pos- 

 sible date after the closing of our colleges it 

 would be practicable to house the entire at- 

 tending membership under one roof. The 

 great summer hotels at the beginning of the 

 season are almost empty and they would wel- 

 come the association. The end of the summer. 



while desirable in certain respects, is the 

 crowded season at such places and it would be 

 difficult to find suitable accommodations. 



Summer meetings would probably be as well 

 attended as those held in convocation week; 

 the attendance at the former would indeed 

 be the much larger but for the greater gath- 

 ering of the affiliated societies in winter. 



The association in bringing together men 

 of many sciences has a more important func- 

 tion than appears to be commonly recognized. 

 Without some such organization we shall meet 

 m the various special societies only those who 

 are engaged in our own particular lines of 

 work. The bringing together of the various 

 affiliated societies at a common meeting place 

 helps to mitigate one of the most unfortunate 

 features of modern specialization in science, 

 namely, the separation of men of science into 

 small groiips. Moreover, the formation of 

 special societies has gone so far that every 

 one is compelled to hold membership in sev- 

 eral. In addition to being a member of the 

 American Physical Society the physicist is or 

 should be interested in the work of the Insti- 

 tute of Electrical Engineers, of the Physical 

 Chemists, of the Society for Astrophysics, of 

 the Mathematical Society, of the Electro- 

 Chemical Society, etc. The affiliation of these 

 and other special societies in the American 

 Association would make it easy for one to 

 get in touch at least once a year with the vari- 

 ous activities which they represent, hence the 

 importance of convocation week. It is not 

 less imperative that the American Association 

 ailord those of its members who can not at- 

 tend its winter meetings an opportunity for 

 intercourse with kindred spirits at times and 

 places possible to them. The question of the 

 expense of two meetings a year is not worjhy 

 of consideration. It is absurd to say that an 

 association with a membership of 4,000 is 

 unable to carry on two, or if desirable, even 

 more meetings every year. 



E. L. Nichols. 



When the American Scientific Association 

 was organized in 1847 it was, like its im- 

 mediate predecessor the Association of Ameri- 

 can Geologists and JSTaturalists, the only 

 national society devoted to pure science in 



