26i 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XIX. No. 476, 



Advancement of Science, which is practically 

 the only American organization of that char- 

 acter. 



' The way to get the public ear is to get it, 

 as far as one can, at first hand. The door of 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science is wide open for the public 

 to enter. It should be. Sectional discussions 

 are at their best when there are enough listen- 

 ers to stimulate the speaker to do his best. 

 Scientific statements are at their best when 

 plainness of speech is compelled by a miscel- 

 laneous audience of people educated, indeed, 

 but differently educated. 



Therefore, I think the meetings of the asso- 

 ciation should be held when and where they 

 will attract the largest attendance, and sec- 

 tional meetings or meetings of affiliated so- 

 cieties so arranged as to make it easy for 

 members to pass from one room to another, 

 and hear something upon many subjects. 



The largest attendance, I believe, can be 

 secured in July or August. Convocation 

 week is not even a free week for all college 

 and university teachers; to school teachers it 

 is seldom free; to business and professional 

 men, rarely, if ever. Simeon E. Baldwin. 



The meetings of scientific societies seem to 

 me to serve a real purpose in affording a 

 pleasant opportunity for the personal ac- 

 quaintance of scientific men, but I can not 

 think that they are otherwise a great factor 

 in the progress of science. It seems to me 

 to be highly expedient that all the affiliated 

 societies should meet at the same time and 

 place, but I do not think that this meeting 

 should be coincident with any other great 

 distracting event, because attention will there- 

 by be diverted from the main object of the 

 meeting, and because no city can comfortably 

 distend its possibility of accommodation to 

 include excessive numbers. A general meet- 

 ing once a year ought to be enough, in^view 

 of the many local meetings, the restricted 

 means of many of the members, and the great 

 extent of the country. Both midwinter and 

 midsummer are likely to be unpleasant for 

 travel in America, and, therefore, early autumn 

 seems to me the time when the largest number 



of members could be assembled, unless, in- 

 deed, the colleges could be induced to unite 

 upon a common time for a spring vacation. 

 Another argument against midwinter, but in 

 favor of the spring or early autumn, lies in 

 the fact that after April the results of a 

 winter's laboratory work are usually in a more 

 presentable condition than they were in the 

 preceding December, while the following De- 

 cember often finds the papers already in print. 

 This is, however, a secondary consideration, 

 since the main ofiice of the meeting is personal, 

 rather than scientific. 



Theodore W. Eichards. 



Before very much can be done in the way 

 of bringing together men working in different 

 scientific fields, it will be necessary to im- 

 prove the meetings of the sections. Rela- 

 tively few men go to the meetings of the 

 American Association because they^ feel that 

 they will lose something by staying away. 

 The attendance is very largely the result of 

 a _ sense of duty. One reason for this has 

 been a mistaken idea on the part of the offi- 

 cers of the sections as to the real objects of 

 the meeting. Each presiding officer has felt 

 that the success of the meeting is measured 

 by the number of papers presented before his 

 section and he has done his best to overload 

 the program. In order to finish on time, it 

 has been necessary to ask that discussion of 

 the papers be omitted or be made as brief as 

 possible. To the people who do not read 

 papers, the morning session becomes a trial of 

 endurance with no enlivening features. After 

 a few years of this, people lose all tendency 

 to discuss and it is then necessary for the 

 officers to overload the program. 



In the afternoon things are not much better. 

 The local members of the section are both 

 hospitable and energetic. They arrange one 

 or more excursions for each afternoon. People 

 hurry through their lunch and walk round in 

 crowds for hours, not rmderstanding a quarter 

 of what they see, and getting back to their 

 hotels in a state bordering on collapse. It is 

 all well meant, but it is a case of misdirected 

 energy. 



The usefulness of the meetings lies in the 



