March 4, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



371 



other sides of the same subject formally 

 presented by some one who may not fully 

 agree with the preceding author, but who 

 has had time to prepare a written paper 

 defending his position and advocating his 

 opinions. While persons may differ in 

 their opinions as to which is the better plan, 

 the consensus of opinion of the members 

 present was that the program presented 

 gave them much information and food for 

 thought. Many branches of mechanical 

 science and engineering were touched upon, 

 and while special emphasis was put upon 

 those sessions devoted to aeronautics and 

 hydrology, it was thought that the place 

 and its surroundings warranted it. 



The attendance at the meetings of the 

 section has been excelled in recent years 

 only by the 1902-3 Washington meeting. 

 It is thought that this is encouraging for 

 the future of the section. It is to be hoped 

 that the members of the association con- 

 nected with the section will show their con- 

 tinued interest in it by their attendance 

 and by presenting papers at future meet- 

 ings. Wm. T. Magruder, 



Secretary. 



A REPLY TO REGENT STRICTURES ON 

 AMERICAN BIOLOGISTS.* 



A NOT uncommon, though possibly more 

 or less indefinitely formiilated, opinion has 

 recently found an expression in print f to 

 the effect that American systematic zoology 

 has degenerated into a mere recording of 

 minute facts, instead of being a study of 

 problems; in other words, that it has been 

 rediiced to a somewhat low-level, though 

 possibly sometimes useful, craft, and has 

 lost caste among the sciences. 



It must be admitted at the outset that 



* Read at the Twenty-first Congress of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, at its meeting 

 in Philadelphia, November 18, 1903. 



t Talcott Williams, ' On the Skirmish Line of 

 Science,' Booklover's Magazine, II., November, 

 1903, p. 458. 



this criticism is deserved to a limited ex- 

 tent. If we take ornithology as an example, 

 what are the results of our labors in this 

 country? Look over the long files of the 

 Auk and see what they contain: An as- 

 tounding and in many ways admirable 

 record of facts relating to the distribution 

 of our birds, their habits, their specific 

 and subspecifie characters! The refine- 

 ment and acumen of discrimination with 

 regard to the latter have reached a high 

 degree of development, and it is doubtless 

 true that the birds of North America are 

 better known than those of any other part 

 of the globe of even approximately similar 

 extent. Our collections of native species 

 are vastly larger and more complete than 

 those of any other country and our methods 

 and technique, both of collecting and of 

 recording, greatly superior to those of the 

 rest of the world. And the work goes on 

 unceasingly, and the details are being more 

 skilfully and accurately and voluminously 

 elaborated every day. In fact, we are 

 working so fast and so well that we have 

 left the rest of the ornithological world 

 far behind. Some of the younger Euro- 

 pean ornithologists are trying to catch up, 

 but they will never be able to do so because 

 the North American material can only be 

 had here and because we have gained such 

 a lead in the race. 



But for what purpose are we accumu- 

 lating all this minute detail, this enormous 

 material 1 What are we straining our best 

 faculties, our acknoM'ledged ingeniousness, 

 for? Thus far we have but little to show 

 that would give a satisfying answer to 

 these questions. On the surface, at least, 

 it looks as if we were following these pur- 

 suits chiefly for their own sake, for the 

 satisfaction of mere accumulating, for the 

 exercise of these mental faculties. To the 

 outsider it must certainly appear as if we 

 regard the Avori we are doing as an end, 

 not as a means towards an end. The ques- 



