March 4, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



385 



suit in the early death and future prevention 

 of the numerous struggling, ephemeral publi- 

 cations issued by various local organizations. 



There is nothing original in the suggestions 

 made above. The plan has been inaugurated 

 by the medical fraternity and its good results 

 are already evident. Would it not be wise 

 for the scientific organizations to consider the 

 same plan seriously, even if it should involve 

 the demise of several existing organizations? 

 Ch. Wardell Stiles. 



Washington, D. C. 



To THE Editor op Science: The problems 

 connected with convocation week may be ap- 

 proached from the point of view either of that 

 which is in the abstract most desirable or of 

 that which is best adapted to present condi- 

 tions. The latter question can not be treated 

 properly without some consideration of the 

 former, but it is idle to confine our attention 

 to the ideal. 



Few men of science can fail to recognize 

 the enormous advantages resulting from the 

 unification of all the scientific interests of 

 the country under a single organization. The 

 main question seems to be whether it is prac- 

 ticable to effect such a unification without the 

 sacrifice of other and more important in- 

 terests. 



Objection is made on the part of the tech- 

 nical societies to any form of afiiliation which 

 would tend to degrade the professional stand- 

 ing of the membership of the societies. The 

 objection certainly is a valid one, and refer- 

 ence to the editorial of January 8 will show 

 that no such effect of affiliation on the pro- 

 fessional societies is necessary or desired. 



The objection to joint meetings growing out 

 of the great extent of territory covered by the 

 national organization and the resultant ex- 

 pense in time and money involved in reaching 

 distant cities is common to any form of na- 

 tional society, however limited in scope, and 

 may be met practically in a variety of ways. 

 It certainly is not greater with the affiliated 

 societies than with those entirely separate. 



Another difficulty not so easily disposed of 

 grows out of the crowding together of many 



programs in the short space of one week and 

 the interruptions due to the numerous public 

 lectures and social events of general interest. 

 This situation presents a problem of the first 

 magnitude and one better solved by a process 

 of natural growth in experience than by aca- 

 demic discussion. 



We have already had experience with three 

 chief methods in the conduct of our mid-win- 

 ter meetings. (1) Each society has met inde- 

 pendently, with no attempt at correlation with 

 any other organization. This was the method 

 until very recently, with the result, perhaps, 

 that three societies with which one might wish 

 to keep in touch were meeting simultaneously 

 in three widely separate cities, a situation so 

 intolerable as to have provoked the agitation 

 for convocation week. 



(2) A second method is for the independent 

 societies by mutual agTcement to meet at one 

 time in the same city. In the biological sci- 

 ences we had a practical illustration of this 

 at the last Washington meeting, where several 

 sessions were held simultaneously offering 

 programs covering substantially the same 

 field. This situation was far from satisfac- 

 tory to any of the membership, some declaring 

 that it were better to return to the former 

 plan of wholly separate meetings. Others 

 considered that the resultant social advantages 

 more than compensated for the distressing 

 conflict of desires by which one was torn dur- 

 ing the hours devoted to the reading of papers. 



(3) The third method is for all of the so- 

 cieties to meet together and for those dealing 

 with related subjects to combine their pro- 

 grams so as to have but one series of papers 

 on the same subject running at one time. An 

 inordinate length of program on any subject 

 may be obviated by a further topical division 

 of the program into smaller sections for all 

 or part of the time. To be sure, it is a very 

 difficult matter sometimes to find a natural 

 line of cleavage in a program, but a separation 

 of papers in accordance with any principle, 

 however defective, is better than a separation 

 based on no principle save the accidents of 

 membership in the several societies; and if 

 the programs are published in advance and 

 are as closely followed as possible and espe- 



