March 11, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



433 



weekly hand-book whiek few of us could afford 

 to be without. 



The season of the year when the meetings 

 of the association should be held is, perhaps, 

 one of the most difficult things to decide un- 

 less the knot is cut by adopting the suggestion 

 made by Professor E. L. Nichols, that the 

 association is large enough and strong enough 

 to hold both a summer and a winter meeting. 

 Winter meetings coidd then be held usually 

 in a more southern latitude while summer 

 meetings could be held in the northern states. 

 Geo. F. Atkinson. 



It appears to me that the idea of efiecting 

 a union on lines of more or less close affilia- 

 tion between the various scientific organiza- 

 tions of the country under the leadership of 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science is in many respects eminently 

 wise and eminently desirable. Large bodies 

 possess more power than small ones. This is 

 the age of consolidation and combinations, and 

 scientific men are not behind the leaders of 

 industrial enterprise in recognizing the fact 

 that ' in union there is strength.' It is to be 

 borne in mind, however, that many of these 

 scientific organizations are composed for the 

 most part of specialists, whose sympathies are 

 only to a very limited extent enlisted on behalf 

 of the broader movement for which the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence stands. The object which many of the 

 affiliated societies have in view in holding 

 annual meetings is to permit friendly inter- 

 course and the discussion of questions which 

 only indirectly are of interest to the great 

 mass of the membership of the larger organ- 

 ization. In these days of easy communication 

 between all parts of our country the larger 

 organization must hold out to its constituent 

 sections and to its affiliated societies some- 

 thing more than mere sentimental considera- 

 tions in order to hold these bodies in line with 

 the general movement. Furthermore, the 

 times and seasons adopted for the holding of 

 general meetings must coincide with the con- 

 venience of at least a majority of the members 

 of the constituent organizations; otherwise 



sooner or later these affiliated societies will 

 fall away from the central group. 



The idea represented in the movement for 

 a convocation week seems to me theoretically 

 admirable. It, nevertheless, appears to me 

 that the selection of the time for meeting, 

 which has been made, is somewhat unfor- 

 tunate. There are some things that antedate 

 in their origin, as we all know, the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 and among them are the festivals of the Chris- 

 tian year. About Christmas center the joys 

 of the home and of the fireside. In the 

 business world, furthermore, the last days of 

 the old year and the first days of the new 

 year are generally devoted to the settling up 

 of accounts and to the transaction of a vast 

 amount of business, which is more or less 

 engrossing and of genuine importance to men 

 of affairs. People who have families do not 

 care, as a rule, to absent themselves from their 

 homes at the Christmas season. Bidding fare- 

 well the day before Christmas to the boys and 

 girls who have returned to the roof-tree from 

 school or college, for the purpose of under- 

 taking a lengthy pilgrimage to a distant city 

 in the interest of scientific discussion, reveals 

 more of the ' martyr-spirit ' than is common, 

 except among old bachelors. Most scientific 

 men, so far as my observation teaches me, 

 who have homes of their own, are exemplary 

 husbands and fathers, and while their devo- 

 tion to science may be keen, they will not 

 feel themselves called upon to neglect what 

 appear to be domestic duties in order to par- 

 ticipate in discussions which, it must be said, 

 are often at most of minor and transient im- 

 portance. I am quite firmly of the opinion 

 that if convocation week is to be generally 

 recognized, and the majority of our societies 

 are to be led enthusiastically to favor gather- 

 ings in such a week, the time chosen should 

 fall in the period of mid-summer vacation. 

 The meetings of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science and its 

 affiliated societies, held in the summer months, 

 have, as a rule, been eminently successful. 

 The change to the mid-winter holidays seems 

 to me, in common with a multitude of others, 

 who have spoken to me, to be objectionable. 



