42 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 628 



tude. At the first of the convocation-week 

 meetings, held in Washington four years 

 ago, there was some conflict of interests; 

 for example, three sessions devoted to the 

 reading of botanical papers were held 

 sirmaltaneously. At the second large meet- 

 ing, held in Philadelphia two years ago, 

 the friction was slight, but questions as to 

 the advisability of such joint meetings and 

 of the usefulness of the American Associa- 

 tion were occasionally raised. At the pres- 

 ent meeting the general spirit of harmony 

 and good fellowship was obvious. There 

 are, of course, many open questions and 

 many differences of opinion — it would be a 

 sign of atrophy rather than of growth if 

 such did not exist— but everywhere ap- 

 peared a willingness to solve the questions 

 and compromise the differences by the use 

 of kindliness and common sense. 



It was indeed a cause of regret that it 

 was possible to attend only one of the 

 simultaneous meetings and to talk at leisure 

 with only a small part of those present, but 

 this is a drawback which evidently would 

 not be overcome if the societies met simul- 

 taneously in a dozen different places. The 

 specialization demanded by the increase of 

 knowledge and the limits of the capacity 

 of a single man does not set sharp bound- 

 aries between the sciences, but rather 

 tends to obliterate them. A society of 

 physiological chemists can not meet apart 

 from physiologists and chemists, or a so- 

 ciety of vertebrate paleontologists apart 

 from geologists and zoologists. There were 

 held in New York joint meetings of special 

 interest of botanists and zoologists, of 

 mathematicians and astronomers, of philos- 



ophers and psychologists, and of other 

 groups. The opportunity was also taken 

 for the meetings of many committees and 

 boards, on which men of science working 

 in different directions are represented. 



There was in no case any conflict between 

 a section of the association and a special 

 society; in all cases joint programs were 

 arranged. It was indeed suggested in the 

 council that the officers of the sections and 

 the sections themselves are superfluous, but 

 this probably represents the opinion of a 

 small minority. The special societies are 

 far more competent than the sections to 

 arrange special programs and to elect their 

 members. The association has acknowl- 

 edged this, its council having passed resolu- 

 tions empowering the sectional committees 

 to turn over special papers to the special 

 societies and instructing the permanent sec- 

 retary to nominate as fellows members of 

 the affiliated societies having the same 

 standards as the association. But the sec- 

 tions still have important functions. They 

 give an organization which provides for 

 representation in the council and for refer- 

 ence from the council of special questions. 

 The sections, as a rule, embrace a group of 

 sciences, and thus serve as centers of affilia- 

 tion and organization. They are also the 

 best means of keeping the association and 

 the sciences in touch with the wider public. 

 A program such as that of the section of 

 physiology and experimental medicine ap- 

 pears to be in every way satisfactory. It 

 had a vice-presidential address of general 

 interest and a discussion on a subject com- 

 mon to the sciences concerned, but left all 

 special papers to the societies meeting in 

 affiliation. 



