44 



SCIENCE 



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



the American Museum of Natural History 

 on Saturday. 



To ascertain the exact attendance at the 

 meetings is not in itself a matter of im- 

 portance. A great many members of the 

 association do not register because there is 

 no reason to do so except as a matter of 

 record. It is, however, unfortunate that 

 such a large proportion of scientific men 

 attending the meetings are not members 

 of the association. There has indeed been 

 a great improvement in recent years, the 

 membership having increased about three- 

 fold since the preceding New York meeting 

 of 1900. At that time the official member- 

 ship was 1,721, whereas on December 1 it 

 was 4,498, and over 400 new members were 

 added at the meeting. This increase is 

 largely due to the fact that at the prece- 

 ding New York meeting arrangements were 

 made by which this journal is sent free of 

 charge to members without any advance in 

 the membership fee. For the sum of three 

 dollars an American scientific man may be 

 a member of the association and receive 

 the weekly issues of Science, whereas in 

 Great Britain it costs $12.50 to belong to 

 the British Association and to receive 

 Nature. Yet the purchasing power of 

 money is greater there than here. A com- 

 mittee on increase of membership was es- 

 tablished by the council, and it is to be 

 hoped that this committee will bring to the 

 attention of all men of science the privilege 

 and the duty of allying themselves with 

 their fellow workers in our national scien- 

 tific organization. 



The most unsatisfactory aspect of recent 

 meetings of the association has been the 

 lack of adequate recognition and apprecia- 



tion by the general public. In a democ- 

 racy, science, literature and art should not 

 depend on patrons and privileged classes 

 for support and recruits, but on the whole 

 people. The American Association is now 

 accomplishing more than the British Asso- 

 ciation in its work as a body of scientific 

 men, but it faUs far behind it in a function 

 nearly as important, namely, the diffusion 

 of science and the promotion of general 

 appreciation of scientific work. At the 

 annual meetings of the British Association 

 from one to two thousand associates and 

 ladies, the leading people of the commu- 

 nity, join the association, subscribing to its 

 funds and attending its meetings. The 

 London Times and other newspapers de- 

 vote daily pages to accurate reports. At 

 and before the New York meeting about 

 500 leading citizens of New York City 

 joined the association, including our great- 

 est living man of letters, many of the 

 prominent editors, lawyers, physicians and_ 

 clergymen of the city, and a ninnber of 

 those prominent in the commercial devel- 

 opment of the city and the county. This 

 is a distinct advantage both for them and 

 for the association, and similar and in- 

 creased efforts in this direction should be 

 made at subsequent meetings. 



On the other hand, the reports in the 

 press were simply scandalous, in spite of 

 the fact that the editor of each of the lead- 

 ing papers consented at the request of a 

 personal acquaintance to arrange for ade- 

 quate reports. Because one of the speakers 

 mentioned the name of Mr. John D. Rocke- 

 feller, three fourths of the space given to 

 the whole meeting on that day with its two 

 or three hundred important papers, was 



