Januabt 18, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



93 



cialized societies would in all probability 

 consent to become members of the greater 

 organization. 



This consolidation of independent spe- 

 cialized societies is wholly in agreement 

 with modern evolution and has been ac- 

 complished already in other fields. The 

 American Medical Association is such an 

 organization of affiliated societies of all 

 branches of medicine, and arrangements 

 are in progress not only to bring together 

 in a similar union all the medical societies 

 in London, but further to add to the num- 

 ber by the formation of new sections 

 as occasion arises. The degree of inde- 

 pendence to be accorded the subordinate 

 sections may well be left to future deter- 

 mination, but some such plan as that pro- 

 posed for the London societies seems 

 entirely feasible and proper. According 

 to this each section shall be self-governing 

 as far as possible, and shall have direct 

 representation in the general council and 

 editorial board, but its expenditures shall 

 be subject to the control of the financial 

 committee of the general society, and, 

 further, the general management shall be 

 controlled by a council consisting of the 

 president, the presidents of the sections 

 and the usual associates. 



When such an organization is accom- 

 plished by us, it will doubtless be with the 

 extension to the sections of the right to 

 hold meetings when and where they please, 

 limited only by the condition that one 

 meeting in each year shall be in associa- 

 tion with the whole body of affiliated socie- 

 ties. A preliminary step in this direction, 

 which seems to work well, has been the 

 adoption at our meetings of the practise 

 of holding sectional meetings in addition 

 to the general concourses participated in 

 by the society as a whole. A prominent 

 feature of these general gatherings might 

 be the presence by invitation of one or 

 more distinguished foreign guests. This 



feature would, I think, contribute not a 

 little to the success of the meetings in more 

 ways than one. It might, for instance, 

 attract the attention of more of our coun- 

 trymen at large to the importance and 

 dignity of the science, and arouse for it 

 and its aims a degree of interest and re- 

 spect that sadly needs stimulation. 



It is not to be understood that in the 

 proposed differentiation of the society 

 along these lines, our present local sections 

 would be dispensed with. They fill, and 

 doubtless will continue to fill, a most im- 

 portant field of usefulness. 



Inseparably connected with this differ- 

 entiation into sections is that of the 

 eventual gradual development of the jour- 

 nal of the society, a project which should 

 become no less a part of the general policy 

 of the society than that of the formation 

 of sections. As the society grows and 

 chemistry develops, a single journal will 

 become more and more cumbersome and 

 unwieldy, and division must result. A 

 short step toward this end has already been 

 taken in the arrangement of the papers we 

 now publish, all those relating to the major 

 subjects being grouped together in each 

 number of the journal; but this limited 

 separation will soon fail to meet our needs 

 and separate journals devoted to special 

 subjects will be a further step in evolution. 

 It is far better that these should be pub- 

 lished by one powerful central organiza- 

 tion than that they should be independent, 

 for by reason of the greater economy re- 

 sulting from centralized management more 

 can be accomplished and offered than by 

 the independent efforts of unaffiliated so- 

 cieties. One correspondent writes, "I be- 

 believe that natural evolution of the Amer- 

 ican Chemical Society will be along these 

 lines, namely, the organization of special 

 societies with special journals, as affiliated 

 bodies of the American Chemical Society 

 receiving the common journal. The spe- 



