Mabch 8, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



363 



custom of systematic workers in different 

 groups of animals and plants to cooperate 

 without pay with any naturalist who may 

 send them species for identification. 



The international congresses which in 

 the past few years have multiplied so as 

 now to include nearly all of the sciences 

 have stimulated cooperative undertakings. 

 The International Association of Academies 

 has organized commissions in the geodetic 

 and seismologieal survey of the earth and 

 on terrestrial magnetism. In electricity 

 there are international committees on elec- 

 tromagnetic units and standardization. At 

 a recent international meteorological con- 

 gress cooperative work was initiated for 

 the construction of a cloud atlas, also for 

 studies on solar radiation, and no aero- 

 nautics. The exchange between nations by 

 telegraph of current meteorologic observa- 

 tions is being constantly extended. The 

 chemists have an international committee 

 on atomic weights. The botanists and the 

 zoologists have each an active international 

 committee on nomenclature. The Inter- 

 national Congress of Experimental Psy- 

 chology has commissioned individuals to 

 make comprehensive reports on special sub- 

 jects. All the foregoing examples of the 

 international congresses (of which others 

 might be cited) involve much cooperation 

 between men of science, who not only 

 travel far to attend them but also work 

 together in committees to further the in- 

 vestigations of largest scope. 



The national societies involve, likewise, 

 even though less strikingly, the spirit of 

 cooperation. At this season of the year 

 we prepare our papers with much pains, 

 we leave our Christmas firesides and we 

 travel great distances, spending freely of 

 time and money, to advance these meetings 

 that we believe to be for the common good. 

 We meet together both formally and in- 

 formally and we exchange very freely our 

 ideas and discoveries. These meetings 



illustrate in the most practical way the 

 spirit of goodwill, reciprocity and coopera- 

 tion of this holiday season. The only re- 

 gret that we hear, the only limitation to 

 satisfaction that we feel, is that the pro- 

 grams are too full to permit of sufficient 

 discussion and that several programs of 

 common interest are running simultane- 

 ously. This year, in the biological sciences 

 at least, a distinct improvement has been 

 made, in that the sections of the associa- 

 tion have cooperated fully with the special 

 societies by arranging joint programs. A 

 further example of cooperation this year 

 is the joint session of the zoologists and 

 botanists for topics in heredity and plant 

 and animal breeding, and there have been 

 in recent years a few individual cases of 

 participation by members of one society 

 in the proceedings of the other. Such co- 

 operation between biologists is so helpful 

 that it leads us to inquire whether it ought 

 not to be better organized. 



Let us consider for a moment the rela- 

 tions that have existed between the botan- 

 ists and zoologists. The early systematists, 

 such as Ray and Linnaeus, included both 

 plants and animals in their studies. Later, 

 as species multiplied, the systematists of the 

 two realms divided sharply. To-day we see 

 the division carried still further on the 

 basis of materials studied; so that we now 

 have entomologists — lepidopterologists, co- 

 leopterologists, etc., indeed — and concholo- 

 gists, ichthyologists, helminthologists, and 

 so on. These divisions are excusable only 

 in systematic work. One can not but re- 

 gret to see scientific men segregating them- 

 selves on the basis of materials studied. In 

 other sciences it is not so. To be sure, the 

 chemistry of organic compounds assumed 

 such importance some years ago that uni- 

 versity chairs in that subject were organ- 

 ized and even societies founded ; but I think 

 it is true that no further segregation on the 

 basis of material will take place in chem- 



