Apeil 7, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



489 



"I deeply regret that it was found absolutely 

 impossible to hold the Second National Exposition 

 of Chemical Industries during Convocation Week. 

 Every effort was made to do so, but all of these 

 efforts failed through inability to secure a suitable 

 building during that week. The exposition must 

 be held in September. If, therefore, we should de- 

 cide to hold our annual meeting in December, I 

 am confident that it would result in a large por- 

 tion of our membership attending the exposition 

 and failing to attend the meeting of the society. 

 This would mean a very great loss in this particu- 

 lar year to the prestige and usefulness of the so- 

 ciety. The opportunity of a lifetime is in our 

 hands. It seems to me that we would be very 

 unwise to divide our strength just at the time 

 when we have so wonderful an opportunity for 

 increasing it. 



' ' Should the council vote against reconsidera- 

 tion, members of the society connected with uni- 

 versities would not be thereby necessarily pre- 

 vented from attending the annual meeting. It 

 seems reasonable that university authorities would 

 gladly give leave-of-absence to members of chem- 

 istry staffs in those institutions which open on or 

 before September 25, and certainly the depart- 

 ments of chemistry in all of our universities would 

 have much to gain from a meeting held in conjunc- 

 tion with the Second National Exposition of Chem- 

 ical Industries. ' ' Sincerely yours, 



"Chas. H. Heett, 



"President" 



FIRST MEETING OF THE PACIFIC DIVI- 

 SION OF THE AMERICAN ASSO- 

 CIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 

 MENT OF SCIENCE 

 The first meeting of the Pacific Division of 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science will be held in San Diego, 

 California, between the dates, August 9 and 

 12, 1916. The plans for this meeting include 

 four public addresses upon important scien- 

 tific subjects of general interest. The first 

 of this series of addresses will be that of the 

 president of the division. Dr. W. "W. Camp- 

 bell, director of the Lick Observatory, Mount 

 Hamilton, on Wednesday evening, August 9, 

 and will be entitled " What we know about 

 Comets." This address will be followed by a 

 reception to visiting scientists. The three 

 other public addresses will occur on Thurs- 



day and Friday evenings, August 10 and 11, 

 and on the afternoon of one of the days set 

 aside for the meeting. Addresses will be given 

 by Dr. Barton W. Evermann, director of the 

 Museum of California Academy of Sciences, 

 and by Dr. F. F. Wesbrook, president of the 

 University of British Columbia. 



Thirteen scientific societies of the Pacific 

 coast region are now affiliated with the Pacific 

 Division and it is expected that many of these 

 societies, together with other scientific soci- 

 eties of the same region will participate in 

 the San Diego meeting. Sessions of these 

 societies will be held on Thursday and Friday, 

 August 10 and 11, and at least one day of the 

 period of the meeting, Saturday, August 12, 

 will be reserved for excursions, which will be 

 both of general and special scientific interest. 



The Channel Islands and the region of 

 southern California present a number of ex- 

 tremely interesting geological features. This 

 region is also unique botanically and zoolog- 

 ically. Materials of southwestern ethnology 

 and archeology are to be found among the 

 Indian reservations and remains of Spanish 

 settlements in southern California. The ex- 

 cursions which are to be arranged at the time 

 of the San Diego meeting, wUl make accessible 

 as many as possible of these interesting fea- 

 tures. Among other excursions which may be 

 taken en route to or from the San Diego meet- 

 ing are visits to the astronomical observatories 

 at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, 

 near San Jose, and the Mount Wilson Solar 

 Observatory, near Pasadena. 



Special significance centers upon this meet- 

 ing of the Pacific Division of the American 

 Association at San Diego, since this is the first 

 of a series of meetings which it is planned to 

 hold annually under these auspices in the edu- 

 cational centers of the Pacific coast. Addi- 

 tional interest is given to this occasion by the 

 Panama-California Exposition at San Diego 

 which illustrates in its exhibits the resources 

 of the southwest and includes a series of im- 

 usually fine coUeetions concerning the history 

 of man. 



Preceding the San Diego meeting of the 

 Pacific Division the iirst assembly in science 



