December 24, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



883 



I conclude, therefore, that an organiza- 

 tion like the Ohio Academy is of prime im- 

 portance to science in Ohio because it is 

 essential to the proper and complete devel- 

 opment of the man of science. By min- 

 gling with those whose explorations of the 

 mysteries of nature are directed along lines 

 diverging greatly from his own he is better 

 prepared to estimate correctly the compara- 

 tive and the absolute value of his own 

 work. He has also an opportunity to famil- 

 iarize himself with methods and instru- 

 ments of research used in other depart- 

 ments of science which he can often sum- 

 mon to his own service with great profit. 



In our own National Academy of Sci- 

 ences there is no division of members into 

 sections in sessions for the presentation and 

 discussion of scientific papers. Communi- 

 cations of the most diverse character are 

 presented before the entire body and this 

 course is highly commended in a recent 

 volume by Dr. George E. Hale, which is a 

 study of the academies of aU nations and 

 their relation to the progress of human 



Unfortunately the history of scientific 

 organizations in this country during the 

 past quarter of a century shows a strong 

 movement in a direction contrary to that 

 which I have suggested as desirable. Forty 

 years ago the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science was divided into 

 two sections, one of which included those 

 members who were most interested in the 

 so-called "exact sciences," mathematics, 

 astronomy, physics and chemistry, while 

 the other was made up of students of the 

 "natural history sciences." During the 

 week or ten days of its annual meeting 

 there were daily morning sessions in which 

 both sections participated and there were 

 frequent evening meetings at which ad- 

 dresses and lectures were given by eminent 

 scholars representing both grand divisions of 



science, each chosen for his skill in present- 

 ing his subject in such a way that it was 

 intelligible and interesting to members who 

 were on the other side of the dividing line. 

 In this way the mathematician or physicist 

 might always have a fairly correct knowl- 

 edge of the more important developments 

 or the larger generalizations in biology or 

 geology. The doctrine of evolution, which 

 came first from that side, was quickly ap- 

 preciated by students of exact science to 

 which it has since been profitably applied. 

 They, in their turn, gave to the naturalists 

 the great principle of the conservation of 

 energy, of which great use has been made 

 in the study of life in its various forms. 

 The psychological effect of the mingling of 

 these two rather diverse elements of the 

 scientific body was also of great value, and 

 there is not the slightest doubt that both 

 were greatly benefited. 



In this bi-partite classification of its 

 membership the association had followed 

 the example of its English forerunner in 

 a practise which the latter still maintains. 

 In the American Association the disintegra- 

 tion began about thirty years ago and at 

 present it is divided into twelve sections. 



In addition to this specialization within 

 the largest scientific body of the country, 

 during the past twenty years an astonish- 

 ingly large number of other scientific soci- 

 eties have come into existence, each of 

 which is specially devoted to a particular 

 department or, more often, to a subdivision 

 of a particular department of science. In- 

 deed the pressing need of the hour is the 

 organization of a Society for the Preven- 

 tion of the Organization of Other Societies. 



Perhaps the most deplorable conse- 

 quence of this minute subdivision in the 

 ranks of scientific men is that, because of 

 habitual isolation from all not familiar 

 with its technical vocabulary little or no 

 effort is made by one group to translate the 



