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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1095 



end of the year 1918. In the intervening years 

 the American Association will meet at places 

 more remote from the large centers of scien- 

 tific population, or in cities or at universities 

 where the accommodations are more limited. 

 The first of these meetings was in Atlanta at 

 the end of the year 1913, and the meeting this 

 year is at the Ohio State University, Colum- 

 bus. In 191Y, it will probably be in Toronto, 

 JSTashville or Pittsburgh. 



At these meetings the attendance of scien- 

 tific men is in the neighborhood of a thou- 

 sand; at the larger meetings it may be two or 

 three thousand, and at the four-year periods, 

 from five to ten thousand. The vast extent of 

 the country makes it difficult for the scientific 

 men of the west to visit the east, and con- 

 versely, during the Christmas holidays, and 

 siunmer meetings may be held in the west 

 once in four years, the first having been held 

 this summer in connection with the Panama- 

 Pacific Exhibition, and on the occasion of the 

 organization of a Pacific Division of the Asso- 

 ciation. 



Although the meeting of the American 

 Association opening at Columbus, on Decem- 

 ber 27, is not one of the larger convocation- 

 week meetings, it promises to be of more than 

 usual interest to those who are able to be pres- 

 ent, as was the case with the meeting held at 

 the Ohio State University some fifteen years 

 ago. The address of the retiring president. 

 Dr. Charles W. Eliot, who, called from a chair 

 of chemistry to the presidency of Harvard 

 University, has become by common consent 

 our leader in education, is on " The Emits, 

 Prospects and Lessons of Recent Biological 

 Science." An introductory address will be 

 made by the incoming president. Dr. W. W. 

 Campbell, the distinguished director of the 

 Lick Observatory. Among the vice-presi- 

 dential addresses before the eleven sections of 

 the association may be noted important sub- 

 jects, treated by Professor White, of Vassar 

 College, in mathematics; Professor Zeleny, of 

 Yale University, in physics; Professor Lillie, 

 of the University of Chicago, in zoology; Pro- 

 fessor Pearce, of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, in pathology ; Professor Hanus, of Har- 



vard University, in education, and Dr. Bailey, 

 formerly director of the Cornell Agricultural 

 College, in agriculture. 



Eighteen national societies, including the 

 American Society of !N"aturalists, and the soci- 

 eties devoted to mathematics, physics, zoology, 

 entomology and botany meet at Columbus in 

 affiliation with the American Association. 

 The chemists do not hold a winter meeting 

 this year. The psychologists and pharmacolo- 

 gists meet in Boston; the anatomists in New 

 Haven; the psychologists in Chicago; the 

 philosophers in Philadelphia; the geologists, 

 paleontologists, geographers, anthropologists, 

 sociologists and economists in Washington. 



The serious conflict of the year is with the 

 Second Pan-American Scientific Congress 

 m.eeting in Washington from December 27 to 

 January 8. It was originally planned that 

 this congress should meet in the autumn, 

 but the date was changed and the preliminary 

 arrangements were made without consulta- 

 tion with American scientific men. The offi- 

 cers of the congress, selected presumably by 

 the department of state, are Mr. Phillips, the 

 third assistant secretary of state, chairman of 

 the executive committee; Mr. Scott, secretary 

 of the Carnegie Endowment for International 

 Peace, vice-chairman; Mr. John Barrett, 

 secretary -general ; and Mr. Glen L. Swiggett, 

 assistant secretary-general. The department 

 of state is probably as ignorant of the scien- 

 tific conditions of the country as the navy 

 department, whose secretary when asked why 

 he had ignored the E^ational Academy, by law 

 the scientific adviser of the government, and 

 the American Association, the great demo- 

 cratic body of scientific men, in selecting the 

 societies to elect members of the l^Taval Ad- 

 visory Board, appeared never to have heard of 

 either association. A program in nine sec- 

 tions has been arranged for a " scientific " 

 congress, which ignores mathematics, physics, 

 pure chemistry, geology, zoology, botany and 

 psychology. 



However, attempts have been made to rectify 

 the earlier errors. Dr. Welch, president of the 

 ISTational Academy of Sciences, has been made 

 honorary vice-chairman, and Surgeon-General 



