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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 988 



to a critical audience before publishing it. 

 Worse still, science is now so diversified and 

 specialized that with only a dozen sections to 

 cover the whole field no one person can ap- 

 preciate all the papers read in any of the more 

 populous sections, so that one who wants to be 

 sure to hear a certain paper must often sit 

 through several others which mean nothing to 

 him. 



For this state of affairs there are several 

 possible remedies, each of which, of course, 

 has some disadvantages. The one which seems 

 most promising is to increase the number of 

 sections. The organization of the Association 

 to-day is not very different from what it was 

 thirty years ago, although since that time sev- 

 eral essentially new sciences have claimed 

 recognition and some of the older ones have 

 developed wonderfully. Incidentally the pres- 

 ent sectional classification does not discrimi- 

 nate clearly enough between the true or pure 

 sciences and the applied sciences or arts. 



Some of the sections already divide into two 

 or more groups with simultaneous programs 

 at the annual meetings, and it is but a step 

 farther to make the separation final, as was 

 done, for example, when the biological section 

 was divided into zoology and botany about 

 twenty years ago. The council of the associa- 

 tion at the Cleveland meeting last winter took 

 steps in the right direction by establishing 

 one new section, and proposing an amendment 

 which when adopted will give them the power 

 to create additional sections when desired. 



The sections as they will be at the Atlanta 

 meeting are as follows: 



A. Mathematics and Astronomy, 



B. Physics, 



C. Chemistry, 



D. Engineering, 



E. Geology and Geography, 



F. Zoology, 



G. Botany, 



H. Anthropology and Psychology, 



I. Social and Economic Science, 



K. Physiology and Experimental Medicine, 



L. Education, 



M. Agriculture. 



Some of the apparent defects of this ar- 



rangement may be pointed out before a new 

 one is proposed. 



Comparatively few purely mathematical 

 papers have been presented at recent meet- 

 ings; but mathematics, if included in the 

 American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science at all, should theoretically have a 

 separate section, for it is the foundation of aU 

 the exact sciences, and apparently no more 

 closely connected with astronomy than with 

 physics, engineering or logic. Astronomy too 

 should be independent, unless its followers are 

 too few to constitute a separate section. (Pos- 

 sibly some papers on optics and spectrum 

 analysis could be diverted to it from Sections 

 B and C to make up the deficiency, if neces- 

 sary.) In the smaller colleges it is usually 

 combined with physics rather than with 

 mathematics. 



Engineering is not a science in the same 

 sense that physics, geology, etc., are, but 

 rather a group of arts, based mainly on mathe- 

 matics and physics. Such engineering papers 

 as do not embody distinct contributions to the 

 laws of physics or some other science might 

 well be diverted to the programs of the various 

 engineering societies. An engineer's specialty, 

 like that of any other artisan, is knowing how, 

 rather than why; and probably most engineers 

 do not regard themselves as scientists at all. 



Combining geology and geography in one 

 section is convenient for those geologists who 

 are interested in some phase of geography, 

 and for those geographers whose chief inter- 

 est is that phase of ecology which deals with the 

 influence of land forms on human activities, 

 but is hardly fair to the explorers, teachers 

 of elementary geography, phytogeographers, 

 zoogeographers and anthropogeographers, who 

 are becoming more numerous every year, and 

 Some of whom are doing excellent work with- 

 out making much, if any, use of geology. 

 Geography certainly now deserves a separate 

 section, as it has had in the British Associa- 

 tion for over forty years. Some may still con- 

 tend that it is not an independent science; 

 but the same could be charged to chemistry, 

 which is analogous to geography in some re- 

 spects. For chemistry considers the chemical 



