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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 425. 



on which it was founded, has recently at- 

 tracted attention as the recipient of nu- 

 merous gifts which at length put it in 

 position to take rank among the leading 

 institutions of the country. Through the 

 gift of Shaw, the city possesses, in the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden, one of the most 

 attractive public collections of plants in 

 the country and a young but most hopeful 

 center of research. The city, arranging 

 for a great exposition, which is to open 

 only a few months after the scientific meet- 

 ings, has awakened to the need of purging 

 itself of the attaint of bad municipal ad- 

 ministration, which it has shared with 

 other cities and of putting itself into 

 twentieth century condition for its guests. 

 There is little reason to doubt that ample 

 and adequate provision will be made for 

 the largest scientific gathering that can be 

 held next winter, and if all the local edu- 

 cational and scientific interests are not 

 much advanced by the inspiration that it 

 will afford, the meeting will have failed of 

 one of its prime objects. 



The scientific interests of the country 

 are capable of as great advancement at this 

 meeting as at any that has yet been held. 

 There was a time when they were all fully 

 represented at the meetings of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, and when the persons interested 

 but not directly engaged in scientific work 

 were sure to see at those meetings the 

 leaders in every field of research. That 

 body, however, was organized quite as 

 much for the promotion of popular inter- 

 est in science as for the interchange of 

 knowledge between those who are directly 



advancing the latter, and it is always 

 irksome to listen to known facts when one 

 would rather learn of new discoveries. 

 With the growing complexity of science 

 and the increase in the number of investi- 

 gators having at their disposal ample facili- 

 ties for the publication of their discoveries, 

 there has developed a disposition on the 

 part of many of the older men to stay 

 away from the association meetings, or 

 to attend them rather for the social and 

 other advantages attending large gather- 

 ings than for what they could learn or 

 impart to others in the field of their own 

 work. This has changed, to a considerable 

 extent, as the younger men have forged 

 ahead in their professions so as themselves 

 to take place as leaders, but even as this 

 has come about there has been a marked 

 disinclination on the part of many of these 

 very men to present their best work to the 

 association or to travel to any considerable 

 distance for the interchange of ideas, when 

 they could organize in smaller numbers 

 near home for purposes most closely con- 

 nected with their own interests and needs. 

 Out of this grew the meetings of the 

 American Society of Naturalists, the mem- 

 bership of which is based upon professional 

 attainments rather than mere interest in 

 science, and the bodies of kindred aims 

 and standards that quickly affiliated with 

 it for the holding of winter meetings, 

 usually restricted to the vicinity of the 

 Atlantic seaboard. 



It was a most commendable purpose 

 which caused the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, with its large 

 popular as well as professional member- 



