March 13. 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



431 



cially during the past three years. An able 

 standing committee looks after its policy, and 

 notwithstanding the large increase of mem- 

 bers, this policy is to advise reducing the size 

 and value of the proceedings by printing only 

 the addresses of the president and vice-presi- 

 dents, -with list of officers and members and a 

 iew other items, to the end that more money 

 may be accumulated, that it vrill earn more 

 interest and enable the society to give a very 

 few persons a small portion of the cost of en- 

 gaging in some research. 



Not many months ago Science contained a 

 large number of interesting communications 

 by way of gentle reminders as to how the 

 trustees of the Carnegie Institution could best 

 use the funds soon to be at their disposal. 

 This was a kind and thoughtful service and 

 no doubt highly appreciated by the trustees. 

 Among these gentle hints was named the 

 pressing need of means for publishing worthy 

 articles such as might not be published by 

 any of the numerous journals or might not 

 find a place in the proceedings of any of the 

 learned societies. 



When the American Naturalist was estab- 

 lished in 1868, I am sure the editors were not 

 troubled to find room for all worthy articles 

 in the entire field of botany and zoology, in- 

 cluding some that bordered on. geography and 

 geology. Workers in these broad fields were 

 comparatively few and far between. In these 

 days, universities and colleges have established 

 many courses attracting a large increase in 

 students, requiring numbers of teachers, some 

 of whom devote a portion of their time to 

 original work. The U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture employs many; the state experi- 

 ment stations many; bureaus of geology, eth- 

 nology, and meteorology and others are grow- 

 ing rapidly. 



I dare not attempt to name the journals and 

 transactions that are issued from time to time. 



It is getting to be the plan for most uni- 

 versities to publish each from one to four or 

 more periodicals devoted to as many special 

 departments of learning, soon to find that the 

 members of the faculty, their fellows and ad- 

 vanced students, without any outside help. 



write enough papers or nearly enough to fill 

 all the pages of these journals. 



The programs of the meetings of the 

 American Association are filled with valuable 

 papers, at least if they are not valuable it is 

 the fault of the committees whose duty it is 

 to inspect the list before reading. 



One of the reasons sometimes advanced for 

 omitting to print these papers in the Proceed- 

 ings of the association is that any papers that 

 are worthy will be sought by the editors of 

 some scientific journals. We have now 

 reached a period when this is far from true. 

 The value of a paper can not be measured 

 by its popularity. 



At the meetings of the American Associa- 

 tion we hear papers read and we are inter- 

 ested in them — some we can not hear, owing 

 to numerous conflicts of programs. For my- 

 self I make a memorandum of those I hope 

 some day to be able to read, but by some hook 

 or crook I seldom get them. 



In days past I have often looked in the 

 Proceedings for some article important to 

 me, to find an abstract of a few lines only, 

 or rarely a reference to some publication 

 where it has been printed. 



I feel confident that if we had a full can- 

 vass, a large majority of the members would 

 be glad to see these papers printed in the 

 proceedings of the American Association. For 

 printing papers, it is true we have Science, 

 a magnificent publication, but we see even in 

 this there is not room for all. 



Every few months our attention is called to 

 some new means of support for worthy in- 

 vestigators — and liberal support. I need not 

 enumerate them. The fees that the American 

 Association is able to pay for research are very 

 trifling. Why not use all the funds that 

 henceforth accumulate, up to a certain speci- 

 fied amount, to defray the expenses of print- 

 ing and illustrating first-class reports ? What 

 better use could be made of the money? 



If I am not mistaken, one reason for organ- 

 izing some of the ' affiliated ' societies was that 

 the members could publish the papers read at 

 their meetings. I have known a number of 

 instances in which itinerant societies for 

 worthy purposes have economized to save a 



