September 6, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



347 



wlio have been chosen for their experience 

 and interest in the Association, and who 

 will give greater permanence and efficiency 

 to this very important body. 



With the idea of increasing the efficiency 

 of sectional organizations, another amend- 

 ment proposes that secretaries of sections be 

 elected for a term of five years. Under the 

 present method a secretary serves only long 

 enough to learn his duties. This makes it 

 impossible to obtain that continuity of ex- 

 perienced service which is necessary to de- 

 velop the interests of the sections. There 

 is no reason why such service is not as es- 

 sential to a section as it is to the Association 

 in the person of the permanent secretary. 

 The same desire to increase the efficiency 

 of the sectional organizations also prompted 

 the proposed amendment providing that 

 each section shall elect, annually, one fel- 

 low as a member of the sectional committee 

 and that he shall serve five years. 



Several reports of committees seem to call 

 for comment. The committee on the policy 

 of the Association made three recommenda- 

 tions which were adopted. One was that Sec- 

 tion D (Mechanical Science and Engineer- 

 ing) be not discontinued, as had been sug- 

 gested, since the recent entrance of a large 

 body of engineers into the Association gives 

 promise of a strong section. A second was 

 the organization of the new Section (K) 

 of Physiology and Experimental Medicine, 

 which promises to be one of the strongest 

 sections of the Association. A third was 

 that all abstracts be restricted to 400 words, 

 that they be published in Science and that 

 the titles only shall appear in the published 

 volumes of the Proceedings. 



The report of the committee on the rela- 

 tionship of the Association and Science 

 was full of interest, since it involved the 

 first official statement of the results of this 

 relationship. It was reported that the fees 

 of new members have paid the expense of 

 sending Science to all members. In this 

 connection it may be well to state that ac- 

 cording to the contract with The Macmillan 

 Company the Association pays two dollars 

 a year for each member to whom Science 

 is mailed. These publishers certainly de- 

 serve honorable mention for their interest 

 in promoting this movement, for it is esti- 

 mated that Science will not be in the same 

 financial condition as before the arrange- 

 ment until the Association contains 4,000 

 members. There seems to be no question 

 in the minds of members that the relation- 

 ship with Science has been of very great 

 advantage to the Association. 



This leads to a mention of the noteworthy 

 increase in the number of members during 

 the last year, an increase which bears the 

 strongest testimony to the efficiency of the 

 permanent secretary and his immediate as- 

 sociates. For a few years the published 

 lists of members showed a gradual decrease 

 in number, until at the beginning of the 

 last New York meeting there were 1,721 

 actual members. At the close of the Den- 

 ver meeting, about a year later, the number 

 of members is approximately 2,800, over 

 1,150 members having joined within the 

 last year. Such a record is remarkable, 

 but its chief importance lies in the fact that 

 it shows what can be done with proper 

 effort. Conservative members are now put- 

 ting the number to be expected at 5,000, 



