December 27, 1901o] 



SCIENCE. 



987 



Tire for the promotion of learning in America has ever 

 been proposed. 



I have the honor to remain, 



Yours, with the highest respect, 



Charles S. Minot, 



Chairman. 

 President A. A. A, S. 

 Harvard Medical School, 

 Boston, Mass. 



Keplies, in every case favorable, have 

 been received from the following institu- 

 tions : 



Woman's College of Baltimore. 



University of Buffalo. 



Case School of Applied Science. 



University of Colorado. 



Columbian University, Washington. 



Hamilton College. 



Knox College, Galesburg, Ohio. 



Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 



Michigan College of Mines. 



University of Minnesota. 



University of Nebraska. 



New York University. 



College of the City of New Y'ork. 



Northwestern University. 



Oberlin College. 



University of Syracuse. 



Tufts College, Boston. 



Vassar College. 



Wellesley College. 



Wesleyan University. 



Western Eeserve University. 



Williams College. 



The action has not been uniform, for in a 

 few institutions no change in the vacation 

 was necessary, but several institutions 

 have changed the dates of their vacation 

 to allow the necessary time for Convocation 

 Week to become free. A small minority 

 of the institutions have voted to allow their 

 teachers leave of absence to attend meet- 

 ings during Convocation Week. Almost 

 every reply has included an expression of 

 cordial approval of the plan. 



The Committee hopes to continue and 

 extend its correspondence with those uni- 

 versities and colleges which have not yet 

 taken action, and to be able later to report 

 their adhesion. 



The facts above reported seem to the 

 Committee to justify the expectation that 

 the proposed Convocation Week will be 

 permanently established through its formal 

 acceptance by all the leading higher educa- 

 tional institutions of the country. 



Charles S. Minot, Chairman, 



R. S. Woodward, 



E. L. Nichols, 



L. O. Howard, 



J. McK. Cattell. 



A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN ACOUSTICS. 

 In selecting the 'Progress of Acoustics,' on 

 its experimental side, as the subject for this 

 year's presidential address, I am fully alive 

 to the fact that this branch of science has 

 been comparatively neglected by physicists 

 for many years, and that consequently I 

 cannot hope to arouse the interest which 

 the choice of a more popular subject might 

 command. It is, however, just because of 

 this neglect of an important field of science 

 that I conceive it to be my duty to direct 

 some attention thereto. This duty I can 

 best perform, it seems to me, by taking a 

 survey of the work accomplished in this 

 particular field during the century that has 

 just closed. Such a survey will make it 

 evident not only that the science of acoustics 

 has made immense progress during that 

 time, but also that many of the experi- 

 mental methods in use in other branches of 

 physical science were invented and first 

 employed in the course of acoustical re- 

 search. This latter fact, though not gen- 

 erally recognized, furnishes an illustration 

 of the interdependence which exists between 

 the various branches of physical science, 

 and suggests the probability that the work 

 of acoustical research in the future may 

 be advanced by experimental methods spe- 

 cially designed for investigation in other 

 fields. A revival will, of course, come in 

 time for acoustics, as it has recently come 

 for electricity, and it ought to come all the 



