54 AHE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VoL. XXXII 
meetings of our Association have been ascribed to the large size of 
our country. Nearly all the British meetings are held in Great Britain 
proper, the extreme distance between meeting places on this island 
being less than 500 miles. - On the other hand, the average distance 
between the successive meeting places of the last seven meetings 
of the American Association was 767 miles, and the extreme range 
about 1700 miles. To have attended all the meetings since the one 
in Boston in 1880, a Boston member must have traveled about 28,000 
miles, or one and a half times the distance around the earth at this 
latitude. Even at a two-thirds fare this would have cost him over 
$500 in car fare alone, not to mention the discomforts of long jour- 
neys. The Boston member who has to economize is fortunate if he 
can attend two meetings in a decade, and the same is true of the 
member from Washington or Minneapolis. Thus the great distance 
between successive meeting places prevents a continuity in the attend- 
ance, and this results in loss of interest and interferes with that con- 
tinuity of endeavor which is essential to the systematic direction of 
scientific research and the attainment of increased facilities for scien- 
tific men. On the contrary, our society seems itself to lack direction. 
The council of one year votes to cut out all abstracts of papers from 
the Proceedings, and that of the next year rescinds the vote. One 
year, at one place, a member arouses enthusiasm enough to get a 
committee appointed to conduct some investigation; and next year, 
at a place rooo miles away, nobody hears about the committee, 
which is discontinued or continued with the “personnel the same as 
last year.” There are only two remedies for this state of things; 
either to break up the Association into Atlantic, Mississippi, and 
Pacific branches, or else to make the meetings so interesting and val- 
uable that members will attend them despite expense. The latter 
solution seems to us the best one to work toward. 
What can be done to secure this increased interest? This is the 
vital question. No doubt the determination by the best scientific 
men of the country to attend the meetings, at the sacrifice of time 
and money, is the first step. To get this step, however, seems to 
demand certain reforms. First, the finances should be improved. 
Cut down salaries, office rent, and office expenses. ‘The American 
‘Society of Naturalists, which issues Records of nearly fifty pages, 
_ pays less than $50 per year for clerical assistance. Why cannot the 
American Association get along on $1000 a year for salaries? This 
_ would release over $1000 for grants for research. The grants would © 
~ call forth new committees. Formal reports should be required from 
