1890.] Editoriat. 461 
haps had better be deferred until meetings of the entire Academy 
can be had. It is doubtful whether such a plan would be 
productive of advantage to the Academy. We hope also that the 
division into classes will not be made a pretext for increasing the 
membership to above one hundred persons. 
—TueE last meeting of the Committee of Arrangements for the 
reception of the International Congress of Geologists was held in 
Washington, D. C., April 18th. The American Committee had, 
on the occasion of their last Congress (in London), presented the 
invitation of a number of Philadelphia organizations and officials 
to the Congress to hold its next session in Philadelphia, which 
invitation was accepted by the Bureau of Direction on behalf of 
the Congress. Some uncertainty remained as to the best time of 
holding the Congress, owing to the fact that the Jubilee of the 
University of Pennsylvania and the International Exposition at 
Chicago had both been postponed from the original dates, and it 
was thought to be important that the. Congress should coincide 
with one or the other of theseevents. The committee, however, 
voted that the meeting of Congress should be held in 1891, thus 
allowing but little time for preparations. This premature action 
might have been harmless, however, but for the subsequent action 
by which it was voted to ask the Bureau to transfer the place of 
meeting from Philadelphia to Washington. The time required to 
get the consent of the Bureau, whose members live in many 
countries and at remote distances, will be so great as to prevent 
the proper preparation for the Congress, owing to the lack of time. 
This conclusion was reached principally by the votes of active or 
past employees of the U. S. Geological Survey on motions made 
by the Director of the Survey (Major J. W. Powell), who consti- 
tuted a majority of the Committee; one member of the Survey, 
Capt. C. E. Dutton, not voting. The adoption of the motions of 
Major Powell is equivalent to the destruction of the international 
character of the Congress. The object of the Director in bring- 
ing about this result may be well imagined. That he should have 
the support of the International Congress of Geologists is no 
doubt a very desirable consummation for the Director of the 
