EDITORIALS. 
The Fiftieth Anniversary of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, to be celebrated in Boston in August next, 
is an occasion when every naturalist in the country will wish to join 
with his coworkers in other departments of science in celebrating 
fifty years of scientific activity in America. 
Glancing at the history of the association, we find that in 1840 
a number of geologists and naturalists of the several state geo- 
logical and natural history surveys met in Philadelphia for the 
purpose of discussing the results of their investigations. At this 
gathering it was determined to organize an Association of Geologists 
and Naturalists. Edward Hitchcock, State Geologist of Massachu- 
setts and President of Amherst College, was elected president of the 
association. Annual meetings were held until 1847, when at the 
meeting held in Boston it was decided to enlarge the scope of 
the organization so as to include all branches of science, and to 
reorganize under the name of American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. Boston, therefore, has the honor of being the birth- 
place of the present association, although the first regular meeting was 
held in Philadelphia in 1848. At this meeting Prof. William B. 
Rogers presided as chairman of the old association, and introduced 
Prof. W. C. Redfield as the first president of the new association. 
The year 1898 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the organization 
of this association, and the city of Boston was naturally chosen for 
the celebration of this anniversary. It is the intention of the officers 
of the several sections to bring out in their programmes, as far as 
possible, summaries of the progress and achievements of science 
during the past half century. The Preliminary Programme of Sec- 
tion A, which is already printed, carries out this idea by including 
“ Reports on Recent Progress (accompanied with statements of the 
‘standing problems ’), prepared at the special invitation of the 
officers and committee, ‘ with a view to obtaining at this anniversary 
meeting ged a Py? of the field as may lead to a possible coopera- 
tion of effort 
The sate of the address of Prof. Wolcott Gibbs as retiring 
president is: “ Some points in theoretical chemistry.” 
The vice-presidential addresses will be as follows : Vice-President 
Barnard before Section A, “Development of astronomical photog- 
