542 The American Naturalist. [June, 
EDITORIALS. 
EDITORS, E. D. COPE AND J. 8. KINGSLEY. 
—We have received from the Secretary of the American Philo- 
sophical Society, a programme of the exercises on the occasion of the 
celebration of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Society. 
The celebration commences on Monday, May 22d, at 8 P. m., and con- 
tinues until Friday the 26th inclusive, and consists of sessions com- 
mencing at 11 o’clock a.m., excepting on Monday, when the session 
opens at 8 o’clock, P. M. A 
The programme is the work of a committee, and was not submitted 
to the Society until its terms could not be altered without discourtesy 
to the persons who had been invited to participate in it. This much is 
due to the Society, since it is, under such circumstances, not responsi- 
ble for the committee's work. As to the committee, its work is disap- 
pointing, for since there is one member of it who is presumably com- 
petent for the work it undertook, he should have been able to so influ- 
ence the other members as to have produced a widely different result. 
The adoption of such a pro me is to misrepresent the position 
which Philadelphia holds in the wide field of labor covered by the 
Society, since it does not include any paper or address by any one of 
its citizens presenting his own original work in art, science or philosophy. 
On the contrary, the best that can be said of the programme is that its 
subject-matter, so far as contributed by Americans, consists of those 
generalities to which popular assemblies are wont to be treated, and, 
perhaps, entertained, if not satisfied. For a Society whose fundamen- 
tal object is the “ increase of knowledge,” to occupy its time in plati- 
tudinous disquisitions of this kind, displays a misconception of its own 
position and, a lowering of the standard of achievement which it is of at 
the societies in this city called upon to bear. 
When an active Society, such as the one in question, celebrates 40 
anniversary of significance, it usually presents to the world some evi 
dence of its activity by securing for the occasion the services of such 
of its members as are competent so to do. Such occasions are usu Ri 
selected for the announcement of the results of their work before a 
wider audience which the occasion is expected to attract. A memoris 
+ 
volume of permanent value is the usual result. 
