Editors' Table. 33 
the Geological Society should they be held contemporaneously in 
future. It was also plainly seen that the multiplication of societies 
would reduce the membership of the body then in session at Balti- 
more, and a remedy for such contingency was proposed and dis- 
The proposition is that the four societies hold their meetings in 
future at the same time and place, so that the members of one of 
them can have the advantages of the others. The plan was gen- 
erally acceptable to the members of the American Society, and it is 
to be hoped that it will be so to the other societies as well. Such 
an arrangement has much in its favor, and the only objection arises 
from the slight difficulty to be experienced in making the prelimi- 
nary and local arrangements. The existence of so many societies 
necessarily diminishes the strength of each one, since few naturalists 
can hold, for various obvious reasons, a membership in more than one 
of them. The co-operation of these societies once obtained, the re- 
sult will be beneficial to American science. It will be, in fact, a 
national scientific body intermediate in character between the Na- 
tional Academy and the American Association. Such a body will 
produce a distinct impression on the energies of its members, as well 
as on the attention of the public. If the membership is properly 
guarded, it will have a distinctly valuable influence on the adminis- 
tration of scientific trusts of all kinds. That the membership can 
be guarded we fully believe, since the American Association is the 
popular body and furnishes every opportunity for expansion in that 
direction. The new body would furnish a winter meeting for 
naturalists of all departments, under the influence of a festive sea- 
son, in every way well calculated to encourage and stimulate them 
in their often locally isolated labors. We hope that the three socie- 
ties named will take this view of the subject, and that next winter 
will see a combined meeting of all of them at some accessible point. 
The Naturalist informs its readers that it commences the year 
1889 with a new department, that of Bacteriology, under the editor- 
ship of Professor W. T. Sedgwick, of the Institute of Technology, 
Boston. The department of Physiology will be edited by Professor 
Frederick S. Lee, of Bryn Mawr College, Pa. 
The numbers of the Naturalist for 1888 were issued on the fol- 
lowing dates : January, Feb. 3 ; February, April 2 ; March, April 
21 ; April, May 25 ; May, June 29 ; June, Aug. 8 ; July, Aug. 30 ; 
August, Sept. 30; September, Oct. 34; October, Nov. 22; November, 
