2 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 523. 



of numbers since the year 1884. While 

 numbers are not an index of the value of 

 a meeting, they do show the amount of 

 interest taken in its proceedings, and from 

 that standpoint we may conclude that the 

 third Philadelphia meeting was a success. 

 It was also a success from the standpoint 

 of nximber of papers read 'and the general 

 interest in the papers, as well as in all of 

 the proceedings of the association. 



Tabulating the members according to the 

 sections for which they registered, we find 

 the following numbers : 



Section A 57 



Section B 66 



Section C 75 



Section D ^ 16 



Section E 70 



Section F 104 



Section G 103 



Section H .■ 44 



Section I 14 



Section K 25 



giving a total of 581 who signified their 

 preference as to sections. 



These figures show that where a national 

 scientific society met in conjunction with 

 the association, the corresponding section 

 was large and where a national scientific 

 society did not meet, the attendance was 

 very small. This would seem to indicate 

 that members of the association prefer to 

 attend a meeting of the national society 

 rather than the meetings of the association 

 unless the two meet together. 



The University of Pennsylvania placed 

 its halls and laboratories freely at the dis- 

 posal of the association and each day fur- 

 nished a lunch to the members. The asso- 

 ciation has never received more careful at- 

 tention than it received at this meeting. 

 A vote of thanks was extended to the uni- 

 versity, the details of which will be found 

 later on in the report. 



In former years a daily program has 

 been pu])lished, showing the papers to be 



read that day and giving a list of the mem- 

 bers in attendance. This has always been 

 a severe drain upon the resources of the 

 association and it was decided this year 

 to use but one program, which was dis- 

 tributed to members on the first day papers 

 were read. This single program seemed 

 to answer its purpose as well as the daily 

 programs have in the past, except that 

 many members missed the lists of those in 

 attendance. If some method can be de- 

 vised by which members may know who are 

 present, there can be no objection to the 

 single program. 



Since the last meeting of the association 

 377 members have been elected; although 

 this is not as large as the number elected 

 in previous years, yet it shows a steady 

 growth and a growing interest on the part 

 of the public in the work of the association. 



There has always been great difficulty in 

 getting reports of the association and its 

 work published in the daily papers, except 

 those in the city where the meeting is held. 

 This year the Committee on Policy of the 

 Association instructed the permanent secre- 

 tary to appoint a press secretary. The 

 permanent secretary appointed Mr. Theo- 

 dore Waters. Reports of the meetings 

 were prepared each day and sent to most 

 of the prominent newspapers of the coun- 

 try. It was impossible to make the re- 

 poi'ts as full as desired, as some of the 

 members of the association who read papers 

 did not give their abstracts to the press 

 secretary, although they were requested to 

 do so. If the readers of papers will take 

 pains to see that their abstracts are in the 

 hands of the press secretary, entirely satis- 

 factory reports can be sent out in future. 

 It is greatly to be desired that the press of 

 the country give some attention to the 

 meetings of our greatest scientific society. 



The two questions of general interest 

 were the time of meetings of the associa- 

 tion and our relation to the affiliated so- 



