Mauch 10, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



373 



raent, the National Conference of Commis- 

 sioners on Uniform Legislation, to which 

 reference has been made, has become a 

 standing institution of unquestioned au- 

 thority. That authority, indeed, is only 

 to deliberate and to recommend. It makes 

 no agreements between states. But it does 

 initiate action by the states, through which, 

 on some points, they are brought by the 

 legislative action of each into a position of 

 agreement. 



Should it be able to agree on the recom- 

 mendation of a definite, equal and con- 

 sistent policy as to the subject which has 

 been under our consideration, expressed in 

 the form of an identical statute for general 

 adoption in each of the states which it 

 represents, it is not impossible that, one 

 after another, the states would fall into 

 line and follow the plan proposed.* 



The tendencies of the time make for such 

 a movement. Individualism and state-iso- 

 lation are each giving way at every point 

 of material contact to collectivism. The 

 time-spirit and the world-polities of the 

 twentieth century alike point to reciprocal 

 governmental action on a great scale, for 

 the prevention of international or inter- 

 state complications and collisions, as the 

 true basis of national prosperity. 



Simeon E. Baldvpin. 



PROCEEDI'NGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 

 OF ZOOLOGISTS. SECOND ANNUAL 

 MEETING OF THE EASTERN 

 BRANCH. 



The second annual meeting of the East- 

 ern Branch of the American Society of 



* One state has already made a move in this 

 direction. Connecticut prior to 1903 had not 

 taxed goods of non-resident decedents by means 

 of a succession duty. In 1903 she laid such a tax 

 on them, but with a waiver of its enforcement in 

 case of a succession to decedents belonging to a 

 state or country not exacting such a duty upofi 

 personal property left within its jurisdiction by 

 Connecticut decedents. Public Acts of Conn, for 

 ■ 1903, 43, Sec. 2. Gallup's Appeal. 76 Conn. Re- 

 ports, 627; 57 Atlantic Reporter, 699. 



Zoologists and the fifteenth annual meeting 

 of the society since its establishment as the 

 American Morphological Society, was held 

 in the laboratory of physiology and pathol- 

 ogy. University of Pennsylvania, Philadel- 

 phia, Pa., on December 27, 28 and 29, 1904. 



The committee on the invitation to the 

 International Zoological Congress to meet 

 in this country reported that a formal in- 

 vitation signed by all the members of the 

 joint committee was personally presented 

 at the recent meeting of the congress in 

 Berne by Dr. Charles S. Minot and Dr. 

 Ch. Wardell Stiles, members of the com- 

 mittee. The congress voted unanimously 

 to accept the invitation and to hold its next 

 meeting in Boston during the month of 

 August, 1907. The congress further elect- 

 ed Mr. Alexander Agassiz president of the 

 congress for the Boston meeting, and 

 agreed to intrust the general arrangements 

 for the meeting to the representatives of 

 the American Society of Zoologists. It 

 was voted that the appointment of a com- 

 mittee to make the necessary arrangements 

 be left with the executive committee of the 

 Eastern Branch acting with the executive 

 committee of the Central Branch of the 

 society. 



The committee on zoological require- 

 ments for admission to college presented 

 its report, which was approved. This re- 

 port was published in Science, N. S., Vol. 

 XX., December 16, 1904, pages 850-853. 



It was voted that the matter of the pub- 

 lication of proceedings and abstracts be 

 referred to a committee composed of the 

 retiring secretary and the newly elected 

 president and secretary. The officers elect- 

 ed for the ensuing year and those with 

 unexpired terms are as follows: 



President— WiUiam E. Castle. 



Vice-President — William Patten. 



Secretary and Treasurer — Henry S. Pratt. 



Additional Mcmhers of the Executive Com- 

 mittee — Hermon C. Bumpus, Herbert S. Jennings 

 and Ethan A. Andrews. 



