Editorial Comment. 119 
sounding paradox which too often is to scioHsts what the sepia 
is to the cuttle-fish; hut the large majority of those who do the 
scientific work of the world are neither deceived nor diverted 
by this charlatanism, and prefer to seek strength in numbers and 
a near approach to accuracy in averages. 
Gradually the idea grew, probably insensibly to its promoters, 
until from a mere chance gathering of a few scientific men in- 
terested in geology, a confederation of scientific workers arose 
which includes within itself evei-y domain of human thought 
applied to the discovery or evolution of new truths. This con- 
federation is called the American Association yor the Advance- 
ment of Science^ and it is the Home of Representatives of 
American science.' 
Of course the Senate of science in the United States must be 
1 Note. The first session of the society which organized as the "As- 
sociation of American Geologists" was held in the roomsof the Franklin 
Institute of Philadelphia on April 2. 1840 or a little more than 48 years 
ago. There were present Edward Hitchcock, Amherst, Mass., Lewis 
C. Beck, New Brunswick, N. J., Henry D. Rogers, Phila., Lardner Van- 
uxem, Bristol, Pa., Wm. W. Mather, Brooklyn Ct., Walter R. Johnson 
and Timothy Conrad, Philadelphia; Ebenezer Ertjmons and James 
Hall, Albany, N. Y., Chas.B. Trego, James C. Booth, M. H. Boye, R. E. 
Rogers, and Alexander McKinley, Philadelphia; C. B. Harden, Smith- 
field Va., Richard C. Taylor, Philadelphia, Douglass Houghton and Bela 
Hubbard, Detroit Mich. Prof. Hitchcock was appointed chairman and 
Prof. Beck secretary. 
The second annual meeting was held in the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia. Prof. Silliman took the chair. 
The third session was held in Boston. Dr. Morton the chairman 
being absent Prof. Locke was called to the chair. 
Lyell was present at this meeting and "offered some observations on 
the distribution of boulders aud furrows in the rocks, citing the results 
of many observations in Europe. 
A constitution and by-laws were adopted and a list of 77 gentlemen 
"who had been present at the meeting or had presented communications 
to the Association" was added to the printed proceedings of the three 
meetings. The Association adjourned to meet in Albany on the fourth 
Wednesday in April, 1843. These notes are followed by 462 pages of 
transactions and 22 well executed plates. [See Reports isf, 2nd, and jrd., 
meetings., Am. Ass. GeoL, and Nat., Boston ; Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln, 
At the Boston meeting of this body (which had become the Association 
of American Geologists and Naturalists") held in 1847, it was agreed 
to resolve itself into the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. It met for the first time in its new form in the Academy of 
Nat. Science in Phila., on the third Wednesday (20th, day) of September 
1848. Prof. Wm. B. Rogers, the last president of the former organization 
introduced Wm. C. Redfield Esq. the first president of the new one. 
(See vol. I, of the Proceedin<rs A. A. A. S. Phila.; Jno. C. Clark, 60 Dock 
bt.) 
