244 
MCGEE. 
Thus, of the four older societies, all of which began without 
published provision for fixing responsibility upon any indi¬ 
vidual or individuals on the part of the society, three (the 
Am. Assn. Adv. Sci., the Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., and the Geol. 
Soc. London) now have ex officio editors who virtually 
assume limited responsibility for the publications of the 
society, while the fourth (the Boston Soc. Nat. Hist.) has a 
publishing committee whose names appear on every publi¬ 
cation issued by the society; and these officers virtually as¬ 
sume limited responsibility proportionate to their powers, 
and that responsibility is as clearly fixed by the publication 
of their names as is the larger responsibility of the authors. 
Thus, too, two or three of the four younger societies (the 
Am. Soc. Civ. Engrs., the Am. Inst. Min. Engrs., and, per¬ 
haps, the Nat. Acad. Sci.) have ex officio editors, and only 
one (the Phil. Soc. Wash., in which the provision for scru¬ 
tiny of communications by special committees is exception¬ 
ally rigorous) now publishes without vouching for the pro¬ 
priety and value of the publication and definitely fixing 
personal responsibility for the editorial and supervisory 
work by giving the names and functions of the officers con¬ 
cerned. 
The reason for this curious tendency is obscure, but appears 
to lie at the very foundation of science: Science is preemi¬ 
nently democratic and has ever opposed the secret tribunal 
and the ex cathedra dictum, and so the standing of the scien¬ 
tific institution represents the standing of its members as 
individuals; the subject matter of science is knowledge, the 
value of which depends upon its exactitude, and it has been 
constantly sought to maintain a high standard by holding 
individuals responsible for their contributions and subject 
to the penalty of ignominy and public scorn in case of de¬ 
fault, and so the recognition of individual responsibility has 
become more general in science than in those branches of 
knowledge which are less exact; there is no hierarchy in 
science, all men stand upon a footing determined by their 
ability to contribute to human knowledge, and the method 
