Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/525

Rh had just held a meeting at Montreal, and from other foreign bodies.

The division of the association into sections began at the Detroit meeting in 1875, when two sections were formed: Section A, Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry; and Section B, Natural History. At the second Montreal meeting in 1882 a much more extended subdivision was made, the following having been established: Section A, Mathematics and Astronomy; B, Physics; C, Chemistry; D, Mechanical Science and Engineering; E, Geology and Geography; F, Biology; G, Microscopy; H, Anthropology; I, Economic Science and Statistics. In 1886 Section G was united with Section F, and in 1893 Section F was divided into Section F, Zoölogy, and Section G, Botany. The name of Section I was changed in 1895 to Social and Economic Science.

A notable feature of recent meetings of the association has been the large number of affiliated societies which meet at about the same time. The first of these was the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, which was organized at Boston in 1880. Others were added from time to time, till at Brooklyn, in 1894, there were nine, viz., the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, American Mathematical Society, American Chemical Society, American Microscopical Society, American Forestry Association, Association of Economic Entomologists, Association of State Weather Services, and American Geological Society, besides the Botanical and Entomological Clubs of the association. At Brooklyn also was organized the American Botanical Association. It has been doubted whether these numerous societies do not detract from the interest in the main association, and action was taken at the second Springfield meeting in 1895 in the direction of making them business meetings rather than meetings for the reading of papers.

Meetings have been held since the war in Maine, Vermont,