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is an accounting of scientific stock at the close of each year when the national scientific societies hold their annual meetings. There does not, however, exist either for this or any other country a census of scientific work and scientific men. As a rough guess, it may be suggested that there were perhaps 100 men in the United States

 Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Vice-president for Mathematics and Astronomy.

professionally engaged in scientific work in 1850, 200 in 1860, 400 in 1870, 800 in 1880, 1,600 in 1890, 3,200 in 1900; and that we may expect to find as many as 6,400 in 1910. Certainly the increase in endowments, in opportunities and in men appears to follow a geometrical rather than an arithmetical progression. The American Association for the Advancement of Science held its first meeting in 1848, but the first meeting for which the record of attendance has been