Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/381

Rh of the association rose during the year from 3,600 to 4,000. The falling off in attendance due to the abandonment of the summer meeting appears to be a definite loss with no compensating advantages. Many members unable to attend in midwinter want a summer meeting, and those who can not travel as far as a thousand miles should be given an opportunity to attend a meeting within reach, and this requires two meetings annually. The summer meeting can also be given certain distinctive features of out-of-door life and scientific excursions, which are out of the question in midwinter. The American Association must be national in scope, but meetings in the central states are always smaller than those on the Atlantic seaboard. The scientific centers in the east are more concentrated, and it is also true that it is psychologically further from the east to the west than from the west to the east. Many scientific men would rather travel 1,000 or 1,500 miles to an eastern meeting than a much shorter distance to a meeting in the central states.

Under the circumstances the St. Louis and Philadelphia meetings may be regarded as successful. They were working meetings of scientific men with nearly as many papers on the programs as members in attendance. In both cities excellent local arrangements were made for the meetings of the societies and sections and for the entertainment of visitors.

We publish above the address of President Ira Remsen, the retiring president of the American Association, and the address of President David Starr Jordan before the Sigma Xi Society. Other addresses of interest were