Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/95



THE CONVOCATION WEEK MEETING AT CHICAGO

American Association for the Advancement of Science and the national societies affiliated with it meet this year at Chicago, beginning on Monday, December 30. Since the American Association changed the time of its meeting from summer to winter and entered into affiliation with the societies that had been in the habit of meeting during the Christmas holidays, there have been three large meetings of scientific men—the first at Washington five years ago, the second at Philadelphia three years ago and the third in New York City one year ago. The numbers of members of the association registered at these three meetings were, respectively, 975, 890 and 934. The registration, however, does not give nearly the total attendance, as many members of the association do not register, and all members of the affiliated societies are not members of the association. It is probable that the attendance of scientific men at each of these three meetings was over 1,500, and there is reason to hope that the approaching meeting at Chicago will be as large and as important from the scientific point of view as the meetings on the Atlantic seaboard.

The American Association is divided into eleven sections, covering the range of the natural and exact sciences. It includes sections for anthropology and psychology, for sociology and economic science, and for education, which last section holds its first meeting this year. The affiliated societies that meet in Chicago include, besides the American Society of Naturalists, the national societies devoted to physics, chemistry, geography, entomology, bacteriology, physiology, anatomy, botany, psychology and anthropology, and the western