Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/316

312 China, will present problems concerning the peoples of the Pacific area. Wednesday evening, August 4, is reserved for dinners of scientific societies.

Several important features will mark the section and society meetings of the week. At a joint session on Tuesday, August 2, of the American Mathematical Society, the American Astronomical Society and Section A of the American Association, Professor C. J. Keyser will give an address upon "The Human Significance of Mathematics," and Dr. George E. Hale, of the Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory, Pasadena, California, will speak upon "The Work of a Modern Observatory."

Sessions in physics will be provided for the discussion, among other topics, of spectroscopic investigations of the physics of the air and of high potential electrical experimentation.

The program of the Geological Society of America will include at least three topics—erosion and deposition in arid climates, diastrophism on the Pacific coast and petrologieal problems of the Pacific area.

Meetings of the Paleontological Society will provide at the first session a series of four addresses upon the general criteria of correlation. In three following sessions symposia will be held for a comparison of the Triassic, Cretaceous and Miocene faunas of the Pacific coast with those of similar periods in other parts of the world.

The program for zoology will include sessions for the discussion of general problems of zoology, embryology and development, problems of conservation, the role of variation and heredity in evolution, recent contributions from the field of protozoology, and questions of geographic distribution and of marine biology.

The botanical sessions will be devoted to problems centering upon gymnosperms, which as a group are so widely distributed over the Pacific coast; upon the relation of plants to light; the geographic distribution of plants with especial reference to the origin of the California flora, and upon marine and freshwater algæ.

Sessions for psychology will probably consider problems of animal psychology, the testing of mental traits and the application of psychology to law and medicine.

The anthropological sessions have been planned in conjunction with the American Anthropological Society and the American Folk-Lore Society. The topics of these sessions will be—race in the Pacific area with especial reference to the origin of the American Indians, the history of civilization in the Pacific area with reference especially to relations between Asia and America and the social aspects of race factors in the Pacific area.

Sessions for political and social science are being planned in support of meetings of several societies organized in these fields which will meet during the week immediately following the convocation week of the American Association.

The sessions for education will be devoted to the scientific study of selected educational problems.

Sessions for agriculture will provide for the discussion of problems of animal husbandry, nutrition and food analysis, agronomy and farm management, soil analysis, agricultural chemistry and fertilizers and horticulture.

Among other organizations which will hold special meetings during the convocation week of the American Association are the Archeological Institute of America, the American Phytopathological Society, the American Genetic Society, and an Entomological Congress under the auspices of several entomological societies. Meetings of several societies devoted to economics and social and political science will occur during the week immediately following. The Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations and several other agricultural societies have also appointed meetings for the second week of August. The later part of the month will be occupied with meetings of the International Education Congress and of the National Education Association.