THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science will hold its fifty-first annual meeting at Pittsburgh, beginning with a session of the council on June 28 and with the first regular session of the Association on June 30. The time and place of meeting seem to be favorable to a large attendance and a good program. There is reason to suppose that the first of July is more satisfactory than the usual date, the middle of August, as men of science are then so widely scattered that it is difficult for them to come together. Pittsburgh is certainly a central point, as easily reached by railways from all parts of the country as any in America. An unusual concession has been made by some of the railways in extending the return limit of tickets until the end of August, thus accommodating those who wish to make the meeting at Pittsburgh the opening of their summer holidays. Under the direction of the chairman of the local committee, Dr. W. J. Holland, and the local secretary, Mr. George
A. Wardlaw, an elaborate announcement has been published; and it appears that excellent arrangements have been made for the success of the meeting.
The address of the retiring president, Professor C. S. Minot, of the Harvard Medical School, which we hope to have the privilege of publishing in this journal, will set a high standard for the addresses of the vice presidents which they will undoubtedly meet, for they are among our leading men of science—Professor James MacMahon in mathematics; Professor D.
B. Brace in physics; Professor H. S. Jacoby in engineering; Professor C. R. Van Hise in geology; President David Starr Jordan in zoology; Mr. B. T. Galloway in botany; Dr. J. Walter Fewkes in anthropology, and Mr. John Hyde in social science.
The American Association has become a center of affiliation for a large number of special scientific societies. Thus it is expected that there will meet at Pittsburgh, either at the same time as the association, or just before or after, the national societies devoted to chemistry, geology, botany, agricultural science, microscopy, entomology, folk-lore, engineering education and physics. These and other societies that will join with the association at its next meeting are represented on its council, which thus becomes a representative body competent to legislate on behalf of the interests of science and scientific men. The special papers tend increasingly to be presented before the societies affiliated with the association, while the association itself retains the function of representing science before the general public. Only men of science belong to the special societies, but all those interested in science are eligible for membership in the association. As a matter of fact, its three thousand members are nearly equally divided between those who are professionally engaged in scientific work and those who take an interest in and wish to assist in such work. Members have the privilege of attending the meetings of the association and of its affiliated societies, enjoying the reduced fares on the railways and the arrangements for entertainment, this being much more than a return for the small annual membership fee ($3). Even those unable to attend the meetings have now a full
