�SCIENCE.
��FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1886.
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��COMMENT AND CRITICISM. The nomination of Hon. Norman J. Colc- laii of Missouri to be commissioner of agri- pultiire, if it is to be taken as the espresaion of a distinct policy on the part of tlic new administration, shows that no radical change in the status of the department of agricuittfre is to be looked for. The selection in itself is a commendable one. Mr. Coleman has for j-ears been one of the prominent agriculturists of the* Mississippi valley, and, so far as we '^now, is well fitted by his knowledge of prac- ■tical agriculture, and his experience of men and affairs, for the |>ositioD to which he has been nominatetl. We believe he will compare fkvorably with previous commissi oners. But, whether Mr. Coleman be better or worse than hia predecessors, the difference is in degree. We do not understand that he lias, or claims
- to have, any special and intimate acquaintance
'with the science of agriculture, and we do not satJcipate that under Iiim the department will be essentially other than it lias been. Its or- ganization as a scientific bureau, with a tech- nical expert at its head, ns advocated in a .recent number of Science, is apparently as remote as ever.
��The immediate effect of n meeting of the
rAmerican association for the advanceinent of
Fseience is a large increase in it« membership,
K>t only in the place which offers its bospitali-
ittes any given year, but also in the whole sec-
1 of which the place is a centre. Thus the
joting in Philadelphia last year not only in-
Bcreased the membership in that city from 56
J60, but spread its influence into the whole
mrrounding region ; so that, whereas a year
■go there were in Pennsylvania only UI mem-
n, there are now 267, while the member-
1 New Jersey has also increased fram
Se.lU. — Klt.
��50 to 73, — a total increase in these two states of nearly the entire advance which was made in the list of membership of the association for the past year. It now numbers 2,347 mem- bers, against 2,011 last yeai'. The membership in Philadelphia is tlius at once raised to the first rank, in which only three cities may claim ahigher place, — New York, with 171 ; Boston, with 161 ; and Washington, with 155 members.
How long this membership is retained in such places seems to depend largely ujMn cir- cumstances. It may be noted, however, that in no place where the meeting has been held since the civil war, until the meeting in Boston (at which the membership was at once dou- bled), are there more than two cities — Chicago (1868, 30 members) and St. Louis (1878, 52 members) — whei'c there are now more than twonty-flve members. In four of them, indeed, there are less than ten, of which Dubuque (1872), with its single member, is the most striking example. With its great increase of membership, it is now, more than ever, plain that the association can only meet in cities of considenible size, unless it be in a university town, or in some far-off place where the ex- pense of travel compels a small attendance. The falling-off of membership in the cities which have held the association since it grew to enormous proportions, has not been very lai^e. at least tluring the past year, and offers great hope that a much more permanent in- terest in the aaaoeialiou is secured by one of these meetings than could be cxi«ctcd. Thus Boston, whore the association met in 1880, gained five members last year ; Cincinnati lost nine; Montreal, four; while the membership at MinneB^Hilis i-emained the same.
Wc have scanned the list with a view of finding out how largely membership in the association is influenced in smaller places by
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