ductive efforts into the most important channels which promise him some success; and thirdly by realizing his duty to make the value and interest of his own work, and of his science in general, appeal as widely as possible. O. D. KELLOGG SUMMARY OF A REPORT OF THE PERMANENT SECRETARY CONCERNING THE AFFAIRS OF THE ASSOCIATION, SUBMITTED TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AT ITS MEETING, APRIL 24, 1921 THE following paragraphs present the main features of the permanent secretary's report for the period from October 1, 1920, to March 31, 1921. In accordance with a vote of the Council at Chicago, Doctor Sam F. Trelease was appointed assistant secretary, beginning January 1. The assistant secretary has thus far been engaged mainly in editorial work on the new membership list. The new volume of the Summarized Proceedings is far advanced and will soon appear from the press. It is planned to be more useful and satisfactory than the earlier volumes. It will contain the constitution and by-laws of the association, the summarized reports of seven annual meetings-from 1914 to 1920 (with citation references to SCIENCE for the important official publications), and the complete membership list corrected to the date of printing. The list contains about 12,000 names and addresses. Subscriptions for the new volume were booked at the price of $1.00 to members, until December 1, 1920, since which date the price to members has been $1.50. Over 1,600 volumes have been paid for in advance. (The present price will be maintained until the date of actual publication, after which it will become $2 to members and $2.50 to nonmembers. Subscriptions and remittances should be sent to the Permanent Secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.) The American Mathematical Society, which was invited to become affiliated with the assoeiation at the Chicago meeting, has ratified this affiliation and is now an affiliated society. The roll of the society includes 313 members of the association, of which number 107 are association fellows. The society, is therefore entitled to two representatives in the council of the association. Two state academies of science, the Michigan Academy and the Oklahoma Academy, have been added to the list of affiliated academies through their election by the council at the Chicago meeting. Each affiliated academy is entitled to a representative in the association council. (With the two academies that were affiliated by the action of the Executive Committee on April 24 the North Carolina Academy and the Maryland Academy-there are now twelve affiliated academies, named as follows: Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, New Orleans, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.) The arrangement for the affiliation of academies allows the academy to collect the annual association dues of its national members (members who are also members of the American Association) and allows it to retain, for its expenses all association entrance fees obtained through its efforts and also one dollar of each payment of association annual dues collected by it. The permanent secretary's office supplies each affiliated academy with printed and addressed statement cards for all of its national members and these are sent to the members of the academy, so as to be received October 1 of each year (the beginning of the association fiscal year). For each $5 payment received in response to this billing the academy transmits $4 to the office of the permanent secretary, who then orders the free journal for each member so paying. (The journal can not be ordered until the $4 remittance is in the hands of the permanent secretary.)-Immediately after its affiliation each newly affiliated academy receives from the permanent secretary's office a payment amounting to one dollar for each one of its national members who has already paid his association dues for the current year. When a member of the association becomes a member of an affiliated academy after its affiliation the acad emy is allowed to retain the usual dollar allowance if it collects the annual association dues of such member after April 1, but the allowance is not effective for that year if the member pays his dues before April 1. The operation of academy affiliation is illustrated by the above table, for the years 1920 and 1921. It appears that the affiliation arrangement for academies has thus far been very unprofitable in a financial way, but it is hoped that the financial loss by the association and the corresponding contributions toward the support of the academies may prove justifiable as expense incurred in promoting the advancement of science and education in the United States. The present status of the membership of the association (March 31, 1921) is summarized below, together with corresponding data for 1920. The expenses of the Chicago meeting, including those of the preliminary announcement, were nearly $4,000, of which about onehalf was raised through local subscriptions secured by the Local Committee. The printing of the General Program cost $1,002.50 and the printing and mailing of the preliminary announcement cost $955.35. Preparations for the annual meeting are exceptionally well in hand this year, the local committee having already begun its work, and 1 The sum of the corresponding numbers in columns 3 and 6 does not agree exactly with the number in column 5, because members sometimes have to be transferred from the account of one academy to that of another because of change of residence. 2 On April 21, this number had been increased to 9,852. 3 On April 21, this number had been decreased to 870. 4 It should be noted that this number is considerably larger than the normal expectancy on account of dropping for nonpayment of dues. The list during 1920 still contained all those names that should ordinarily have been dropped at the beginning of that year. On October 1, 1920, names were dropped for which there was an arrearage of 3 years, as well as those for which there was an arrearage of 2 years. it seems certain that the Toronto meeting will be very successful in every way. BURTON E. LIVINGSTON, THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES BEING THE UNION OF THE COMMITTEES APPOINTED BY THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCICOUNCIL ENCES, THE NATIONAL RESEARCH AND THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE The following is the present membership of the Committee: Representing the NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES John C. Merriam, president, the Carnegie Institution of Washington John M. Clarke, director, New York State Mu seum J. McKeen Cattell, Editor of SCIENCE Representing the NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL John C. Merriam John M. Clarke J. McKeen Cattell Vernon Kellogg, secretary, National Research Council C. E. McClung, director, Zoological Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania Representing the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE John C. Merriam Henry S. Graves, former chief, U. S. Forest Service Isaiah Bowman, director, American Geographical Society Barrington Moore, president, American Ecological Society V. E. Shelford, professor of zoology, University of Illinois Chairman, John C. Merriam Secretary, Albert L. Barrows, National Research Council, 1701 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D. C. Assistant Secretary, Willard G. Van Name, American Museum of Natural History, New York, N. Y. Program THE purpose in organizing this Executive Committee is to promote, by scientific effort and through education, the most reasonable use of our natural resources for the economic, industrial and social development of the country. The American people have been richly endowed with natural wealth and have quickly availed themselves of their endowment. The first easy and quick production for the pressing needs of the growing population, followed by rapid strides toward the realization of wealth, have brought large elements of the natural resources to the danger line, some to more costly and lessened production, while others are threatened by extinction. Commercial production will of necessity be governed by economic law; use will be dependent on production, but both must be free of waste and governed by intelligent foresight. There are important natural resources whose commercial uses are less obvious but whose depletion is a grave disturbance of the balance of nature. This is a problem of the public welfare. Its solution should marshal not only scientific knowledge and the economic interests of the country but also the moral forces of the body politic. Organized effort to safeguard our natural heritage must come quickly. As use becomes greater, abuse and wastage must be diminished. This Executive Committee does not assume a supervisory attitude in matters of conservation but seeks to advise, coordinate and substantiate outstanding organizations. It sets forth the following program as expressive of its purpose: 1. The problem is a basic one in public welfare. It should therefore challenge intelligent attention, command public confidence and receive necessary financial support. 2. This movement is at present representative of the scientific membership and functions of its parent societies, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The committee may be enlarged from time to time by the addition of members of experience and wisdom; but its work must be of a character truly to represent its parent organizations. It should keep in close touch with their governing bodies, and annually present a report to their councils. The results of the work will carry the weight of the associated leaders of science in America. 3. Essential to the purposes of the undertaking is a competent and vigorous executive, composed of a director or executive secretary with necessary expert and clerical assistance. The functions of this executive are provisionally outlined thus: (a) To assemble, classify and correlate all outstanding activities in the scientific and industrial conservation of natural resources; with the purpose of bringing these into effective juxtaposition and concentration and thus produce an active army of organized workers directed to a common end without duplication of effort or cost. The former is essentially statistical; the latter is directive and requires a skillful exercise of judicious procedure and tactful guidance. (b) To effect active cooperation with the officers and directorates of existing organizations concerned with natural resources. (c) To assemble available data relating to the status of our natural resources, to enlist therefor such industrial and other agencies as are actively engaged therewith, to interpret these data in relation to protection and reserve, as well as to the economic and social welfare of the state, and to provide a broad scientific basis for legislative action by the state and the federal government. (d) To initiate and judiciously enforce by education recognition of the principle underlying the protection and use of natural re sources. It is held that this recognition can be made most effective and enduring by implantation in the minds of the children of the elementary schools; that in schools of higher grade, in colleges and universities, and in schools of engineering and applied science this principle can be enforced by correct teaching in already established courses. Extravagance of statement and emotionalism must be cautiously avoided. Teachers must themselves be taught not only to inculcate this principle but to do it wisely. Advantage must be taken of existing channels of educational approach through the state educational organizations and the state executives, in which the Division of States Relations of the National Research Council may helpfully cooperate. It is held that the proper teaching of the conservation principle is a most effective safeguard for the future of this nation. This undertaking will therefore involve uninter-, rupted effort with the eventual aid of proper texts, the probable establishment of a bureau of lecturers who may reach the public outside the schools, and the utilization of all modern accessories to effective educational appeal. Financing. It is desirable, if possible, to secure a permanent fund of $500,000 whose income would be available for the work in contemplation. In that event, a separate foundation could be established, or the fund could be given to the National Academy, the National Research Council, or the American Association for the Advancement of Science with provision for the use of the income for the work of this committee. In case the funds are in the form of annual contributions, it is desirable to plan in advance for a certain income to cover a period of not less than five or ten years. Reasonable SCIENTIFIC EVENTS THE INCREASING USE OF UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY MAPS THE project of covering the 3,000,000 square miles of the United States with accurate topographic surveys was definitely adopted by the federal government in 1882. The project was large, and the work is even now less than half completed. The standards of accuracy and refinement in topographic surveying have been constantly raised by the topographic engineers of the United States Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, with the view of meeting adequately every use to which the maps can be put. The law provides for the sale of the maps made by the Geological Survey at the cost of printing, a charge that must be considered merely nominal when it is realized that the cost of an edition of a printed map may be only a small percentage of the cost of surveying the area it represents. The government itself is making a large and increasing use of these topographic maps, but the expenditure of public funds for these surveys is otherwise fully warranted only as the public uses the maps. To promote this use, the Geological Survey has recently given more attention to the wider distribution of the maps. The distribution of a government map depends largely upon publicity, though the necessity of adopting commercial business methods in handling orders for the maps when a demand is created must not be overlooked. To inform the public of the existence of authoritative maps published by the federal government a special effort is now being made to reach the communities in every area that is covered by a map, and to this end every map as issued is brought to the attention of the local and state press. Other methods of promoting wider distribu tion involve the cooperation of boy-scout masters, schoolboys, and hotel managers, as well as of a large number of bookstores as local agents. Helpful publicity has also been gained through the voluntary cooperation of the press. The printing in a single publication of a brief statement regarding the Geological Survey's maps often results in orders for a hundred or more maps and many inquiries for the State index maps, which are sent free, showing the areas already mapped. The periods of maximum demand for these government maps are the beginning of the vacation period and the beginning of the school year. THE ROYAL SOCIETY CONVERSAZIONE 1 THE annual conversazione of the Royal Society was held at Burlington House on May 11, and was so well attended that it was practically impossible to see a tenth part of the exhibits and demonstrations. Fortunately arrangements are always made for an earlier press view of the latter. This year amongst the thirty-nine demonstrations figuring in the catalogue there was none having any direct bearing on medical science, though the exhibition contained much of great general interest. Mr. L. T. Hogben, of the Imperial College of Science, demonstrated the effects on tadpoles of feeding them with pineal gland. Hitherto there has been no proof of any physiological function exercised by the pineal body, but Mr. Hogben has succeeded in showing, in tadpoles at least, that it has some controlling power over the pigment cells. Macroscopic and microscopic preparations showed that in the pineal-fed tadpoles there is a very evident contraction of the melanophores, an effect that is not produced by feeding experiments with any other endocrine organ. Mr. C. Tate Regan, F.R.S., gave a demonstration of part of the life-history of the common eel, founded on the researches of Dr. J. Schmidt, who showed that the freshwater eel of Europe breeds in the Atlantic, southeast of Bermuda. A series of larvæ, from the middle and western North Atlantic, with long and slender pointed 1 From The British Medical Journal. |