THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

meeting. The campus, where these sessions will be held, is green and well shaded. It is nearly 1,000 feet above sea level and overlooks from a height of 400 feet one of the most famous and beautiful of the lakes of central New York.

In the immediate neighborhood of Ithaca are many places of scenic as well as scientific interest. At Taughannock, about eight miles away, a water fall, 215 feet in height, plunges into an amphitheater the forest-topped walls of which rise vertically more than 300 feet above the bed of the stream. Lucifer Falls at Enfield about the same dis

will be an informal smoker at the
Town and Gown Club of Ithaca. On
Friday afternoon, June 29, the new
Physics Laboratory of Cornell Univer-
sity-Rockefeller Hall-will be opened
and several well-known men of science
will speak. On Monday evening, July
2, a public address, by Professor J. C.
Branner, of Stanford University, on
The Great California Earthquake,' un-
der the auspices of the society of the
commemorate the
Sigma Xi will
twentieth anniversary of the founding
of that organization. Other public lec-
tures will be given by President David
Starr Jordan, of Stanford University,
on 'The San Francisco Disaster'; by
Professor Henry S. Carhart, of the Uni-
versity of Michigan, on 'The South
African Meeting of the British Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science,'
and by Major General George W. Davis,
The Great Canals of the
U.S.A., on
World.'

In addition to the usual meetings of sections, a number of special societies will hold sessions in conjunction with the American Association. Among these are the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the Society for Chemical Industry and the American Microscopical Society.

tance and numerous other cataracts in the glens formed by the tributaries of Cayuga Lake are also of great interest and beauty. The local committee is arranging for various short excursions to these places and also one to the widely known sociological colony-the George Junior Republic. Some of the sections are planning to devote their meetings exclusively to field work and excursions. Papers will be read and discussions held at the places visited during the excursions. On Thursday evening, June 28, there is the best season, and a large city

As has been said the holding of a summer as well as a winter meeting of the association is an experiment, but it is an experiment which should have the active cooperation of all those who are interested in the advancement and diffusion of science. Until 1902 the association met in the summer, and other scientific societies met in groups during the Christmas holidays. For a large and technical meeting, the winter

ROCKEFELLER HALL; THE NEW PHYSICAL LABORATORY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

must be chosen.

But many members of the association have regretted the abandonment of the summer meetings, which could be held in a university town or summer resort, when out-ofdoor life and excursions are pleasant, and where old acquaintances and friends may be met and new ones made. The American Association has now more than twice as many members as in 1900, and it should be able to increase its service by holding meetings

that will fill the needs of all. It is to be hoped that those who believe that summer meetings are desirable or that the experiment should be tried will go to Ithaca. Whether the meeting is large or small, it will surely be interesting and enjoyable.

THE BOSTON MEETING OF THE
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSO-

CIATION.

THE fifty-seventh annual meeting of American Medical Association which

began at Boston on June 5 was the largest and most notable in its history. There were about five thousand members in attendance; the scientific sessions improve from year to year, and the organization becomes more efficient and influential. Washington, New York and Boston are the three chief scientific centers of this country. Of the one thousand leading scientific men 119 are in Washington, 119 in New York and $5 in Boston-Cambridge. But historic continuity has been longest maintained

functions, the receptions and the garden parties pass off more smoothly and with less artificiality and aimlessness than in other American cities.

After the greetings of the opening session, Dr. Louis McMurtry, of Louisville, Ky., the retiring president, introduced the president elect, Dr. William J. Mayo, of Rochester, Minn., who made the annual address. It was concerned mainly with the organization of the medical profession and its relations to the public, emphasizing, though perhaps unconsciously, the trades union character of the association. Among

the topics reviewed were: the need of

union to promote not only the interests of the profession, but also the welfare of the public; the function of the medical profession in enlightening the public in regard to sanitation, the dangers from poisonous nostrums and the need of compulsory vaccination; the improvement of the army and navy medical departments; the supervision of medical schools and reciprocity in medical licenses; the relations of physicians to the insurance companies, contract practise, and hospital abuse by patients who are able to pay; the financial position of the physician and the evil of accepting commissions from specialists; the strained relations between medicine and pharmacy. In conclusion Dr. Mayo said: "The vital need of the medical profession is a harmonious organization—an organization that will encourage right thinking and good at Boston, and it seems to lend itself usage among ourselves, help to secure better than any other city to a large needed medical reforms, compel redress scientific gathering. There the Amer- of grievances and promote and encourican Association for the Advancement age the highest interests of its individof Science, the National Educational¦ ual members: and in this lies the fuAssociation and now the American ture usefulness of the profession as a Medical Association have held their largest meetings. The governor of the state and the mayor of the city maintain the tradition of being gentlemen, while a welcome from President Eliot gives distinction to any gathering. The ical societies unite conditions in Boston are more nearly ciety and the state those of an English city, and the formal national association.

whole."

The organization of the association has resulted in the house of delegates,' representing the medical profession through the states. The county medin a state SOsocieties in the

The subjects dis

cussed in the sessions of the house of delegates were largely those referred to in the address of the president. The strength of the association is indicated by the fact that it has nearly 25,000 members and an annual income of about $275,000. Its Journal is an important factor in organization and in the advancement of medical science.

THE NEW HARVARD MEDICAL
SCHOOL

THE new buildings of the Harvard Medical School are beautiful beyond illustration or description. They are a renaissance and reincarnation of the spirit of Greek simplicity, dignity and perfection. It is probable that there are no other academic or public buildings For the presentation and discussion in America having equal distinction and of scientific papers the association is beauty. This, at least, was the imdivided into numerous sections. The programs at Boston were better than ever before, but the papers were very diverse in method and uneven in value. The scientific exhibits were unusually good, and were seen to much advantage tories and lecture-rooms have not been in the new Harvard medical buildings, themselves an exhibit of unsurpassed importance.

pression made on the present writer, in spite of garden parties and unkempt surroundings. This opinion, if conferred by competent judges, deserves special emphasis, because the labora

put into buildings designed to look well, but the buildings were made for their uses in accordance with plans of