Scientific association

“ The results of the specialists need to be popularized and to be disseminated among the people at large. The advance of knowledge, to be effective with the masses of our race, must be sustained on its merits by a popular verdict. To bring the diverse scientific activities of the American Continent into harmony for common needs; to secure cooperation for common purposes; and to disseminate the results of scientific investigation among our fellow-men, are not less, but rather much more, than in the past, the privilege and the duty of The American Association for the Advancement of Science. ”

“ Admitting that an organized association of investigators is of the first necessity to secure the best results in the scientific work of the future, we meet the question of the conditions and auspices under which they are to be brought together. The first thought to strike us at this point may well be that we have, in our great universities, organizations which include most of the leading men now engaged in scientific research, whose personnel and facilities we should utilize. ”

“ Not only did the nine sections of the Association hold their daily sessions, but there were also fifteen special scientific societies meeting simultaneously at Columbia University. Men of science came together from all parts of the country to present the results of the year’s research, to gain profit and pleasure from association with other workers, and to return to their homes with increased knowledge and renewed interest. ”

“ As here defined, the objects of the association are "to promote intercourse between those who are cultivating science in different parts of America, to give a stronger and more general impulse and a more systematic direction to scientific research in our country, and to procure for the labors of scientific men increased facilities and a wider usefulness." ”

“ In speaking of the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Buffalo last August, we called attention to the duty of scientific men to take the public more into the account in the organization of their work, and we showed how that might be done without any detriment to the proper objects which the convention had before it. ”

“ The President made a graceful response to this address, expressing the thanks of the members of the Association for the cordiality with which they were received. Referring to the labors of scientific men, and the aims and purposes of the Association, he said that "the American Association is a scientific body, and, using the word science in its widest sense, we claim that only that knowledge which is actual should be garnered as wheat, though much undetermined material may be collected for investigation. ”

“ Let all scientific men be fellows of the Association, make the members representative of the intelligence of the country, unite all scientific societies and institutions in the organization of the Association, make the meetings important and interesting, let the council assume and deserve authority. ”

“ The Society of German Scientific Men and Physicians was formed, chiefly through the efforts of Humboldt, in 1822; the Swiss Association in 1829, and the British Association in 1831. Our own Association was established in 1847, but was then the intergrowth of a society dating from 1840. These associations are significant of the spread of science among all the people. Science is no longer the concern of a few men under royal patronage, but the two great movements of the present century—the growth of democracy and the growth of science—have united for their common good. ”

“ Other eminent men have presided over the Association, but perhaps not before have they united scientific eminence with such great services to the Association and the organization of science in America. ”

“ In the first place, scientific men themselves show a good example of not asking before they give. There is the modest sum which we raise in this Association, there are the funds for helping research of the Royal Society, the Chemical Society, the British. ”

“ What these institutions are powerless to avert or helpless to bring about is, we repeat, within the scope of the British Association to effect. All institutions, political or educational, will bow to a strongly-formed committee of scientific men, formally commissioned by the Association and speaking with authority, delegated as well as personal, on scientific subjects. ”

“ The Entomological Society of America and the American Association of Economic Entomologists are large and active societies.
These national societies have been of great service in fostering a high standard of zoological research. A still more important service, though generally less conspicuous, is rendered by the journal clubs in connection with all the larger zoological laboratories, and by local scientific 422societies which are now maintained in all the larger centers of learning throughout the country. There are also specific societies for some of the different fields of biological work. ”

“ Its growth has been steady, but not commensurate with the growing needs of American science. Since the last meeting 377 new members have been added. Especially desirable is it that all scientific workers be members of the association as well as of their respective technical societies. ”

“ The Council are of opinion that this Society would be omitting a principal means of the advancement of Science—the end for which all such associations exist—if it neglected the question of the Endowment of Research. To maintain a successful investigator in his labours, even though no results of immediate or obvious utility can be shown to spring out of them, is of interest to the community at large. ”

“ Meeting though they did for the sake of friendship and good fellowship, it was inevitable that they should discuss the burning questions of the scientific world freely from varied points of view, and, being all animated by similar ideas of the high function of science and of the great Society, the chief representative of science to which all but one of them belonged, they incidentally exercised a strong influence on the progress of scientific organization. ”

“ By bringing together men who are engaged in the various fields of science indicated by our several sections, by promoting friendship between them, by giving opportunity for discussion on points of difference, by encouraging obscure but genuine laborers with the applause of the leaders whom they have learned to venerate, and by fostering that feeling of respect for other branches of science, that knowledge of and interest in their progress, which chiefly mark the liberality of scientific study. ”

“ The field of science is an expensive and difficult one for the isolated student to explore. Specimens are requisite and books are necessary, and these are most readily obtained by a co-operation of all who are interested, and this very co-operation for this purpose is the foundation of all scientific societies. ”

“ Associations of professional men meet to discuss the latest discoveries in the science with which their labor is identified, and delegates are sent to the principal gatherings of a scientific character which are held 214annually in all parts of the world. ”

“ It is thus not only the integrating body for professional investigators, but the bond of union between these and the great group of cultured men and women—the group from whose ranks the professional guild is recruited, through whom the scientific spirit is chiefly propagated, and through whose interest scientific research receives its financial support. ”

“ It must, however, be acknowledged that they are as necessary to the American people as the former, and perhaps more so.
"In democratic countries the science of association is the mother of science; the progress of all the rest depends upon the progress it has made. ”

“ Here the functions of our Council would come into play, and it would have a great opportunity of demonstrating its usefulness as an organising body by inducing, whether by negotiation with individuals or with scientific corporations like the Royal Society, competent men of science to undertake the task of classifying the papers relating to their own special studies. Men of science, we may be certain, are fully aware of the importance of the undertaking, which is indeed designed for their special benefit ”

“ It is thought by some persons who have given special attention to the subject, that the State ought to encourage such research and science in general, by appointing a Minister of Science possessing scientific knowledge and good administrative ability; a Scientific Council to advise our Governments in all important matters relating to science; and by establishing State laboratories for pure scientific inquiry, with discoverers of repute in them wholly engaged in research in their respective subjects. ”

“ Besides finding that in these later times a discovery in one science commonly causes progress in others; besides finding that a great part of the questions with which modern science deals are so mixed as to require the co-operation of many sciences for their solution ”

“ By bringing you together and making an effort to determine and establish the relations between all lines of human knowledge, we have certainly made an advance in the right direction. If your researches, if the results of your studies, can be utilized by the human race, then we who have been the instruments of that great blessing will be entitled to credit secondary only to the men who are the discoverers of the scientific knowledge whose relations we are endeavoring to establish. The Management of the Universal Exposition of 1904 salutes the International Congress of Arts and Science. ”

“ Proof of this is that it is coming to be more and more the fact that great scientific discoveries are made simultaneously by a number of independent investigators—an indication that society creates in several places the individual conditions requisite for such discoveries. ”

“ The judicious character of that part of our organization which leads to yearly changes among those who preside over our meetings, and does not attempt authoritatively to prescribe the direction of our discussions, will no doubt be generally recognized. It has the obvious advantage, among others, of insuring that none of the multifarious claims to attention of the several branches of science shall be made unduly prominent, and of giving opportunity for viewing the subjects which from time to time come before the Association in fresh aspects by various minds. ”

“ Science and scientific research and discoveries are the international agencies by which the riddles and miracles of the universe, in all their magnitude, are solved and explained. Institutions of learning, schools and universities are linked together by the uniformity of fundamental laws governing science and the dissemination of knowledge and discoveries. ”

“ But scientific subject matter is organized with specific reference to the successful conduct of the enterprise of discovery, to knowing as a specialized undertaking. Reference to the kind of assurance attending science will shed light upon this statement. It is rational assurance,—logical warranty. The ideal of scientific organization is, therefore, that every conception and statement shall be of such a kind as to follow from others and to lead to others. ”

“ But, if a new idea is to be vigorously prosecuted, then a young and vigorous institution, specially organized to put the idea into effect, is necessary. The project of building up in our midst, at the most appropriate point, an organization of leading scientific investigators, for the single purpose of giving a new impetus to American science and, if possible, elevating the thought of the country and of the world to a higher plane, involves a new idea, which can best be realized by an institution organized for the special purpose. ”