THE thirty-fourth annual meeting of the American Society of Naturalists was held at Columbia University, New York, December 29, and at the Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution, Cold Spring Harbor, on December 30, 1916. In affiliation with the society this year were the American Association of Anatomists, the American Society of Zoologists and the Botanical Society of America.

The report of the treasurer, stating a balance on hand of $642.80, was accepted.

The following changes in the constitution, recommended by the executive committee, were authorized.

Article II., Section 2, last sentence to read: The name of any member two years in arrears for annual assessments shall be erased from the list of the society, and such person can only regain membership by reelection.

Article III., Section 1 to read: The officers of the society shall be a president, a vice-president, a secretary and a treasurer. These together with three past presidents and one member elected annually from the society at large shall constitute the executive committee of the society.

Article III., Section 2 to read: The president and vice-president shall be elected for a term of one year, the secretary and the treasurer for a term of three years. Each president on retirement shall serve on the executive committee for three years. The member of the executive committee elected from the society at large shall serve for one year. The election of officers shall take place at the annual meeting of the society, and their official term shall commence at the close of the meeting at which they are elected.

A recommendation to remove from the constitution section 3 of Article IV. failed to carry.

A motion that the society shall pay the secretary $50 and the treasurer $25 yearly for their services was laid on the table.

Resolutions, bearing on the working plan of the society, were presented by the executive committee and adopted by the society:

Resolved, that the American Society of Naturalists, composed as it is of the representatives of the several specialized fields of biology, should have as its constant purpose the furtherance of biological research and education in its broadest sense.

Resolved further that for the present the American Society of Naturalists can best attain this end by three forms of activity.

First. The holding of an annual dinner affording an opportunity for social contact among those working for the advancement of biology. On this occasion the president of the society shall have an opportunity through the annual address to express himself on a subject of broad biological interest and significance.

Second. The presentation of a symposium, arranged by the president, on some timely subject or problem relating to biological sciences.

Third. The presentation of a program, to consist primarily of research papers, on problems of organic evolution. The arrangement of this program in all respects, including its length, shall be in the hands of the program committee.

The following resolution offered by Edwin G. Conklin was adopted:

Whereas the National Academy of Sciences, at the request of the President of the United States, has organized a National Research Council for the purpose of promoting and coordinating research work, especially for national welfare, and

Whereas these are in part the purposes of the American Society of Naturalists,

Therefore, be it resolved that the American Society of Naturalists approves the organization of

the research council and desires to cooperate in its work in all ways which may be found practicable.

There were elected to membership: Edward W. Berry, Johns Hopkins University; Calvin B. Bridges, Columbia University; Douglas H. Campbell, Stanford University; E. Eleanor Carothers, University of Pennsylvania; Rhoda Erdmann, Rockefeller Institute; George F. Freeman, University of Arizona; Jann Kempton, U. 8. Department of Agriculture; Sidney I. Kornhauser, Northwestern University; Edwin C. MacDowell, Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution; Charles W. Metz, Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution; David M. Mottier, Indiana University; Hermann J. Muller, Rice Institute; W. J. V. Osterhout, Harvard University; Edith M. Patch, Maine Agricultural Experiment Station; Alexander G. Ruthven, University of Michigan; William A. Setchell, University of California; Erwin F. Smith, U. S. Department of Agriculture; Alfred H. Sturtevant, Columbia University; David H. Wenrich, University of Pennsylvania.

The program of the Friday morning session, December 29, was as follows:

"Variation and Heredity in Peas," by O. E.

"Hybrids of Zea tunicata and Zea ramosa,' by G. N. Collins.

"The Axial Rotation of Microorganisms and its Significance in Connection with the Present Theories of Evolution," by L. B. Walton.

"Deficiencies in the Genetic Materials of the Chromosomes of Drosophila," by C. B. Bridges. "The Principle of Regional Inheritance as Exemplified in the Compositæ," by E. C. Jeffrey.

"The Genetic Behavior of Enothera cleistantha." (Read by title.) By George H. Shull. "Further Considerations of the Records of Alcoholic Guinea-pig Stock," by C. R. Stockard.

"Application of the Laws of Action, Reaction and Interaction in Life Evolution," by H. F. Osborn.

"The Influence of Castration on Hen Feathered Cocks of the P1, F, and F, Generations," by T. H. Morgan.

"A Contribution to the Theory of Sex-determination,'' by R. B. Goldschmidt.

The session of Friday afternoon consisted of a symposium on the subject "Biology and National Existence.'

"Biology and Preparedness," by Stewart Paton. "Biology and the Nation's Food," by W. J. Spillman.

"Biology and Internationalism.'' title.) By V. L. Kellogg.

(Read by

"Biology and War," by Jacques Loeb. "Biology and Citizenship," by E. G. Conklin. The Naturalists' dinner was held on the evening of December 29, at the Hotel Manhattan, with one hundred and five in attendance. The president's address by Dr. Raymond Pearl entitled "The Selection Problem," is published in The American Naturalist for February.

On Saturday, December 30, members of the Naturalists were most enjoyably entertained at Cold Spring Harbor by the staff of the Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution. A morning program was held in Blackford Hall with the following papers:

"Parthenogenesis and Sex in Anthrothrips,” by A. Franklin Shull.

"A Classification of Color Factors in Mammals," by Sewall Wright.

"Evidence of Multiple Factors and Segregation in Mice and Rats," by C. C. Little.

"A New Series of Multiple Allelomorphs in Maize," by R. A. Emerson.

"On a Back Cross Involving Three Allelomorphic Pairs in Mice," by J. A. Detlefsen.

"Congenital Variations in Guinea-pigs and their Bearing on Certain Genetical Problems," by L. J. Cole and H. L. Ibsen.

After luncheon opportunity was given to inspect the equipment of the station and of the Eugenics Record Office, the activities of which were explained by the members of the staff in their several fields of interest.

The officers of the society for 1917 are: President-George H. Shull, Princeton Univer

sity.

Vice-president-Leon J. Cole, University of Wis

consin.

Secretary-Bradley M. Davis, University of Pennsylvania (1917-19).

Treasurer-J. Arthur Harris, Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution (1915–17).

Additional Members of the Executive Committee -David H. Tennent, Bryn Mawr College (1917); Henry V. Wilson, University of North Carolina (1915-17); Frank R. Lillie, University of Chicago (1916-18); Raymond Pearl, Maine Agricultural Experiment Station (1917-19).

BRADLEY M. Davis, Secretary for 1916

fectively as compared with the special preparations we have thought essential for dying in proper fashion. Prophet, priest and mystic philosopher have urged men to prepare to die, while science has only recently directed attention to the larger duty of preparing to live more efficiently, happily and successfully. We are just beginning to realize that if to-morrow we die, to-day we must live.

The mental attitude necessary to appreciate the full significance of the present associations between the words "biology" and "preparedness" also calls for the formulation of a new philosophy of living -a philosophy that will be of more direct assistance in enabling us to face the present with a greater display of intelligence and courage than has hitherto been expended. This is not the time to make a mistake in the choice of the path we are to follow. If civilization is truly symbolized by the figure of a caravan crossing a desert, we can not permit any false prophet to act as our leader. Far better to endure patiently the dangers and trials of our present situation than to incur any additional risk.

In order to comprehend both the scope and spirit of the Preparedness Campaign the character of the forces that have shaped it must be given due consideration. A few of these are obvious, but many are not generally recognized. As a people the majority of us would not admit until forced by circumstances, the truth of the allegation that a vague though compelling sense of unrest and an ill-defined consciousness of lack of preparation for dealing with the critical situations in life, have created at this moment of world-wide crisis a desire both to reorganize our ways of living and to secure protection from invasion of our territory.

The campaign for preparedness, as we see it, has two distinct objects in view, rep

resenting double aspects of the same problem: personal and national preparedness. To discuss these two kinds of preparation as unrelated, is both impractical and illogical, because the personal can not be wholly separated from the national aspect. Personally we accept the reality of the presence of disease and face it, because most of us with our backs to the wall must do so. But in case of war, because there is time and opportunity for mystics living with their heads in the clouds to dream of a transformed humanity, some of us still believe that entirely unrelated problems are under discussion.

Preparations for war must be made because the sudden disappearance of its threatening specter could only be brought about by some miraculous metamorphosis in humanity; and the consideration of the probability of this should be left to those who assume the possession of prophetic ability. The extreme superficiality of any thinking that takes for granted the possibility of being able to recommend a method for the great and immediate reduction in the frequency of wars, is revealed in the mere supposition that the roar of guns and clatter of swords are the only sign of war. "When both are silent," said John Bigelow, "war may go on even more fiercely than ever before. Hate, vengeance, jealousy, covetousness, ambition, treachery, cowardice, survive." These conditions no magic touch can remove. When we remember these facts, and consider how few have been the efforts to analyze the genesis of impulses, to ferret out the causes of obsessions, to trace the origin of hatreds, or, to discover methods of controlling emotions without the formation of dangerous repressions, the boast that we can prevent war by the introduction of a change here and there in our social and political systems, has a very hollow sound. Before the outbreak of

I take the opportunity of reminding Mr. Stead that more good will be done by facing the brutal facts of life and the European situation than by allowing the wish that war shall cease to be father to the thought that it is ceasing.

Indeed such a thought as Mr. Zangwill sought to oppose merely reflects the fanatic's contemptuous disregard for the necessity of keeping open the approaches to truth even when we ourselves have not the strength to do more.

The same spirit of weakness and disinclination to face life as it is is shown in the intellectualist's efforts to impress us with his ability to live in the world and not be of it. Those who recognize this particular form of complex can easily detect the signs of disappointed ambitions and dissociated personality rather than a lofty and commendable purpose.

A truly high purpose should culminate in a decision to go as straight as we can, without further temporizing, to the root of most of the troubles to which the flesh is

heir, and to substitute for an astonishing amount of ignorance as accurate a store of knowledge as can be gathered together. In a reasonably short time the result of working with this object in view would so impress us with the magnitude of our task as to make us reject promptly all promises of salvation bearing the trade-mark of any "ism."

Concrete information of this kind would not only prevent the occurrence of many unpleasant surprises regarding some of the basic qualities of human nature, but would enable us to remove a good many of the causes that lead at critical moments to explosive reactions of great violence, disturbing alike to the development of a well-balanced personality, the cause of democracy, and the progress of civilization. Moreover, we know that if the forces giving shape to

the result, with the subsequent development of peculiar mental qualities that possess high explosive potentiality. An excellent illustration of this is wishful thinking, which may become a habit; and when this occurs it forms a menace to orderly thought processes, and results in blocking the peaceful settlement of any questions either per

sonal or national.

These are some of the conditions we fail to recognize because we have become so accustomed to measure the value of brain ac

tivity merely by the content of consciousness without considering the character of the processes concerned in the operation. The autocthonous thoughts that are the products of a split-up personality often supply an emotional spark to explode the powder, and on this account we should learn to recognize in the apparently harmless dreamer, to whose reveries we often give encouragement, a source of danger to the community not infrequently exceeding that of the victim of systemized delusions.

For similar reasons there are excellent

grounds for not placing too much confidence in the intellectual judgments of any person who disregards logical conclusions and shirks the responsibility concerned in the reconciliation of faith and works; such a man tries first to ignore and then to obliterate every memory of defeat, and resorts to subterfuge to conceal the strong personal disinclination to meet definite issues by absorbing himself in some general scheme for the regeneration of humanity. In such cases it is often the half-repressed memories of a personal struggle ending in defeat that drives the loser to turn aside from the real world and its concrete problems to live in an imaginary one which can only be described in abstract or platitudinous phrases.

Although it would be superfluous to point out the important bearing the analysis of