Scientific Meetings and the National Academy of Sciences

Scientific Meetings and the National Academy of SciencesSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 6 (Jun., 1919), pp. 568-571Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/6967 .

Accessed: 01/05/2014 20:55

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Association for the Advancement of Science is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to The Scientific Monthly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.11 on Thu, 1 May 2014 20:55:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aaas

http://www.jstor.org/stable/6967?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


f vo mi l : W ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.F

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~c - w

r,~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~ - dol' _ t 34 SA~~~~~;1 - | _ _ _ _ _ _~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i

| I | | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~C

| a_].0w

11 I I I 1!1 11_ __ o~~VN

.g~~~~ 1 b

Sk~~~1!I , fi | I S iX I X n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

-;U iA t - _ t_ I - _ H~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

31~3to

......~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .......



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 56,9

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS AND THE NATIONAL ACADEMY

OF SCIENCES THE principal scientific meetings

of the year are those held in Con- vocation Week under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, when in New Year's week some thirty to forty national scientific societies meet each year in a different city with programs often containing' more than a thousand papers. The chemists now hold their meetings in the spring and autumn and owing to the industrial applications on their science they are by far the largest group, the American Chem- ical Society having more than 12,000 members. The April meeting in Buffalo was able to demonstrate the great part chemists played during the war and the boundless impor- tance of their work for the industrial future of the nation. Several societies devoted to the biological sciences had, owing to war conditions, postponed their meetings from Christmas to Easter, the anatomists convening in Pittsburgh and the physiologists and related groups in Baltimore.

Two scientific meetings of special significance held annually in the spring are those of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Philosophical Society. The latter has its seat in Philadelphia, but was established by Franklin to be a national society on the lines of the Royal Society, as the Academy of Arts and Sciences was established in Boston with similar objects by Adams on the lines of the Paris Academy of Sciences. Both of these societies became local in character, but in recent years the American Philosophical Society has held an

annual meeting with a program that is admirably arranged for a general audience of scientific men. The speakers are nearly always men of distinction who are invited to present reports on new work and timely subjects. The historic hall on Independence Square and the modern dinners at the Bellevue- Stratford are also pleasant for the elect.

The National Academy of Sci- ences, which holds its annual meeting in Washington in the last week of April, was organized during th. Civil War to advise the government on scientific questions. In the present war it has been active through the National Research Council and the meeting this year was of interest in showing the service of these bodies to the nation in time of war and their plans of organization for the future.

The two addresses that attracted most attention were, however, on subjects remote from the war and from any obvious practical applica- tion. The William Ellery Hale Lectures, given by Professor James H. Breasted, of the University of Chicago, were an important survey of the origin of civilization, which we hope to have the privilege of printing in this journal. Dr. Irving, Langmuir, of the General Electric Company, repeated the address which he gave twice before the chemists earlier in the month, containing ingenious hypotheses on the structure of atoms. These addresses might lead to the inquiry why a student of Mexican archeology is eligible to membership in the academy, but not a student of Egyptian archeology; why a meta- physician who calls himself a chem- ist is eligible, but not one who calls himself a student of philosophy.



W. )

0

C)

-o

ad

Go

E4

B

-;n: S4.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

m~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~C

NT~~~~~~~~~~



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 571

We are able to reproduce photo- graphs, taken by Schutz of Wash- | ington, of the members of the academy on the steps of the United States National Museum.

THE ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION

PROFESSOR BREASTED in his first lecture before the Natioinal Academy followed the long development which lies behind the pyramids of Egypt and leads up to them. They mark the culmination of a civilization advancing so rapidly that the thirtieth century B.C. saw a greater development of man's control over the forces of nature than any other century in human history, except the nineteenth century of our own era.

In his second lecture Professor Breasted said that the cemetery of Gizeh, especially the Great Pyramid, is the earliest and most impressive surviving witness to the final emerg- ence of highly organized and effi- cient government, of which it is the product. Yet the great grand- fathers of the men who built the Great Pyramid laid the first ex- amples of stone masonry. We find it difficult to understand the rapidity of an advance in government, organization, mechanics, engineering and craftsmanship, which could lay out this vast building, covering thirteen acres, with an accuracy involving an error in the length of the sides of less than twelve-thousandth of the length of the side (755 feet), and error of 6/100 of a foot. Neither can we comprehend an efficiency in admini- stration, which could quarry out, transport and lay in position, 2,300,- 000 blocks of limestone each weigh- ing about two and a half tons. This pyramid, continued Professor Breasted, is the greatest building and engineering feat ever achieved by ancient man, and it was con- structed at the outset of his historic career.

Professor Breasted then pointed out that later an amazingly refined pre-Greek civilization arose in the ZEgean Islands, especially in Crete, as revealed by the excavations of Sir Arthur Evans and others. After 1500 B.C. the barbarian Greek shepherds who had been migrating southward through the Balkans for centuries, took possession of the country and the islands which we have so long been accustomed to know as theirs. They destroyed the wonderful culture of the ZEgeans, which had been the first civilization. on the soil of Europe, and thus in the centuries after 1200 B.C. civili-

zation disappeared in Europe. Europe had thus to receive civilization a second time after 1000 B.C.,

and again it came from the Orient, where alone it was preserved after the Greeks had destroyed it in Europe. It came at first in the ships of the Phoenicians, and we recall the well-known fact that among many other things the Phoenicians carried an oriental alphabet to Europe From the Phoenicians the Greeks learned arts and crafts, decorative art, and especially ship-building. This last achievement enabled the Greeks to visit the great cities of the East themselves. In 600 B.C.

there was not a Greek city any- where which could not be crossed on foot from one edge to the other in ten minutes or much less. They were built of sun-dried brick, and the great monumental cities of the Near Orient made a tremendous impression on the Greek visitors.

Meantime Babylonian civilization by way of Asia Minor had brought in many important contributions ta European life, like ordinary business customs, and conveniences like business credit, still a fundamental element of civilization. Such influ- ences are especially noticeable in architecture. The Greeks adopted the colonnade from Egypt, and when they wished to erect a 1 ght-



Documents

Scientific Meetings and the National Academy of Sciences