| 2 | stars have parallaxes between | +9″.20 and | +0″.25. |
| 6 | stars have parallaxes between | +0″.15 and | +0″.20. |
| 11 | stars have parallaxes between | +0″.10 and | +0″.15. |
| 24 | stars have parallaxes between | +0″.05 and | +0″.10. |
| 34 | stars have parallaxes between | +0″.00 and | +0″.05. |
| 8 | stars have parallaxes between | -0″.05 and | 0″.00. |
| 5 | stars have parallaxes between | -0″.10 and | -0″.05. |
| 2 | stars have parallaxes between | -0″.15 and | -0″.10. |
| 92, | total number of stars. |
It will be understood that the negative parallaxes found for fifteen of these stars are the result of errors of observation. Assuming that an equal number of the smaller positive values are due to the same cause, and subtracting these thirty stars from the total number, we shall have sixty-two stars left of which the parallax is real and generally amounts to 0″.05, more or less. The two values approximating to 0″.25 seem open to little doubt. We might say the same of the six next in the list. The first two belong to the stars 54 Piscium and Weisse, 17h., 322.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
THE MEETINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science has a membership ranging from 1,900 to 2,000. Of this number probably at no one time was there an aggregate of 300 persons present at the recent annual meeting in New York.
When the Association meets in an Eastern city the attendance is generally twice if not three times as large as when it convenes in the West. So little was made of the recent meeting, locally or officially, that an intelligent resident of the city remarked: “Why, I intended to have attended some of the meetings, but seeing no reference in the daily papers, it entirely escaped my mind.”
Of the 2,000 members, about 800 are fellows; the 1,200 and more registered as members are, presumably, persons devoting little or no time to independent research along scientific lines, but persons who while not actively so engaged are more than ordinarily interested in the discussion of scientific topics. These have in the past paid dues and attended the meetings of the Association with more or less regularity. It is a question in the minds of some of the 1,200 if their attendance at the meetings is desired. Their membership, so far as it relates to the five dollars initiation fee and three dollars dues, is without question acceptable, and to persons reading papers in the various sections their presence is preferable to empty seats, but in view of the fact that during recent years the management of the Association has eliminated, so far as possible, the popular features of the general programme, the question is reasonably asked: “Does the management desire the attendance of the 1,200, or is their financial support all that is desired?”
It was stated some years ago that the purpose of the Association was to furnish not only an occasion for scientists to present original papers, but also to interest the public by holding the meetings annually in different parts of the country; but if attendance is not secured (by preparation and publication of interesting features of a programme) no great interest will be awakened by a meeting held in any part of the country.