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emy's building. With this wide distribution, it is a major contribution which the Academy makes to science.

THE ACADEMY'S CONFERENCES

The wealth of scientific knowledge and the large number of leading scientific investigators that can be assembled so conveniently is particularly important to the conferences which the Academy holds frequently. During 1938-39 academic year, there were three conferences held. Currently, an average of twenty conferences are held annually.

The subjects of these conferences are carefully selected so that the meetings will serve a useful and important scientific purpose. Often it is the announcement of new and significant research findings in a particular field. Almost always the conferences result in coordinating and correlating independent research conducted in widely separated laboratories. Conference discussion has clarified interpretations of new findings. There is no limit to the diversity of subjects for these conferences, provided always that each aids the advance of science.

The conferences have earned a worldwide reputation. It is for this reason that New York City is so important for the SCIENCE CENTER. The most eminent authorities in the world are invited to participate and these conferences, therefore, are truly international in representation and import.

Although the conferences provide much of the material which is published by the Academy, other means of collecting this material are also important. The authors of the papers which are presented at the monthly evening meetings of the Sections and Divisions, and later published in the "Transactions" and the "Annals," are carefully selected. They are scientists who are known to have important contributions to make. Their papers have been of excellent quality and constitute a valuable contribution to scientific literature.

FUTURE EXPANSION

This is how the Academy operates. Almost a century and a half of experience has proven its methods effective, but the key to its success is the zeal and enthusiasm of those who have contributed their efforts through the years.

With its membership active in so many scientific disciplines, it can bring many points of view to bear on those problems which are broader than any of the ever-narrowing specialties. It can recognize diverse implications in new scientific findings and it has made substantial contributions to the coordination of future research.

The New York Academy of Sciences has a proud history and an impressive record of achievement. Recognizing the ever greater need for coordination and communication among scientists, it looks forward to a future in which it will continue to "promote the common welfare" by unselfishly accomplishing the greatest good for the greatest number. This aim it envisions possible through the realization of SCIENCE CENTER NEW YORK.