EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT dinate societies, and his work still continues. A journal is published by the Association and has a large circulation. The success of this plan has been marked. The program of the 1908 meeting at Chicago is a thick volume. The order of business nf the House of Delegates consists chiefly of action on reports of committees and the election of officers. Many social festivities are pro vided for members and their ladies. The most striking feature of the program, however, is the work of the various sections. Each of these held three afternoon sessions, at which were read numerous short papers frequently limited to ten minutes, and a morning session for the election of officers. A leader of the discussion was designated to criticise each paper. In all, three hundred and thirty-nine papers were read at the meeting. Some portions of this plan would doubtless prove unfit for our use, but in the main it seems a perfect solution of our present difficulties. L'ENVOI
To those who read aright the tokens, the practice of the law, most conservative of all occupations, is approaching a silent revolu tion. Profound dissatisfaction with the ad ministration of justice has aroused, at last, searching criticism within the profession, and a demand is audible for the excision of anti quated technicalities, simplification and ac celeration of procedure, and a reduction of litigation. The election of Mr. Taft insures consideration by Congress, and probably by the country at large, of the reform of the more obvious anachronisms. Less obvious but hardly less certain are two other tendencies. The necessity imposed by the Constitution on our courts of determining the economic development of the country will force us in time to some separation of judicial functions which as yet can hardly be foreshadowed or will make the courts the center of a social revolution. The other tendency is at present even less noticed by lawyers, but its outlines are already more definite. The influence of modern science on judicial procedure is now received through the discredited method of
625
expert testimony. That it is forging for us a keener weapon is shown by the interest of students in the application of their learning to the administration of justice. This is illus trated by two recent publications. We have frequently noticed the essays by Professor Munsterberg on the application of experimental psychology to the detection and punishment of crime. " The Principles of Anthropology and Sociology in their Relation to Criminal Procedure," by Maurice Parmelee (Macmillan Company, New York, 1908), sets forth the work of Lombroso and his Italian and French co-workers, whose patient collection of data is now being rewarded by the acceptance of their deductions regarding the influence of physical conditions, heredity, and environ ment on the various types of criminals. Our whole system of detection, conviction, and punishment of criminals may become scientifically accurate instead of empirical and uncertain. The project of Arthur MacDonald of Washington for the establishment of a laboratory of criminal anthropology in this country is a striking feature of this ten dency. It would be interesting, if space per mitted, to trace more fully the outlines of these coming changes, for it has been the desire of the present management of this paper to bring to the attention of the profession the indications of the future development of the law. -We have tried during the four years of our service to make THE GREEN BAG an effective influence for the better organization of the profession and the reform of the law. The lawyer to-day, like his brother in all callings, lacks leisure for reflection. Our bodies and our minds are not yet adjusted to the revolution in the transmission of power and the means of communication which began over a century ago and is not yet con cluded. If, therefore, amid the pressure of practice, the efforts of the editor have been appreciated by a few, we have our reward, and with grateful acknowledgments to friends who have aided us often at great sacrifice, and to the publishers for unfailing sympathy and consideration, we will close our last volume.
