FOR several years, a movement has been on foot in the United States to bring about co-operation between the several American societies devoted to physics and its more immediate branches. This has recently had its culmination in the formation of the American Institute of Physics, comprising the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the Acoustical Society of America, the Society of Rheology, and the American Association of Physics Teachers. The purposes of the Institute are subject, of course, to natural development in accordance with the future needs of its founder societies. For the present, its principal activity is the publication of journals. The societies are delegating to the Institute the responsibility for publishing the journals which they have in the past sponsored themselves. The reason for this course of action is the promotion of economy and efficiency. The list of the journals includes the Physical Review, Physics, Reviews of Modern Physics, Journal of the Optical Society of America, the Review of Scientific Instruments, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, and Journal of Rheology. The scientific editing of the journals remains the duty of the societies, while all the details in the handling of proofs, subscription records, book-keeping, and the like are undertaken by the Institute. Two important other functions have been assigned to the Institute, namely, the further co-operation with societies and agencies outside the founding group, and the extension of an information service to the Press. The central office of the American Institute of Physics is at 11 East 38th Street, New York City.