AJP centennial. One hundred years of journal publication.

centennial of the entire APS family of journals. APS was one of the earliest national biological societies in America and also one of the first to have its own journal (4). Although for its first sixteen years AJP was owned by its editor, William T. Porter, Porter published the journal at the request of APS and under contract to APS. By 1914, APS had assumed full ownership and management. The hundred-year history of APS journals has been one of expansion and specialization built on this strong early foundation. When APS was formed in 1887, no immediate attention was given to a publication, since the British Journal of Physiology was, in effect, a joint publication of British and American physiologists (11). But the increasing number of articles published by American physiologists as well as a sense of national and disciplinary pride soon made an American journal desirable. The question of an American publication was first raised by Frederic S. Lee at a special meeting of APS in May 1894. He moved that a committee be appointed to report ''as to the feasibility of the establishment of an American Journal of Physiology.'' Although this first committee, consisting of Lee, William T. Porter, and Henry Herbert Donaldson, reached an impasse probably due to financial considerations, the issue was raised anew by President Russell Chittenden at a special meeting of APS in May 1897. This time, Porter generously offered to undertake the publishing and financial responsibility for the new journal himself (9, 19). By June 1897, the new committee appointed to study the matter, consisting of Chittenden, Porter, formal report that was mailed to the membership. It advocated the publication of a physiological journal ''at once.'' The committee wrote It is no less evident that the various expedients that have hitherto served us are growing irksome and disadvantageous. The sending of manuscripts across the ocean, often to be printed in foreign languages, has been a necessary and valuable resource. But the time for this is past.. .. There can be no question that the position of our profession and its power for usefulness both at home and abroad would be increased by a publication that should be to us what the great archives of physiology are to Germany, France, England, and Italy. We believe that physiology in this country should occupy a position not less dignified and secure. Of sixty-two members who received the …