THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



OOTOBEE, 1901. 



THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE.* 



By Professor R. S. WOODWARD, 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



A CONSTITUTIONAL provision of our Association stipulates 

 -^--^ that "It shall be the duty of the President to give an address 

 at a General Session of the Association at the meeting following that 

 over which he presided." Happily for those of us who must in turn 

 fulfill this duty the scientific foresight of our predecessors set no metes 

 and bounds with respect to the subject-matter or the mode of treat- 

 ment of the theme that might be chosen for such an address. So far, 

 therefore, as constitutional requirements are concerned, a retiring 

 president finds himself clothed for the time being with a degree of 

 liberty which might be regarded as dangerous were it not for an un- 

 written rule that one may not hope to enjoy such liberty more than 

 once. But time and place, nevertheless, as well as the painful personal 

 limitations of any specialist, impose some rather formidable restrictions. 

 One may not tax lightly, even, in a summer evening, the patience of his 

 audience for more than an academic hour, the length of which in most 

 cases is less than sixty minutes. One must confine himself to gener- 

 alities, which, though scientifically hazardous, serve as a basis for semi- 

 popular thought ; and one must exclude technical details, which, though 

 scientifically essential, tend only to obscure semi-popular presentation. 

 Courtesy, also, to those who are at once our hosts and our guests re- 

 quires that, so far as possible, one should substitute the vernacular for 

 the 'jargon of science,' and draw his figures of speech chiefly from the 



* Address of the retiring president of The American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, given at the Denver Meeting, August 27, 1901. 

 VOL. ijx. — 36 



