PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTENARY MEETING. xxxi 



with the accomplishment of the noble purposes that you and all of us have set 

 out to accomplish, but it will also behold and celebrate the solution of the great 

 municipal problem which involves the permanent existence of the government 

 that was established by Washington and preserved by Lincoln. 



Our government is founded and will be perpetuated on thoughts and ideals 

 expressed in four of the most illustrious documents ever emanating from human 

 mind the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Washington's Fare- 

 well Address, and Lincoln's address at Gettysburg. Give us the government 

 defined by these patriots and this country will be a beacon light to all nations for 

 all time to come. 



Dr. Conklin: 



Many different countries are represented here to-night. One of them has 

 been foremost in the natural sciences, the land of Cuvier, the land of Saint Hilaire, 

 the land of Lamarck. I have great pleasure in presenting to you Mons. Jean 

 de Pulligny, the Director of the French Commission of Engineers to the United 

 States, who will convey the greetings of the French scientific societies on this 

 occasion. 



Mons. de Pulligny: 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: It is an agreeable duty and a great honor to 

 me to address a meeting of such men as are gathered around me this evening. 

 I have come here to carry the greetings of all French scientific societies, and 

 especially the Ecole Polytechnique, of which I had the honor of being a pupil in 

 my youth, a good many years ago. 



If you can look back with legitimate pride on a century of useful work, the 

 Ecole Polytechnique can claim sixteen years more of kindred occupation. 



I regret that we will not meet at the end of another century to comment on 

 the success of the Academy during the intervening years. So, gentlemen, I renew 

 the hearty congratulations of the French societies, especially the Ecole Poly- 

 technique to which I shall carry back the greetings of The Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia. 



Dr. Conklin: 



We have with us the distinguished President of a sister institution, be- 

 lieved in New York, and perhaps elsewhere, to be the greatest museum of 

 natural history in the world. I imagine that on this occasion it would 

 scarcely be safe to insist on this; but there were some German scholars 

 over here studying museums, a few years ago, and one of them went back and 

 published a report in German, which said that the plans of the American Museum 

 of Natural History of New York would, when carried out, give it that rank. 

 We are, therefore, particularly pleased to have with us the President of that 

 institution, one who is no stranger in this place; who was associated intimately 

 with Cope, who called him "one of my boys." He is the man who, in the Bronx 



