xx PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTENARY MEETING. 



allowing that great work, the construction of the Panama canal, heretofore 

 impossible owing to their prevalence, to go on uninterruptedly under conditions 

 of unparalleled health. The sacrifice of 5,000 American troops during the 

 Spanish-American war, was finally found to have been due to the transmission 

 of Bacillus typhosus by the common house fly, and this knowledge has been so 

 judiciously applied by our army surgeons that a recent considerable mobilization 

 of our soldiers was entirely exempt from that disease, conveying some faint con- 

 ception of the immense debt that humanity owes to the patient workers in the 

 field of pure science. 



Economic entomology, based upon abstract work, shows an annual money 

 loss in the United States of North America occasioned by insects amounting to 

 $1,272,000,000. 



The congratulatory letters, with the autographs of our foreign co-workers, 

 received from the great institutions of the world relating to this our one hun- 

 dredth birthday, cannot be read owing to a want of time, but will be recorded 

 in our Commemorative Volume. 



Before closing I have a pleasant duty to perform on behalf of the Building 

 Committee. At the request of those entrusted with planning and erecting the 

 improvements made possible by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and 

 as Chairman of the Committee, I hand over to the corporate body, under the 

 title of The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, this building com- 

 pleted for its use, comprising fireproof stacks for its library, a reading room, 

 lecture hall, and work rooms. 



In the rhythmic language of another I reverently invoke the blessings of the 

 God of Nature upon this temple of the Natural Sciences. 



Great God of nature, let these halls 



The hidden things of earth make plain ; 

 Let knowledge trumpet forth her calls, 



And wisdom speak, but not in vain. 



Help us to read with humble mind 



Thy larger scriptures day by day 

 True bread of life! O be thou kind, 



If, erring, we should go astray. 



For deep resounding unto deep, 



Declares the wonders of thy plan ; 

 Life struggling from its crystal sleep 



Finds glorious goal at last in man. 



The mysteries of the eternal laws 



Are but the shadows of thy might. 

 God, ruling all in final cause, 



Enshrine the world in love and light! 



Harvey Matiland Watls. 



It was explained that the routine of a stated meeting would then go on, in 

 the belief that an illustration of the formula by means of which the Academy had 

 transacted its business as a society for one hundred years would be of interest 

 to those familiar with the results which had made the celebration worth while. 



