THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY 



APRIL, 1907 



PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA 1 

 Benjamin Franklin 



By Dr. S. WEIR MITCHELL 



PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



TTTE are here, as I understand, to unveil memorial busts of Amer- 

 icans distinguished in science. I, Sir, am honored by the 

 privilege of speaking of Benjamin Franklin. This man, the father 

 of American Science, was possessed of mental gifts unequaled in his 

 day. Even yet he holds the highest place in the intellectual peerage 

 of a land where, in his time, men had few interests which were not 

 material or political. But no man entirely escapes the despotic in- 

 fluences of his period. Thus in every life there are unfulfilled possi- 

 bilities, and so it was that, paraphrasing Goldsmith, we may say that 

 Franklin to country gave up what was meant for mankind, when 

 with deep regret he resigned, in middle life, all hope of whole-souled 

 devotion to science. When most productive his scientific fertility was 

 the more remarkable because of the other forms of dutiful activity 

 which in a life that knew no rest left small leisure for those hours 

 of quiet thought without which science is unfruitful of result. 



1 There were unveiled at the American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York City, on December 29, ten marble busts of American men of science, 

 designed by Mr. William Couper and presented by Mr. Morris K. Jesup, the 

 president of the museum. The occasion was arranged in honor of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science and the affiliated societies meeting 

 at the time in New York City. The exercises took place in the presence of a 

 distinguished audience that crowded the large lecture hall of the museum. 

 By the courtesy of the director of the museum, Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus, we are 

 able to print here the addresses given in connection with the unveiling and 

 photographs of the busts. — Editor. 



