MEN OF SCIENCE AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC. 19 



THE RELATIONS OF MEN OF SCIENCE TO THE 



GENERAL PUBLIC* 



By Pkof. T. C. MENDENHALL. 



JUST fifty years liave passed since a small body of enthusiastic 

 students of geology and natural history organized them- 

 selves into an association which was, for the first time in the his- 

 tory of this country, not local in its membership or in its purpose. 

 As the " Association of American Geologists and Naturalists," it 

 was intended to include any and all persons, from any and all 

 parts of the country, who were actively engaged in the promotion 

 of natural history studies, and who were willing to re-enforce and 

 strengthen each other by this union. So gratifying was the suc- 

 cess of this undertaking that after a few years of increasing pros- 

 perity under its first name, the Association wisely determined to 

 widen the field of its operations by resolving itself into the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Science, thus assuming 

 to be in title what it had really been in fact, from the beginning 

 of its existence. One of the articles of its first constitution, adopt- 

 ed at its first meeting, provided that it should be the duty of its 

 president to present an address at a general session following 

 that over which he presided. The performance of this duty can 

 not, therefore, be easily avoided by one who has been honored by 

 his fellow-members in being called upon to preside over the de- 

 liberations of this Association ; nor can it be lightly disposed of 

 when one realizes the importance of the occasion and recalls the 

 long list of his distinguished predecessors, each of whom in his 

 turn has brought to this hour at least a small measure of the work 

 of a lifetime devoted to the interests of science. 



The occasion is one which offers an opportunity and imposes 

 an obligation. The opportunity is in many ways unique and the 

 obligation is correspondingly great. In the delivery of this ad- 

 dress the retiring president usually finds himself in the presence 

 of a goodly number of intelligent people, representatives of the 

 general public who, knowing something of the results of scientific 

 investigation, have little idea of its methods, and whose interest 

 in our proceedings, while entirely cordial and friendly, is often 

 born of curiosity rather than a full appreciation of their value 

 and importance. Mingled with them are the members and Fel- 

 lows of the Association who have come to the annual gathering 

 laden with the products of many fields which they have industri- 

 ously cultivated during the year ; each ready to submit his contri- 



* Address of the retiring President of the American Association for the Advancemen 

 of Science. Delivered at the Indianapolis meeting, August, 1890. 



