Howard — Early Days of the Biological Society. 277 



Mr. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, had re- 

 cently published a letter in Science criticising C. Hart Merriam's 

 classification of the big game animals of America, not neces- 

 sarily from the standpoint of the systematic zoologist, but from 

 the viewpoint of a hunter, claiming that Merriam went into 

 too many refined details, and that many of the points known to 

 old trappers and hunters should be taken into consideration in 

 basing a classification. Having this letter in mind, Merriam 

 told the program committee that he would give a talk on big 

 game animals at the May 9th meeting if Mr. Roosevelt could be 

 induced to be present and to discuss the paper. So it was ar- 

 ranged. I was president of the Biological Society at that time, 

 and after the meeting (in the old hall of the Cosmos Club) was 

 opened Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. W. Hallett Phillips came in at 

 the back end of the hall — rather conspicuous because they were 

 the only persons in the room in evening dress — and listened with 

 intentness to Merriam's talk, in which, of course, he riddled 

 Roosevelt's argument in Science. It was a long and very inter- 

 esting address. At its conclusion I invited Mr. Roosevelt, al- 

 though he was not a member of the society, to take part in the 

 discussion, whereupon he and Phillips came to the front, Phillips 

 sitting in a front seat, and Roosevelt began to talk. He made 

 a very forceful argument from his viewpoint and from that obvi- 

 ously of other hunters, and rather staggered some of the really 

 scientific men in the audience by the cogency of his reasoning. 

 He talked at length, as was customary with him, and the hour 

 of adjournment (10 o'clock) came before he had finished, but by 

 unanimous vote he was allowed to proceed until he was satisfied. 

 He sat down after having made a distinct impression on his 

 scientific and rather critical audience. Merriam asked for five 

 minutes in which to reply, in the course of which he completely 

 demolished the Rooseveltian argument, and there was nothing 

 more to be said. It was a memorable meeting, and no one who 

 was there will ever forget it. Most of us saw Roosevelt for the first 

 time then, and were greatly impressed by him. Among the 

 taxonomists present there were, of course, lumpers as well as 

 splitters, and the lumpers got some satisfaction from the future 

 President's arguments. 



It is only rarely that I tell a story in which one of the charac- 

 ters is anonymous, but the circumstances connected with this 



