PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 15 



and was at various times professor of chemistry and anatomy. 

 His contributions to natural history were descriptions of bones of 

 Megalonyx and other mammals, a study of the human ethmoid, 

 and experiments on evaporation. He was long Vice-President of 

 the Philosophical Society, and in 1815 succeeded Jefferson in its 

 presidency. The Wistar Anatomical Museum of the University 

 and the beautiful climbing shrub Wistaria are among the me 

 morials to his name.* 



Still another memorial of the venerable naturalist may per 

 haps be worthy of mention as an illustration of the social condi 

 tions of science in Philadelphia in early days. A traveller visit 

 ing the city in 1829 thus described this institution, which was 

 continued until the late war, and then discontinued, but has been 

 resumed within the last year : 



" Dr. Wistar in his lifetime had a party of his literary and sci 

 entific friends at his house, one evening in each week, and to this 

 party strangers visiting the city were also invited. When he died, 

 the same party was continued, and the members of the Wistar 

 party, in their turn, each have a meeting of the club at his house, 

 on some Saturday night in the year. This club consists of the 

 men most distinguished in science, art, literature, and wealth in 

 the city. It opens at early candle-light, when not only the mem 

 bers themselves appear, but they bring with them all the strangers 

 of distinction in the city."f 



The " Wistar parties" were continued up to the beginning of 

 the civil war in 1861, and have been resumed since 1887. A 

 history of these gatherings would cover a period of three-quarters 

 of a century at the least, and could be made a most valuable and 

 entertaining contribution to scientific literature. 



Packard, in his History of Zoology, \ states that zoology, the 

 world over, has sprung from the study of human anatomy, and 



* HOSACK : Tribute to the Memory of Wistar, New York, 1818. 

 t ATWATER : Remarks made on a tour to Prairie du Chien ; thence to 

 Washington City, in 1829. Columbus, 1831, p. 238. 

 J Standard Natural History, pp. Ixii-lxxii. 



