PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 101 



industrial experiment can succeed which proposes equal remuner 

 ation to all men, the diligent and the dilatory, the skilled artisan 

 and the common laborer, the genius and the drudge. What may 

 be safely predicted is that a plan which remunerates all alike 

 will, in the present condition of society, ultimately eliminate 

 from a co-operative association the skilled, efficient, and industri 

 ous members, leaving an ineffective and sluggish residue, in whose 

 hands the experiment will fail, both socially and pecuniarily." 



But Say had become involved for life. He had married, he 

 had accepted the agency of the property, the duties of which 

 compelled his presence on the spot ; he had no other means of 

 support, and therefore resigned himself with his usual philosophy 

 to await the course of events, appropriating all his moments of 

 leisure to his favorite pursuits, and preserving unruffled the 

 serenity of his mind. Mrs. Say prepared drawings and litho 

 graphs, and on a little hand-press the early numbers of the 

 " American Conchology " were printed. 



The malaria began to influence his health. Had he felt free to 

 follow his medical advice or the affectionate solicitation of his 

 friends, he would have returned to the more genial climate of his 

 native city. But a sense of duty predominated over the claims 

 of affection and the terrors of death, and he remained to become 

 a sacrifice to a fever, which carried him oft' on the loth of Octo 

 ber, 1834. 



I have seen no description of Mr. Say's personal appearance, 

 but his portrait* indicates that his face and expression were in 

 harmony with his amiable character. 



* National Portrait Gallery, vol. iv. Copied in Am. Journ. Conchology. 

 vol. i, 1865. Biography, by Ord, in LeConte's edition of Say's American 

 Entomology, and in Waldie's Select Circular Library, vol. v, 1835, by B. 

 H. Coates, M. D. It seems evident fi-om the hypercritical and patronizing 

 tone of Ord's biography that his old friendship for Say had been severely 

 wrenched, if not broken, by the personal controversies which raged so 

 violently at Philadelphia, and involved nearly all the scientific workers, or 

 those interested in the progress of science, of which Philadelphia was 

 then the American centre. A better biography of Say is greatly needed. 



