10 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHITSTGTOlSr. 



to the past. Oui* science is still in its youth, and in the discus- 

 sion of its history I shall not hesitate to refer to institutions and 

 to tendencies which are of very recent origin. 



It is somewhat unfortunate that the account book of national 

 progress was so thoroughly balanced in the Centennial year. It 

 is true that the movement which resulted in the birth of our Re- 

 public first took tangible form in 1776, but the infant nation was 

 not born until 17S3, when tlie treaty of Paris was signed, and 

 lay in swaddling clothes until 1789, when the Constitution was 

 adopted by the thirteen States. 



In those days our forefathers had quite enough to do in adapt- 

 ino- their lives to the changed conditions of existence. The 

 masses were struggling for securer positions near home, or were 

 pushing out beyond the frontiers to find dwelling-places for them- 

 selves and their descendants. The men of education were in- 

 volved in political discussions as fierce, uncandid, and unphilo- 

 sophical in spirit as those which preceded the French revolution 

 of the same period. 



The master minds were absoi-bed in political and administra- 

 tive problems, and had little time for the peaceful pursuits of 

 science, and many of the men who were prominent in science — 

 Franklin, Jefferson, Rush, Mitchill, Seybert, Williamson, Mor- 

 gan, Clinton, Rittenhouse, Patterson, Williams, Cutler, Ma- 

 clure, and others — were elected to Congress or called to other 

 positions of official responsibility. 



IX. 



The literary and scientific activities of the infant nation were 

 for many years chiefly concentrated in Philadelphia, until 1800 

 the federal capital and largest of American cities. Here, after 

 the return of Franklin from France in 1785, the meetings of the 

 American Philosophical Society were resumed. Franklin con- 

 tinued to be its president until his death in 1790, at the same 



