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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 105 



Hospitals and eleemosynary institutions could have been built 

 on this arm of the park and facing it, while the various institu- 

 tions for the defective classes would have been on the islands in 

 the East River. The cross arm of Central Park would always 

 have been near the center of population of the city, and if it had 

 been made a center for its intellectual and higher social life a 

 gain would have resulted which it would scarcely be possible 

 to overestimate. Fifteen years ago this could have been done 

 as far as the west side is concerned with little or no expense to 

 the city ; now it would cost ^30,000,000. I should gladly ex- 

 pend one third the yearly income of the city for the purpose ; 

 as I am helpless and harmless I suppose there is no danger that 

 I shall be put in the institution on Ward's Island. 



The atrophied condition of the New York Academy of Sciences 

 is as lamentable as the dispersal of our scientific institutions, but 

 fortunately it is not so irremediable. The university, the library, 

 the museum and the academy are, as I have already said, the 

 four corner-stones of science and culture. They should be parts 

 of one over-institution, and should, in my opinion, be one of the 

 chief cares and adornments of the state, being no less essential 

 than the police or army and the courts. As the institutions of 

 the city can not now be brought together, we must do the best 

 we can to give the Academy the position it should have. It is 

 immaterial whether the institution be called the New York 

 Academy of Sciences or the Scientific Alliance of New York. 

 We must have an institution that will coordinate the scientific 

 work accomplished in the city. We must have a building for 

 our meetings and other work, and should have as part of it or 

 adjacent to it a club-house. The building should be situated 

 near the Museum of Natural History, this being without doubt 

 the most central position. Let us get money from millionaires 

 if we can, but it seems to me that for the honor of the city the 

 building should be built by the city. I see no] reason why it 

 should not be part of the American Museum. The large lecture 

 halls could be used in common, and we should need onlv two 

 or three rooms of moderate size, one seating about a hundred 

 people, for ordinary society meetings, and others for a commit- 



