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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



We are able to publish in the pres- 

 ent issue of the Monthly the address 

 given by Mr. G. K. Gilbert as retiring 

 president of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. The 

 problem that he discusses is one of the 

 most pressing for scientific workers, 

 while at the same time it is of interest 

 to everyone, and the address is at once 

 an important contribution to the sub- 

 ject and an exposition that all can un- 

 derstand. The mathematical physicists 

 find that as an abode fitted for life the 

 earth can not be allowed a history in- 

 definitely long— not longer perhaps than 

 20,000,000 years — while the geologists 

 with equally strong arguments claim a 

 much greater antiquity. The biologists 

 are also concerned, owing to the time 

 taken up by the processes of evolution, 

 and their facts and interests range them 

 with the geologists rather than with 

 the physicists. The man not versed in 

 science would also prefer to assign a 

 long history to the earth, for while he 

 may be ready to let the 'dead past bury 

 its dead,' he looks forward even to the 

 distant future, and the shorter the past 

 history of the earth the less the time it 

 will continue to be habitable. We have 

 thus a question in the solution of which 

 all the sciences are concerned, and one 

 possessing a dramatic interest that ap- 

 peals to everyone. The unity of science 

 is well illustrated by such a problem. 

 It was the subject of the address of the 

 retiring president of the Association, a 

 geologist; it might be taken as the sub- 

 ject for the address of the newly elected 

 president, a biologist and student of 

 the processes of evolution; and it is one 

 to which the president of the meeting, 

 a mathematical physicist, has given 

 special attention. 



Dr. Robert Simpson Woodward, 

 who presided over the New York meet- 



ing of the Association, is professor of 

 mechanics and mathematical physics 

 and dean of the Faculty of Pure 

 Science in Columbia University. He 

 was born at Rochester, Oakland County, 

 Michigan, July 21, 1849, and spent his 

 early life on a farm with the exception 

 of about two years of experience in mer- 

 cantile and manufacturing pursuits. He 

 was prepared for college at the 

 Rochester Academy, entered the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan in 1868, and was 

 graduated in 1872 with the degree of 

 C. E. Twenty years later the same in- 

 stitution conferred upon him the degree 

 of Ph. D. While yet an undergraduate 

 he entered the U. S. Lake Survey, and 

 immediately after graduation he was 

 appointed assistant engineer in that 

 service. He was employed in the as- 

 tronomical and geodetic work of the 

 Lake Survey until its completion in 

 1882. He then accepted the position of 

 assistant astronomer to the U. S. Tran- 

 sit of Venus Commission and accom- 

 panied the expedition of Prof. Asaph 

 Hall, U. S. N., to San Antonio, Tex., 

 to observe the transit of December, 

 1882. He remained with the Transit of 

 Venus Commission until 1884, when he 

 resigned in order to take the position of 

 astronomer in the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey. After four years of service in this 

 bureau he resigned to accept the posi- 

 tion of assistant in the U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey. This he held until 

 1893, when he retired from tne public 

 service and accepted the call of Colum- 

 bia University to the chair of mechan- 

 ics. In 1895, and again in 1900, he was 

 elected to the deanship of the graduate 

 faculty of pure science in that insti- 

 tution. Professor Woodward has pub- 

 lished many papers on subjects in as- 

 tronomy, geodesy, mathematics and 

 mechanics. He edited, and contributed 

 several chapters to the final report of 



