THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION: 825 



the far-famed Public Library, and anotlier at the Art Museum, gave 

 the members opportunities of seeing two justly celebrated institu- 

 tions of their kind, among the noblest in the country; another even- 

 ing and several excursions were devoted to the remarkable park 

 and water-supply systems of Greater Boston, which for scientific 

 design and execution are in advance of those of any other Ameri- 

 can city. 



In the addresses of welcome at the opening session, by the Gov- 

 ernor of the Commonwealth, Hon. Roger "VVolcott, and his Honor 

 Mayor Quincy, of Boston, much emphasis was laid upon the public 

 benefits, social and municipal, derived and derivable from the studies 

 and labors of scientists, especially as illustrated in the city where 

 they were meeting, and upon the mutual duties of the scientist and 

 the public — the former to diffuse and extend the results of his re- 

 searches for the general benefit of his fellow-men, and the latter to 

 honor and encourage in every way the scientific laborers who had 

 done and could do so much for society. These lines of thought will 

 be referred to later in this article. They had a peculiar force and 

 aptness in the city of Boston, where intellectual and scientific culture 

 is so widely diffused, and public enterprises are so largely and so 

 successfully carried out under scientific direction. 



The meetings were held in the buildings of the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology and the adjacent Boston Society of Natural 

 History. Here, too, there was exceeding fitness. The Society had 

 taken the initiative in planning and preparing the invitations to the 

 association to meet in Boston ; while the Institute was largely the life 

 work of Prof. William B. Rogers, who was its organizer and first 

 president for many years. Its two fine buildings are named Rogers 

 Hall and Walker Hall, after Professor Rogers and his successor in 

 the presidency, the late Dr. Francis A. Walker. Professor Rogers, 

 after his early labors in Virginia as an orographic geologist, was 

 called to the headship of this newly founded school of applied sci- 

 ence, and remained there till his death in 1882. He always retained 

 his ardent interest in the association that he had so largely helped 

 to establish, was its president in 1876, and welcomed it at its last 

 meeting in Boston, in 1880. The writer has a striking memory of 

 him on that occasion, the aged scientist kindling with enthusiasm 

 during a discussion in the section of geology, and saying that it 

 brought back to him " the glow of a youthful worker among the 

 Appalachian hills." A highly interesting and pleasing feature of 

 the recent meeting was a reception given by his widow to the geo- 

 logical members, at which they had the privilege of seeing and con- 

 versing with her personally. The present president, Dr. J. M. Crafts, 

 welcomed the association in behalf of the institution so closely con- 



