826 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nected with the name of Rogers on the one hand, and with the dif- 

 fusion and application of scientific training on the other. 



A few words must suffice as to the foreign delegates and visitors 

 who were present. Among these were M. Desiree Charnay, of 

 France, eminent as a student of archaeology in both the Old and the 

 ISTew World; Prof. Benjamin Howard and Mr. C. W. Cooke, of 

 London ; and Dr. A. Sasse, of Zaandam, Holland. The presidency of 

 the association had very properly been conferred upon Prof. F. "W. 

 Putnam, whose name has been so closely connected with the history 

 and work of the body for the past twenty-five years, as its permanent 

 secretary] while the retiring president was, as already stated, Dr. 

 Wolcott Gibbs, one of the six surviving members of the first meeting 

 in 1848. 



Passing over, for present purposes, any account of the many sci- 

 entific papers and addresses of high interest that were presented at 

 this meeting, we return to the history and influence of the associa- 

 tion; It was the first national scientific organization, bringing to- 

 gether students and workers in all departments and from all parts of 

 the country, and it still remains the only one. It has grown and 

 broadened with time, as might be expected; it has been divided into 

 a number of sections relating to different branches, and it has come 

 to embrace Canada as well as the United States; so that it is not 

 merely a national but a truly " American association." Twice it 

 has met in cities of the Dominion, having been received with great 

 respect and cordiality in both Montreal and Toronto (1882 and 

 1889). 



When it vs^as first organized, there were local scientific societies of 

 high standing that had done excellent work for many years. Of 

 these, the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia antedates 

 the Revolution, going back to 1769; next came the American 

 Academy, at Boston, 1780; then the Philadelphia Academy of 

 l^atural Sciences, the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia), the Boston 

 Society of JSTatural History, the American Antiquarian Society, 

 Worcester, Mass.; the Lyceum of Natural History of JSTew York 

 (now the IsTew York Academy of Sciences), and others. These had 

 been publishing reports and proceedings, and around them were 

 gathered a large number of able and eminent workers in science. 

 Yale College had become a center of scientific interest, under such 

 men as Silliman, Shepard, and Olmsted; and the American Journal 

 of Science, long spoken of as " Silliman's Journal," was already a 

 medium of general communication among students of Nature. Sci- 

 entific surveys had been begun in several States, and the great geo- 

 logical and natural history sur^^ey of New York was engaging such 

 leaders as Hall, Emmons, Mather, Vanuxem, and De Kay; while the 



