SPENCER F. BAIRD. 719 



President Heury, in bis address before meutioned, stated that in no 

 other city in the United States was there, in proportion to the number 

 of its inhabitants, so many men actively engaged in pursuits connected 

 with science as in Washington. In the seven following years the num- 

 ber of persons in the city engaged in scientific work was nearly doubled, 

 and most of them joined the Philosophical Society, so that in the year 

 1878 it had become recognized as the most efficient scientific body on 

 this continent with a membership confined to a single locality. The 

 criteria of this superiority were not only the large membership and reg- 

 ular attendance of members, but the number, quality, and variety of the 

 papers presented and discussed. This abundance, and, as was proved 

 by the later successful establishment of differentiated societies as an 

 overflow, this superabundance of scientific papers occupied every mo- 

 ment of the meetings, so that the members as such had no opportunity 

 to become acquainted with one another or to interchange views, except 

 in the formal discussions following the papers announced in the printed 

 programs. There was no provision for social introduction or intercourse. 

 This appreciated want, the converse of the inadequacy of the Saturday- 

 Night Club, resulted in the foundation of the Cosmos Club on Decem- 

 ber 13, 1878, in the organization of which all the members of the Philo- 

 sophical society were invited to join. It is needless to descant upon 

 the unique character of the Cosmos Club in its membershiii and objects, 

 its vital connection with science, literature, and art, and its immediate 

 but eqduring success. The remark, however, is pertinent that in the 

 winter of 1878 an uiiprecedented agitation, excited by impending na- 

 tional legislation, perturbed the scientific circles of the Capital, during 

 which the proposition to form the club was attacked with virulence as 

 a scheme in the selfish interest of a few individuals, and one fraught 

 with machiavelian political designs ; but when Professor Baird mani- 

 fested his approval of the i^lan by accepting the first presidency of the 

 club after its formal organization, confidence in him was so dominant 

 that suspicion was allayed and opposition disappeared. To him pro- 

 found thanks are due for the timely establishment of the most impor- 

 tant institution in the conjoint social and scientific life at Washington. 



But by his work in the organization of these several societies and of 

 the Cosmos Club Professor Baird was, as in his other fields of labor, a 

 benefactor and not a participant in the benefits secured to others. He 

 was imbued with the cardinal principle of the Smithsonian Institution 

 not only to establish and assist all useful agencies for the promotion of 

 the well-being of man, but afterwards, when they had attained to suc- 

 cessful operation, to leave them to themselves and explore new fields 

 of beneficence. It was also his own character, apart from any formu- 

 lated maxim of the Institution, that he could not rest in the personal 



