PROFESSOR BAIRD IN SCIENCE. 



By Mr. Wm. H. Dall, President of the Biological Society. 



Ill accepting tbe honor of addressing you this evening on the biolog- 

 ical work of Prof. Spencer F. Baird it is hardly necessary to state that 

 I have felt keenly' the inadequacy of my own equipment for the task. 

 Not only does it happen that my own work has been almost entirely in 

 departments of biology different from those which he adorned, but my 

 early efforts were fostered by his wisdom and geniality, the period of 

 my scientific studies has coincided with an acquaintance which ripened 

 into affection and admiration, they have depended for their results upon 

 opportunities largely due to the intervention, of Professor Baird, and I 

 feel that the best and truest of him is that which can not be put in 

 words. The sense of personal loss, as with many of you, is still so 

 keen as to accentuate the difiBculty of doing justice to the theme 

 assigned me. 



I should have almost despaired of myself on this occasion were it not 

 that others have aided me in my endeavor to set forth the debt owed 

 b}'^ the various departments of research to Professor Baird's original 

 investigations. To naturalists so distinguished in their specialties 

 as Ridgway, Stejneger, Goode, Coues, Allen, Merriam, and Yarrow, I 

 am indebted either for direct contributions toward the substance of this 

 address or for matter in their published works which has been simi- 

 larly utilized. 



Professor Baird's scientific activity was exhibited in three principal 

 directions : First, in original investigation of the zoology of vertebrates ; 

 second, in the diffusion of scientific knowledge and methods through 

 official documents, reports, cyclopedias, and records of progress ; and 

 lastly, in the organization and administration of scientific agencies such 

 as the National Museum or the Fish Commission, which include in their 

 scope not merely public education or economic applications of science, 

 but the promotion of research. Behind all these and hardly less im- 

 l)ortant for science was the personal influence of the man himself, which 

 shone through all the planes of his activity as coruscations light the 

 facets of a gem. 



Although it is very difficult to separate the phases of his work, one 

 from another, so closely were they interrelated, m^^ theme to-night is 



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