230 EECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1887 AND 188g. 



and paleontologist, Prof. James Hall, was made president ; and the fol- 

 lowing additional officers were elected: First vice-president, James D. 

 Dana; second vice-president, Alex. Winchell ; secretary, John J. Stev- 

 enson j Treasurer, Henry S. Williams; members at large of the couucil, 

 John S. Newberry, J. W. Powell, and Charles H. Hitchcock. 



Another event of moment was the session of theCongr(5s Geologiqne 

 International at London on August 28 to September 3. The session 

 was made notable to American geology by the attendance of a consid- 

 erable number of our countrymen, and more particularly by the de- 

 cision of the Congr6s to hold its next session at Pl)ila(lel])bia in Sep- 

 tember, 1891. The American committee of the Congr(\s Geologiqne 

 International has during the biennial period been actively engaged in 

 formulating schemes for the classification and cartography of geologic 

 l)henomena, and has published several reports by which the literature 

 of American systematic geology was materially augmented. 



Still another noteworthy event was the establishment of a strictly 

 geologic journal, The American Geologist, in 1888. The establishment 

 of this journal is largely due to western enterprise, and it has been 

 maintained largely by western talent. The editors and proprietors are : 

 Prof. Samuel Calvin, Prof. Edward W. Claypole, Dr. Persifor Frazer, 

 Prof. L. E. Hicks, Mr. E. O. Ulrich, Dr. Alexander Winchell, and Prof. 

 N. H. Winchell. 



LEADING EVENTS TN THE PROGRESS OF THE BIENNIAL PERIOD. 



Although there is a stage in the development of every science in 

 which progress may be best measured by the work of institutions, and 

 another in which the advance is best shown by its own fruits, there is 

 no stage in which the progress is not primarily due either directly or 

 indirectly to individual effort: at first a braiich of science is promoted 

 directly by the individual often at great personal sacrifice; as its field 

 widens aiid its problems deepen the energies of others are enlisted, and 

 many individuals combine their labors; thus the institution is formed, 

 and knowledge is promoted by the united efforts of many workers ; but 

 whether he is isolated or one of a hundred, whether he is unaided or has 

 a score of associates, it is always the individual whose eyes perceive 

 new facts and whose mind conceives new ideas. So, however progress 

 is measured, it is impossible to state that progress except in the con- 

 ceptions originating in individual minds. 



Every advance in science is made through conceptions which spring 

 like buds from the growing tree of knowledge, sometimes from the 

 main trunk when each marks an epoch in inlellectual development, 

 more frequently from a main branch, and still more frequently from a 

 minor branch, when the advance in knowledge is less striking; and 

 sometimes the shooting buds meet and by their union bring forth new 

 conceptions of the highest value, — for the conceptions resulting from the 

 convergence of many lines of thought are always of higher grade than 

 those resulting froiu divergent lines. While the conceptions constitut- 



