514 WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. [1877 



THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION, AND ITS APPLI- 

 CATION TO SOME ABNORMAL PHENOMENA OF SOUND.* 

 (Bulletin of the Philosophical Society ofWashington ; vol. ii, pp. 1G2-174.) 

 Delivered November 24, 1877. 



Gentlemen: I beg leave to tender you my sincere thanks 

 for the honor you have conferred upon me, and the good 

 feeling you have manifested toward me, by my re-election 

 as president of this society. I say the good feeling which 

 you have manifested toward me, because I know that there 

 are many of your members who can much more efficiently 

 discharge the duties of the office than I can. I may perhaps 

 be allowed to say — without the charge of undue egotism, 

 that I have never occupied any position for which I have 

 been voluntarily a candidate. The several offices of honor 

 and responsibility which I now hold — no less than nine in 

 number, have all been pressed upon me without solicita- 

 tion on my part, and I now begin to feel — in view of that 

 peculiarity of human nature so admirably exhibited in tlie 

 character of the Archbishop of Granada, that I ought to 

 diminish the number of my responsibilities, gradually leav- 

 ing to others the honor and the toil of office. It is therefore 

 with no feigned hesitation that I again accept the re-election 

 to the position to which your kindness has called me. 



I have however taken from the first a deep interest in the 

 society, knowing that it is intimately connected with the in- 

 tellectual development of the city of Washington, and that 

 it has a reflex influence upon every part of the United States. 

 It tends to keep alive an active spirit of scientific advance- 

 ment, not only to diffuse a knowledge of the progress of dis- 

 covery among its members, but also to stimulate — by friendly 

 criticism and cordial sympathy, to new efforts in the way of 

 explorations into the unknown. 



While but comparatively few qualifications are necessary 

 for admittance, yet no person is elected who is not supposed 



* [Anniversary address of the president of the Philosophical Society of 

 Washington.] 



