298 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



in every direction, so much is due directly to the results of scientific 

 study, research and experiment, that it is inconceivable that an insti- 

 tution whose chief aim is scientific study and the dissemination of 

 scientific knowledge should not be adequately sustained, should not 

 have a share in the general prosperity which it has helped to forward. 

 And now, gentlemen, in retiring from the office with which you 

 have honored me for two terms in succession, allow me to express my 

 appreciation of the honor which I accepted not as a personal matter 

 but as a compliment to my sex, which, from the beginning of the 

 institution, as has been acknowledged many times, has been active in 

 promoting its interests. Your flattering preference has found scant 

 iustification, as I confess with regret, owing to the active duties of 

 professional life which leave but limited opportunities for the adequate 

 promotion of all the interests of the Academy, such as might reasona- 

 bly be expected of its chief executive. I thank you for the cordial 

 support and co-operation which you have ever given me as your pre- 

 siding officer and for the uniform courtesy and consideration accorded me 

 personally. The harmony, hopefulness, and good feeling of these 

 years, in spite of the very heavy burdens and very great disadvantages 

 under which we have labored, give me undisguised satisfaction ; and 

 as we begin the new year, 1891, I trust it may indeed prove to the 

 Academy a happy New Year of new zeal and high resolves, of greater 

 achievements, of a wider range of usefulness, of a better understand- 

 ing in the community of our purposes, and in consequence thereof, a 

 more substantial support. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

 James Thompson, January, 7, 1891. 



President Thompson, on taking the chair, paid a graceful tribute to 

 the efficiency of his predecessor, and after modestly recognizing the 

 fact that " He who putteth on the armor may not rejoice like him who 

 putteth it off," said : 



A word or two on the threshold of the new year may not be out of 

 place. How often have the older members wished and hoped that 

 they might live to see this institution endowed with funds sufficient to 

 carry out the original design of its founders and to enable it to get 

 out of this hand-to-mouth beggarly way of life. O, men of means and 

 influence ! when plans are being laid for the improvement and en- 

 riching of our beautiful city let it not be forgotten that this institution, 

 even in its youthful state, has made Davenport better known in the 

 world than any other, than all other institutions together. If it has 

 done so much in its adolescence, under such difficulties, what may it 

 not do when it is enabled to stand on its feet, self-supporting and in- 

 dependent? What a chance for some Davenport Girard or Peter 

 Cooper to step forward and endow the academy, to thus bless it and 



