Aiuerican Fisheries Sociely. 177 



that hi' ahandoned thosi' pursuits for the weary and vexatious 

 worlv of administration without a struggle. 



He perceived the needs and the opportunities of his day, and 

 he knew his own ability to make a wise use of these opportuni- 

 ties, and he entered into the work which lay nearest his hand 

 with all the enthusiasm and energy of his kindly and disinter- 

 ested nature. 



The institutions with which the name of Professor Baird is 

 associated and the works to the encouragement and promotion 

 of which his life was devoted, exhibit a three-fold purpose : to 

 promote the progress of natural knowledge through researches 

 in laboratories and in museums, and through explorations and 

 discoveries, and through the reward of membership in the Na- 

 tional Academy of Science ; to diffuse and distribute it among 

 men by means of publications and museums and exhibitions; 

 and to advance its application to the material needs of mankind 

 through the protection and regulation and development of tin? 

 bounty of nature. We are too apt to look at these three aspects 

 of science as three distinct and independent fields each of which 

 may l^e successfully cultivated out of all relation to the others. 

 Thoughtful scientific investigators, who ought to know better, 

 are not always free from a feeling of superiority to those who 

 devote themselves to its diffusion, or to its practical application ; 

 and, some, who are less thoughtful, have been heard to speak in 

 disparaging terms of the mere popularizer, and of bread and 

 butter science. Some of them have even been known to boast 

 that the object of their own researches is so far removed from 

 the possibility of practical application that it can never, by any 

 possibility, be put to any conceivable use whatever. 



I am not able to say anything about the secret reflections of 

 those who have gTown rich through the practical application of 

 scientific discoveries, but 1 have an impression, that their respect 

 for the investigator who, while he may earn his bread, has but 

 a small share of the world's butter, is not very great, and that 

 they do not always look upon him as one whose life has been 

 altogether successful. 



N"o one has ever been more free from every trace of this little- 

 ness of mind than Professor Baird. To him the promotion of 

 science, and its diffusion, and its practical ai)])lication, were noi 



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