FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN SCIENCE. 



BY W. J. MCQEE. 



[W. J. McGee, geologist and ethnologist; bom Dubuque county, la., April 17, 1853; 

 self educated; studied Latin, astronomy, surveying, and higher mathematics while 

 at work on a farm, 1863-73; land surveying and justice court practice, 1873-75; 

 invented, patented, and manufactured agricultural implements, 1873-75; studied 

 geology and archaeology, 1877-81 ; made the most extensive geologic and topographic 

 survey of northeastern Iowa ever executed, 1877-81 ; examined and reported on 

 building stones of Iowa for tenth census, 1881-82; became attached to United States 

 geological survey, and assumed charge of important divisions in 1885; surveyed and 

 mapped 300,000 square miles in southeastern United States ; compiled geologic maps 

 of the United States and New York; investigated Charleston earthquake, 1S8G; ex- 

 plored Tiburon Island, 1894-95; ethnologist in charge of Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology, 1893-1903; president American anthropological association; acting president 

 A. A. A, S., 1897-98; chief of department of anthropology and ethnology, Louisiana 

 Purchase Exposition,] 



On April 2, 1840, eighteen American savants met in 

 Philadelphia and organized themselves into ^The American 

 Society of Geologists." Within two years the association 

 extended its field of activity, and added "and Naturalists" 

 to its title. Still later other sciences were given hearing, 

 and at a notable meeting held in Boston in 1847 it was de- 

 cided to remodel the organization on the lines of a British 

 association that had been a power in shaping intellectual 

 progress for a quarter century. In accordance with this 

 action, the leading scientific men of the country met in Phil- 

 adelphia, September 20, 1848, and instituted 'The American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science." Such was 

 the origin of the leading American scientific society, a dis- 

 tinctively American body, meant to increase and to diffuse 

 exact knowledge among the people. 



Scientific progress, especially in a land of free institu- 

 tions, is so closely interwoven with industrial and social 

 progress that the advance of one cannot be traced without 

 constant reference to the other. Indeed, the statement of 

 our national progress during the past half century is Uttle 

 more than a summary of results and practical applications 

 of scientific research. Fifty j^ears ago our population was 

 hardly more than twenty millions, now it is eighty millions; 



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