18723 Meetings of American Scientists 



than one generation of my students can well attest. 

 Still another, not less eminent, was Dr. Charles E. 

 Bessey, botanist of the University of Nebraska, an 

 original teacher and a helpful friend. 



The boundless hospitality of the people of Iowa Guests 

 I remember with much pleasure. Everywhere we °^ ^^^ 

 were received without charge, and on Sunday a "'''''^ 

 ticket was given each of us by the transportation 

 companies to be filled out for any place in Iowa 

 that might attract. I myself selected a trip by 

 steamer down the Mississippi River to Burlington. 



Since then I have attended several other meetings 

 of the Association, one each at New Haven, Ottawa, 

 Boston, and Pvlinneapolis. With time, also, I saw 

 myself changing from an eager young disciple to a 

 place among the "old masters" whom the young 

 fellows hope to meet, but who scarcely find time and 

 strength to foregather each year. 



At the meeting in 1909 I was elected president of 

 the Association for the following year, an honor 

 never twice accorded to any one. My presidential 

 address, delivered at Minneapolis in 1910, was 

 entitled "The Making of a Darwin." Professor Making 

 Henry Fairfield Osborn of Columbia had once ^/'^ 

 asserted that no American university could produce 

 "a Darwin"; I therefore set forth what seemed to 

 me the essential elements in the making of a great 

 naturalist and claimed that they were to be found 

 as freely in America as anywhere in Europe. They 

 were, first, the original human material; second, 

 contact with nature; third, an inspiring teacher. 

 As to the first, I argued that only life can yield the 

 "stuff" from which great men are made — a matter 

 of heredity, not of geographical location. Contact 



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