PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 85 



In a retrospect published in 1876,* one of our leaders stated 

 that American science during the first forty years of the present 

 century was in u a state of general lethargy, broken now and 

 then by the activity of some first-class man, which, however, 

 commonly ceased to be directed into purely scientific channels." 

 This depiction was, no doubt, somewhat true of the physical 

 and mathematical sciences concerned, but not to the extent indi- 

 cated by the writer quoted. What could be more unjust to the 

 men of the last generation than this? " It is," continues he, 

 " strikingly illustrative of the absence of everything like an 

 effective national pride in science that two generations should 

 have passed without America having produced anything to con- 

 tinue the philosophical researches of Franklin." 



I may not presume to criticise the opinion of the writer from 

 whom these words are quoted, but I cannot resist the tempta- 

 tion to repeat a paragraph from Prof. John W. Draper's eloquent 

 centennial address upon " Science in America :" 



" In many of the addresses on the centennial occasion." he 

 said, " the shortcomings of the United States in extending the 

 boundaries of scientific knowledge, especially in the physical and 

 chemical departments, have been set forth. ' We must acknowl- 

 edge with shame our inferiority to other people,' says one. ' We 

 have done nothing,' says another. * * * But we must not 

 forget that many of these humiliating accusations are made by 

 persons who are not of authority in the matter ; who, because 

 they are ignorant of what has been done, think that nothing 

 has been done. They mistake what is merely a blank in their 

 own information for a blank in reality. In their alacrity to de- 

 preciate the merit of their own country they would have us confess 

 that, for the last century, we have been living on the reputation 

 of Franklin and his thunder-rod." 



These are the words of one who, himself an Englishman by 

 birth, could, with excellent grace, upbraid our countrymen for 

 their lack of patriotism. 



The early American naturalists have been reproached for de- 



* North American Review. 



