PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 91 



Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, Texas, Alabama and the Caro- 

 linas are the ones least liberally furnished. Certain cities appear 

 to be absolutely without scientific men. The worst cases of des- 

 titution seem to be Paterson, New Jersey, a city of 50,000 in- 

 habitants, Wheeling, with 30,000, Qiiincy, Illinois, with 26,000, 

 Newport, Kentucky, with 20,000, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 

 and Kingston, New York, with 18,000, Council Bluffs, Iowa, 

 and Zanesville, Ohio, with 17,000, Oshkosh and Sandusky, with 

 15,000, Lincoln, Rhode Island, Norwalk, Connecticut, and 

 Brockton and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, with 13,000. In these 

 there are no men of science recorded, and eight cities of more 

 than 15,000 inhabitants have only one, namely, Omaha, Ne- 

 braska, and St. Joseph, Missouri, Chelsea, Massachusetts, Co- 

 hoes, New York, Sacramento, California, Binghamton, New 

 York, Portland, Oregon, and Leadville, Colorado. 



Of course these statistical statements are not properly statis- 

 tics. I have no doubt that some of these cities are misrepresented 

 in w r hat has been said. This much, however, is probably true, 

 that not one of them has a scientific society, a museum, a school 

 of science, or a sufficient number of scientific men to insure even 

 the occasional delivery of a course of scientific lectures. 



Studying the distribution of scientific societies, we find that 

 there are fourteen States and Territories in w^hich there are no sci- 

 entific societies whatever. There are fourteen States which have 

 State academies of science or societies which are so organized as 

 to be equivalent to State academies. 



Perhaps the most discouraging feature of all is the diminutive 

 circulation of scientific periodicals. In addition to a certain num- 

 ber of specialists' journals, we have in the United States three 

 which are wide enough in scope to be necessary to all who attempt 

 to keep an abstract of the progress of science. Of these, the Amer- 

 ican Journal of Science has, we are told, a circulation of less than 

 Soo ; the American Naturalist* less than 1,100, and Science* less 



