PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 49 



retiring President of the Society. Calling Vice-President Hilgard 

 to the chair, the President of the Society, Mr. J. J. Woodward, 

 then read the following address : 



MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTIONS OF LIFE. 



I address you this evening in accordance with the fifth of the 

 new Standing Rules for the government of the Philosophical So- 

 ciety of Washington, adopted in January last, which directs that 

 the stated meeting next preceding the annual meeting for the 

 election of officers shall be set apart for the delivery of the Presi- 

 dent's Annual Address. By the rules adopted at the first organi- 

 zation of the society the President's address was directed to be 

 delivered on the evening of the annual meeting after the election 

 of officers had taken place. It was found, however, that the elections 

 always occupied the whole meeting, so that the address was neces- 

 sarily postponed until after the term of office for which the Presi- 

 dent was elected had expired. During the presidency of the 

 illustrious Professor Henry, who by common consent was re-elected 

 annually, the inconvenience of this arrangement was not felt. But 

 I understood the general sense of the Society last year to be that 

 an annual change of President is desirable, and that this standing 

 rule was adopted in view of that feeling, in order to give the retir- 

 ing President a convenient opportunity for the delivery of his 

 address before his term of office expires. 



For my own part I was last year, and am now, thoroughly con- 

 vinced of the desirability of electing a new President annually in 

 a society like ours. I think on the one hand that it is a measure 

 well calculated to increase the interest taken in the society by its 

 members, and on the other hand that the preparation of a formal 

 annual address would be too great a tax upon the time of a Presi- 

 dent re-elected from year to year. I think, too, that there is much 

 propriety in a suggestion which I heard expressed in many quarters 

 Jast year, that our President should be selected alternately, from 

 what may be called for convenience, the Physical and Biological 

 sides of the society, so that having been myself elected as in some 

 sort a representative of the Biological side, it is my hope that you 

 will at the next meeting elect as my successor a representative of 

 the Physical side. With this brief explanation I will proceed at 

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