358 SIR JOHN EVANS AND PROF. W J McGEE 



alone are found not less than 4O2 millions of persons of British 

 descent. Vastl}'^ more of her people have gone to the United 

 States than to her colonies. 



It is not to be supposed that Great Britain is doing all this work 

 for pure philanthropy ; still, in following her acquisitive instinct, 

 she has been, on the wliole, one of the greatest agencies for good, 

 by the spread of civilization, that the world has known. 



Henry Gannett. 



SIR JOHN EVANS AND PROF. W J McGEE 



Whether one of the ultimate results of that decided tendency 

 to the specialization of knowledge and of all scientific investi- 

 gation which constitutes so striking a characteristic of the pres- 

 ent age will be to render it impossible for a man to become 

 eminent in more than one department of intellectual activity 

 remains to be seen. That that time has happily not yet arrived 

 is perfectly clear, both the British and the American Associa- 

 tions for the Advancement of Science having this year been 

 presided over by men who have attained the highest distinction 

 in more than one department of science. 



By occupation a civil engineer and paper manuffxcturer, and 

 highly successful in both capacities. Sir John Evans has made 

 so great an impress on the scientific work of his time as a geol- 

 ogist, an antiquary, and an anthropologist, as well as in numis- 

 matics and applied chemistry, that the leading British societies 

 representing these difi'erent sciences have all successively hon- 

 ored him with their presidency, a circumstance almost unprece- 

 dented. Attaining at 74 years of age the chair rendered illus- 

 trious by the names of Herschel and Brewster, of Lyell and 

 Murchison, of Huxley and Tyndall, he has only one more 

 scientific distinction to look forward to — the presidency of the 

 Royal Society. 



Thirty years the junior of his eminent English compeer, Prof. 

 W J McGee has likewise taken his place in the very front rank 

 of anthropologists after attaining distinction as a geologist. His 

 scientific career began with a detailed survey of an extensive area 

 in Iowa at private cost, in the course of which important prin- 

 ciples were developed. Later, as one of that splendid bod}' of 

 men who have made the United States Geological Survey the 

 wonder and envy of all civilized nations, he spent a decade in 



