NOVEMBER 3, 1899. ] 
This Institution, so successful that it was 
perhaps the most powerful ‘‘ agency in set- 
ting in operation the influences which led 
to the establishment of the Smithsonian 
Institution, the National Observatory, the 
National Museum and the Department of 
Agriculture, and in later years, of the Na- 
tional Academy of Sciences,” * yet so un- 
successful that ‘‘the Smithsonian fund, 
which it aspired to control, was placed 
under other authority; the collections and 
manuscripts of the United States Exploring 
Expeditions were removed from its custody; 
the magnificent collection in natural his- 
tory, ethnology and geology, which had ac- 
cumulated as a result of its wonderful ac- 
tivity and enthusiasm, soon became a 
burden and a source of danger,’ } was 
abandoned by its founders and supporters, 
and finally in 1861 went out of existence 
by the termination of its charter. Its re- 
markable history has been told by G. Brown 
Goode in a paper in which he showed its 
connection with the organization of our As- 
sociation. In closing he said of the Amer- 
ican Association: 
The new society was born, and it is sig- 
nificant that the name first adopted; was as 
nearly as possible a combination of the names 
of the two societies. The one contributed the 
first half of the name, ‘The American Associa- 
tion,’ the other the second half—‘for the Pro- 
motion of Science.’ The word advancement in 
place of promotion was substituted afterwards. { 
The history of the Association is a task 
that must be left for other, more competent 
members to present to you. To me has 
been assigned the duty of briefly reviewing 
the career of that brilliant galaxy of men 
who have been chosen by you to preside 
over the meetings of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science. 
* Idem. 
+ Idem. 
t Goode, First National Scientific Congress. 
SCIENCE. 
627 
REDFIELD. 
William C Redfield ‘‘ who was the first to 
suggest the idea of the American Associa- 
tion in its present comprehensive plan, and 
the first to preside over its deliberations,’”* 
was born at Middletown, Conn., on March 
26, 1789. As a boy he received only the 
simplest rudiments of education, and at the 
age of fourteen was apprenticed to asaddler. 
At that time he evinced a remarkable fond- 
ness for books, and, we are told, that ‘“‘ he 
was denied even a lamp for reading by 
night much of the time during his appren- 
ticeship, and could command no better light 
than that of a common wood fire in the 
chimney corner.’’} Through the interest of 
Dr. William Tully, a learned and distin- 
guished physician of Cromwell, Conn., he 
was accorded the privilege of that good 
doctor’s library, and chose Sir Humphrey 
Davy’s Elements of Chemistry with which 
to occupy his leisure moments. In return- 
ing the book he surprised its owner by 
showing a thorough acquaintance with its 
contents, and in particular with the doctrine 
of chemical equivalents, which, he said, he 
had then met with for the first time. 
On the completion of his apprenticeship, 
early in 1810, he made a long journey on 
foot to Ohio, passing through New York 
and northern Ohio, when “ the sites of Roch- 
ester and Cleveland were both dark and 
gloomy forests, and Buffalo was a mere ham- 
let.”{ He returned to New England in the 
following spring, choosing on this occasion 
a more southerly route, through parts of 
Virginia, Marylandand Pennsylvania. This 
journey deserves special mention because it 
* Address on the Scientific Life and Labors of Wil- 
liam C Redfield, A.M., first President for the Ameri- 
can Association for the Advancement of Science, de- 
livered before the Association at their annual meeting 
in Montreal, August 14, 1857. By Denison Olmsted, 
with an engraved portrait on steel. Cambridge, 
1858, p. 3. 
t Idem, p. 5. 
t{ Idem, p. 7. 
