40 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 602. 



But above all, it has been discoveries re- 

 sulting from the opening up of new paths 

 of investigation which have impressed both 

 the scientific and the popular mind with 

 the importance of medical science. In the 

 last three decades medicine has advanced 

 to a position where it stands as never be- 

 fore in the very closest relations to the 

 highest interests of human society. When 

 you consider the vast accumulations of 

 population in cities, the great industrial 

 activities of modern times, the efforts to 

 colonize and to reclaim for civilization 

 tropical countries and waste lands, such a 

 stupendous undertaking as the digging of 

 the Panama Canal, all dependent in a very 

 direct manner upon our power to control 

 the spread of epidemic and endemic dis- 

 eases, and that this power has come from 

 the discovery of parasitic microorganisms 

 and the study of their properties and of 

 the manner of propagation of agents of 

 infection, it must be clear to you that medi- 

 cine, especially preventive medicine, is most 

 intimately related to the progress of civil- 

 ization and the advancement of human so- 

 ciety. So the time has fully come for 

 medical science to stand side by side with 

 other sciences and to be represented with 

 them in this association. 



I was expected on this occasion not to 

 make a formal address but simply to reply 

 to the cordial words of welcome which have 

 been extended to us on behalf of the univer- 

 sity and of the city. The evil day, fortu- 

 nately for you and for me, seems by the 

 plan of organization to be put far off, when 

 the incoming president is expected to make 

 his formal address to the association. 



I now have pleasure in declaring this 

 fifty-sixth session of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science open, 

 and I trust that the sessions of the associa- 

 tion and the meetings of the several sec- 

 tions and affiliated societies will be full of 

 interest and profit to all in attendance. 



After announcements by the general, 

 permanent and local secretaries, the gen- 

 eral session of the association was ad- 

 journed. 



JAMES MILLS PEIRCE. 



One summer morning nearly forty years 

 ago the boys who were to take their exam- 

 inations for admission to Harvard College 

 were assembling in Harvard Hall to meet 

 the officer in charge of the examinations, 

 Professor James Mills Peirce. As the room 

 filled he walked slowly up and down the 

 platform, his hands clasped behind his 

 back in a manner very familiar to all his 

 friends, looking now at the boys, now out 

 of a window, but saying not a word. One 

 of the boys, now himself a professor in 

 the university, leaning over, whispered in 

 Greek to his friend an adapted line of 

 Homer — 'Behold him as he walks, the 

 shortest of them all, but kingliest of men.' 

 Such was the impression made then and 

 always by James Peirce on those who were 

 fortunate enough to meet and know him. 

 It is the purpose of the following sketch to 

 give some account of his life together with 

 a short description of the changes which, 

 during his fifty years of service, took place 

 in Harvard University. 



James Mills Peirce was born in Cam- 

 bridge on May 1, 1834. He was the son of 

 Benjamin Peirce, the great mathematician, 

 and Sarah Mills Peirce. The father of 

 Benjamin Peirce, also named Benjamin, 

 was librarian and the first historian of 

 Harvard College. James Peirce 's maternal 

 grandfather was a representative in con- 

 gress, later senator from Massachusetts, 

 and a colleague of Daniel Webster. James 

 Peirce graduated from Harvard College in 

 1853. The next year he spent at the Law 

 School. In 1854 he gave up the study of 

 law to become a tutor in mathematics in 

 Harvard College. In 1857 he entered the 

 Divinity School, retaining his position as 



