10 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 289. 



the City have made immense strides in the 

 direction of scientific equipment in the same 

 interval. Our own University, New York 

 University and the Medical Schools attached 

 to these two universities and to Cornell 

 University and to the Long Island Medical 

 College, all of them only thirteen years 

 ago practically \\dthout laboratory equip- 

 ment, all of them to-day equipped in a way 

 to compare favorably with medical schools 

 in any part of the country and in some re- 

 spects, perhaps, favorably mth medical 

 schools in any part of the world. The 

 scientific societies of New York have also 

 awakened to new life. All these things 

 show that throughout the length and 

 breadth of this vast community a remark- 

 able stirring of the scientific spirit has oc- 

 curred since your last meeting here. It 

 may easily be that your meeting here at that 

 time sowed the seeds, or some of the seeds 

 at least, which have produced this valuable 

 and welcome fruit. I congratulate you upon 

 securing for the advancement of science such 

 an ally as this metropolitan city. It has 

 indeed the strength of a giant, and, once 

 aroused, it brings to any cause to which it 

 allies itself a giant's strength. Therefore, 

 I congratulate you, as I have said, in ob- 

 taining for the cause which appeals to you 

 so important an ally as the City of New 

 York. 



I think I may also say that this Univei*- 

 sity, which to-daj^ welcomes you as its 

 guest, has had its fair share in the reawak- 

 ening. In 1887, when you were here, my 

 predecessor, the late Eev. Dr. Barnard, was 

 president of this University ; when he died, 

 a year or two later, it was found that he 

 had left his entire estate to the University, 

 subject to a life interest on the part of his 

 widow, with the provision that $10,000 

 should be set apart for the maintenance .of 

 a Barnard fellowship in science, to be 

 awarded to some fellow who should pursue 

 physical and chemical research. He pro- 



vided also for the award, every five years, 

 of the ' Barnard medal for meritorious ser- 

 vice to science. ' This medal is awarded by 

 the Trustees of the University upon the 

 recommendation of the National Academy 

 of Sciences. It was given this month to 

 Professor Eoentgen for the discovery of the 

 X-rays. The remainder of Dr. Barnard's 

 estate, he provided, should be a fund for 

 the increase of the Library, the income of 

 which should be used especially for the pur- 

 chase of scientific books, and more especially 

 in the domain of physics and of chemistry. 

 When Mrs. Barnard died, a year or two 

 later, it was found that she had added her 

 own estate to that of her husband and 

 dedicated it to the same purposes. I think 

 it is interesting to find that our late presi- 

 dent should have had the cause of science 

 so near at heart, for he was, as many of 

 you know, a clergyman of the Episcopal 

 Church ; but he was one of those who saw 

 no contradistinction between the Truth of 

 God written in the manuscripts of Nature, 

 and the Truth of God as revealed through 

 the Scriptures. In that respect he was a 

 worthy representative of the University 

 whose motto has been, since its foundation 

 in 1754, " In Thy light we shall see hght. " 

 Therefore we anticipate new discoveries in 

 science, because at the center of all things, 

 we believe, is the Father of Light. In 1887 

 this University studied science and taught 

 science. It had not, however, committed 

 itself to the advancement of science, as in 

 the interval it has done, by the establish- 

 ment of its Faculty of Pure Science. I re- 

 member that when Professor Osborn was 

 invited to the chair of biology, in this Uni- 

 versity, he told me that only a few years be- 

 fore he had wanted to study that science in 

 the City of New York, and could find no 

 opportunity. There was then no provision, 

 either public or private, for the study of 

 biology in this great metropolis. You know 

 as well as I how great is the change to-day. 



