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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLHI. No. 1112 



which I am going to give will be dedicated. 

 I do not enter upon this subject here with- 

 out some apprehension. Certain of my pre- 

 decessors, by the very nature of their sub- 

 jects, were able to have, at least the illusion, 

 that Europe is still the veritable center of 

 learning. But I have not this advantage. 

 The necessary conditions for the develop- 

 ment of the sciences are now at least as 

 well fulfilled, I will even say better ful- 

 filled, in the United States than in Europe, 

 and for many of the sciences, Europeans 

 coming to this country have as much to 

 learn as to teach. This seems to me partic- 

 ularly the case in biology and especially in 

 the questions connected with the problem of 

 evolution. 



Besides, the advance of American sci- 

 ence in these directions does not date from 

 yesterday. In the study of paleontology, 

 which has a large place in the questions 

 with which we are to concern ourselves, 

 your scholars have, for a long time, been 

 working with activity and considerable suc- 

 cess the marvellous layers of American de- 

 posits, and have drawn from them, to cite 

 only one instance, magnificent collections of 

 reptiles and mammals, which we come to 

 admire in the museums on this side of the 

 Atlantic. Here more than anywhere else 

 have been enlarged the paths opened a cen- 

 tury ago by George Cuvier. In zoology, 

 properly speaking, the museum of com- 

 parative zoology, in which I have the honor 

 to speak at this time, justly famous in 

 Europe, bears witness to the importance 

 and long standing of the results accom- 

 plished. Louis Agassiz, more than half a 

 century ago, was one of the most eminent 

 names of his generation. Later, when the 

 investigation of the great depths of the 

 ocean marked an important and consequent 

 stage in the knowledge of earth and life, 

 Alexander Agassiz, his son and illustrious 

 successor, was one of the most eager and 



skillful workers. The expeditions of the 

 Blake and of the Albatross are among those 

 which have drawn from the deep the most 

 important and most precious materials, and 

 their results have been the most thoroughly 

 studied. The personality of Alexander 

 Agassiz, whom I had the honor of meeting 

 in Paris about thirteen years ago, made 

 upon me a striking impression. His real 

 laboratory was the ocean, and he succeeded 

 to the end of his life in maintaining an 

 activity that corresponded to its amplitude. 

 He was truly the naturalist of one of the 

 great sides of nature. Around Louis and 

 Alexander Agassiz, the museum and the 

 laboratory of comparative zoology of Har- 

 vard College have been for a long time a 

 center of studies of the first rank. In the 

 domain of embryology Charles S. Minot also 

 has carried on important work. But it is espe- 

 cially at the present moment that American 

 biological science has made an amazing ad- 

 vance which expresses itself in the excel- 

 lence of publications and in the results 

 which they reveal by the number of collab- 

 orators, the activity of societies, the num- 

 ber of laboratories, and the abundance of 

 material resources at their disposal. Here 

 occurs a special factor, which has consider- 

 able importance, the enlightened and large 

 generosity of numerous patrons. It is in- 

 contestable that men of talent find more 

 easily in America than in Europe, and espe- 

 cially at the age of their full activity, the 

 cooperation without which their greatest 

 efforts are to a certain extent barren. Now, 

 at the point to which we have arrived, the 

 greater part of scientific problems demands 

 the exercise of considerable pecuniary re- 

 sources and of collaborators of various capa- 

 bilities. This is particularly true of biol- 

 ogy, where, moreover, many questions, not- 

 withstanding their scientific importance, do 

 not lead to practical application, at any 

 rate immediately. We succeed too rarely in 



