34 
ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
DARWIN AND ZOOLOGY. 
By Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus. 
This is an assembly composed substantially of members and friends of 
the New York Academy of Sciences, united to do homage to one whose 
genius has been long felt in our meetings, and whose influence is now recog¬ 
nized in every field of intellectual endeavor. The example of Darwin’s 
precision in observing, of his wisdom in interpreting and of his truthfulness 
in recording the phenomena of nature has transformed zoology — the 
subject assigned to me — from prosaic description to acute speculation, from 
a merely interesting study to an aggressive science. 
This change took place in an incredibly short space of time, and it may 
be worth while, on an occasion such as this, to examine the condition of 
scientific academies and similar organizations in America at the time of 
the publication of the “Origin of Species,” to note the first center of appre¬ 
ciative acceptance and to trace the spread of the belief in Darwinism as it 
betrayed itself in the publications of the time. 
Fifty years ago there were in America five leading centers of organized 
scientific activity. 
In Philadelphia were the American Philosophical Society, founded 
by Franklin and then well along in its second century of “promoting useful 
knowledge,” and the Academy of Natural Sciences, approaching its semi¬ 
centennial. 
In Boston were the adolescent Boston Society of Natural History, ap¬ 
proaching its thirtieth birthday, and the mature American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, founded in 1780. 
In New Haven was the Connecticut Academy, founded in 1786. 
In Washington, although the National Institution for the Promotion 
of Science (founded in 1840) and the Smithsonian Institution had been 
publishing for eleven years, men- of science apparently did not unite in an 
academic way until the Philosophical Society of Washington was organized 
in 1871. Even the National Academy was not incorporated until 1863, 
four years after the announcement of the “Origin of Species.” 
In New York, this academy (then called the Lyceum of Natural History) 
w T as meeting at Fourteenth Street, at a point now occupied by the head¬ 
quarters of Tammany Hall. Of those then attending its meetings, but one 
now remains. 
The dominant mind at Philadelphia was that of Leidy, thirty-six years 
of age. Cope was a boy of nineteen. In Washington, were Joseph Henry, 
