12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PITTSBURG MEETING 



the membersliip of the body was largely increased, and in 1842 the place of meet- 

 ing was Boston, and then, as already rehearsed, both the name and scope of the 

 Association were, at the solicitation of the naturalists, enlarofed. President Hitch- 

 cock, addressing the New York public interested in the outcome of the work of 

 their geologists, makes the following statement in the address already quoted : 



"It may be thouglit that tlie New York geologists in tlieir invitation and the membei'S of that 

 first Pliiladelphia meeting had no thought of extending their Association bej'ond geologists, but 

 Professor Mather's language just quoted speaks of ' a meeting of the geologists and other scientific 

 men of our country,' thus showing what were his aspirations, and they were shared by all of us 

 who had anything to do with that first meeting. But we knew that only a short time previous the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, at Boston, had directed a request to the American Philo- 

 sophical Society, as the oldest of the kind in the countr\', that it would invite the scientific men 

 of the land to such a meeting as the one we are now enjoying, but the distinguished men of that 

 society declined through fear that the effort would prove a failure. Surely, then, it did not become 

 us to announce any such intentions or expectations ; yet we did talk of them, and could not but 

 liope that what might fail if attempted on a large scale at first miglit be accomplished step by step. 

 Had not the New York geologists issued that modest invitation and confined it at first to the state 

 surveyors, probably even yet we might have been without an association for the advancement of 

 science."* 



The committee appointed by this Association to consider the matter of placing 

 a memorial tablet on the Emmons house in Albany, Xew York, begs to submit the 

 foregoing as evidence of the prenatal history of the American Association and to 

 recommend that this house, the home of the late Ebenezer Emmons, a man of 

 eminence in his profession, of untiring diligence and enduring patience, be perma- 

 nently marked by a tablet setting forth the interest of that spot to the history of 

 the Association. It is suggested that such tablet bear the following inscription: 



IN THIS HOUSli, THE HOME OF 



DR EBENEZER EMMONS, 



THE FIRST FORMAL EFFORl^S WERE MADE, IN 

 1838 AND 1839, TOWARD THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 



ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN GEOLOGISTS, 



THE PARENT BODY OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT 



OF SCIENCE, BY WHOSE AUTHORITY THIS TABLET IS ERECTED. 



1901. 



The committee further reports that the cost of this tablet will constitute no claim 

 on the treasiu-y of the association, but will be borne individually by one of its 

 members, Dr T. Guilford Smith. 



(Signed) John M. Clakke, Chairman. 



C. H. Hitchcock. 

 J. McK. Cattell. 

 . W J McGee. 



A. Statement dictated to John :M. Clarke by Professor James Hall, August 24, 

 189(5: 



The organization of a body of American geologists was proposed by the four geol- 

 ogists at Doctor Emmons's house at the corner of Hudson avenue and High street 



* Address of President Edward Hitchcock, as cited. 



