FREDERIC W. PUTNAM, 



President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ; 

 Fiftieth Anniversary Meeting, Boston, 1S98 



The presidency of the American Association passed last month 

 from a chemist to an anthropologist, and that of the British As- 

 sociation from an anthropologist to a chemist, and there are no 

 more illustrious rolls in the scientific annals of the world than 

 those upon which the names of Gibbs and Putnam, Evans and 

 Crookes are now inscribed. The election of Professor Frederic 

 Ward Putnam as President of the American Association was an 

 event of more than ordinary interest and satisfaction to Ameri- 

 can scientists, Professor Putnam having not only established his 

 claim to such recognition by forty years' scientific work of the 

 highest character, but also won the admiration and regard of 

 scientific men everywhere by the signal ability, the marvelous 

 tact, the untiring zeal, and the unfailing courtesy with which 

 he has served the cause of science for the long period of twenty- 

 five years as permanent Secretary of the American Association. 



Frederic Ward Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts, 

 April 16, 1839. His immediate ancestors were the Putnams, 

 Fiskes, Wards, and Appletons, who came from England during 

 the first half of the seventeenth century. Young Putnam re- 

 ceived private instruction until 1856; and as he displayed un- 

 usual aptness for the study of natural history his parents afforded 

 him every facility for the pursuit of his favorite study. When 

 he was but sixteen years of age he had compiled a " Catalogue 

 of the Birds of Essex County, Massachusetts,'' and about the 

 same time he was made curator of ornithology in the museum 

 of the instituta. 



At this time the attention of Louis Agassiz was drawn to the 

 young man's devotion to natural history, and through his in- 

 fluence Putnam went to Cambridge, where he entered the Law- 

 rence Scientific School, intending to devote himself to medicine. 

 This intention was not carried out from the fact that he was 

 soon made assistant in the Zoological Museum and afterward 

 appointed curator of the Peabody Museum. His natural apti- 

 tude for scientific pursuits, aided by the excellent methods im- 



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