GENERAL MEETINGS. 
47 
interest in it, and, at the time of his death, was the only honorary 
member residing in the United States on its rolls. 
The Biological Society was organized December 3d, 1880, “to en¬ 
courage the study of the biological sciences,” and Professor Baird wag 
the only honorary member ever elected by it. He did not take an 
active part in the proceedings of either of the last-mentioned socie¬ 
ties but gave them material assistance. Both of them met at first 
in the Regents’ Room of the Smithsonian Institution, placed by him 
at their disposal, and he provided for the stereotyping and circula¬ 
tion of their volumes of Transactions, a benefaction which the 
Philosophical Society had earlier enjoyed. 
President Henry, in his address before mentioned, stated that in 
no other city in the United States was there, in proportion to the 
number of its inhabitants, so many men actively engaged in pur¬ 
suits connected with science as in Washington. In the seven fol¬ 
lowing years the number of persons in the city engaged in scien¬ 
tific work was nearly doubled, and most of them joined the Philo¬ 
sophical Society, so that in the year 1878 it had become recognized 
as the most efficient scientific body on this continent with a mem¬ 
bership confined to a single locality. The criteria of this superiority 
were not only the large membership and regular attendance of 
members, but the number, quality, and variety of the papers pre¬ 
sented and discussed. This abundance and, as was proved by the 
later successful establishment of difierentiated societies as an over¬ 
flow, this superabundance of scientific papers occupied every mo¬ 
ment of the meetings, so that the members, as such, had no oppor¬ 
tunity to become acquainted with one another or to interchange 
views, except in the formal discussions following the papers an¬ 
nounced in the printed programs. There was no provision for 
social introduction or intercourse. This appreciated want, the 
converse of the inadequacy of the Saturday-Night Club, resulted 
in the foundation of the Cosmos Club, on December 13th, 1878, 
in the organization of which all the members of the Philosophical 
Society were invited to join. It is needless to descant upon the 
unique character of the Cosmos Club in its membership and objects, 
its vital connection with science, literature, and art, and its imme¬ 
diate but enduring success. The remark, however, is pertinent that, 
in the winter of 1878, an unprecedented agitation, excited by im¬ 
pending national legislation, perturbed the scientific circles of the 
Capital, during which the proposition to form the Club was attacked 
