PROFESSOR BAIRD IN SCIENCE. 
By Mr. Wm. H. Dall, President of the Biological Society. 
In accepting the honor of addressing you this evening on the bio¬ 
logical work of Prof. Spencer F. Baird it is hardly necessary to state 
that I have felt keenly the inadequacy of my own equipment for 
the task. Not only does it happen that my own work has been 
almost entirely in departments of biology differeut from those which 
he adorned, but my early efforts were fostered by his wisdom and 
geniality, the period of my scientific studies has coincided with an 
acquaintance which ripened into affection and admiration, they 
have depended for their results upon opportunities largely due to 
the intervention of Professor Baird, and I feel that the best and 
truest of him is that which cannot be put in words. The sense of 
personal loss, as with many of you, is still so keen as to accentuate 
the difficulty of doing justice to the theme assigned me. 
I should have almost despaired of myself on this occasion were it 
not that others have aided me in my endeavor to set forth the debt 
owed by the various departments of research to Professor Baird’s 
original investigations. To naturalists so distinguished in their 
specialities as Ridgway, Stejneger, Goode, Coues, Allen, Merriam, 
and Yarrow, I am indebted either for direct contributions toward 
the substance of this address or for matter in their published works 
which has been similarly utilized. 
Professor Baird’s scientific activity was exhibited in three prin¬ 
cipal directions: First, in original investigation of the zoology of 
vertebrates; second, in the diflPusion of scientific knowledge and 
methods through official documents, reports, cyclopedias, and records 
of progress; and lastly, in the organization and administration of 
scientific agencies such as the National Museum or the Fish Com¬ 
mission, which include in their scope not merely public education 
or economic applications of science, but the promotion of research. 
Behind all these and hardly less important for science was the per¬ 
sonal influence of the man himself, which shone through all the 
planes of his activity as coruscations light the facets of a gem. 
( 61 ) 
