14 
MALLERY. 
ticians had occupied every year many hours of the several 
sessions to the half-concealed ennui of an audience a large 
proportion of which could not appreciate their value or 
novelty. Some, indeed, could not comprehend the language 
used and might have repeated Scaliger’s exclamation on 
hearing the Basques conversing in their vernacular: “ They 
pretend to understand one another, but I don’t believe a word 
of it.” It would scarcely be far fetched to liken the attitude 
of the members generally in those weary hours to guests at 
an entertainment where they were treated to extremely acid 
wine, labeled in a long array of gothic gutturals, which they 
must pretend to relish—both the sour wine and the gut¬ 
turals—as a proof of high education. On the other hand, 
the mathematicians recognized this want of true touch and 
appreciation and mangled their essays accordingly. 
Now they are secluded to worship esoterically “the hard- 
grained muses of the cube and square,” and rejoice in their 
independence. When, presiding during the last year, I have 
regularly announced the forthcoming meetings of the Mathe¬ 
matical Section to my brethren, I may have internally re¬ 
marked: “ Whither thou goest I certainly will not go.” Yet 
I have not failed to notice that the members of the Mathe¬ 
matical Section are among the best, members of the Society, 
and that some of the most valuable papers presented to the 
general sessions are mathematical in form and in many de¬ 
tails, though as now presented they are of general, and not 
of merely special, interest. This fact shows clearly what is 
the proper relation between generalization and specialization 
in a scientific society. 
At this time, with all the loss of papers given to the four 
new societies, there still remain active in the Philosophical 
Society many specialists, notably in the fields of geology, 
astronomy, meteorology, and general physics, who contribute 
their papers to it exclusively. There are also many mem¬ 
bers of the special societies who furnish papers that from 
their subjects might well be and are claimed by the junior 
rivals, but which from reasons of attachment or judgment 
