492 
JAMES CLARKE WELLING. 
delivered, as the retiring president of this Society, an address 
on “ The Atomic Philosophy, Physical and Metaphysical.” 
Starting from the atomic philosophy of the Greeks as a 
point of departure, and showing that this philosophy was 
not a mere exhalation of the imagination, but a logical in¬ 
ference from the major premise of their natural metaphysics, 
he traced with the clearness of a scientist and the accuracy 
of a historian the development of the atomic theory, touch¬ 
ing, in passing, every contributor to this great subject down 
to Tyndall and Dalton. 
He showed that when the law of simple multiples in 
chemical combinations was given to the world by Dalton, 
and was expressed by him in atomic language, he had 
really made a great departure from the physical methods 
of Democritus; “ though,” said he, “ it is curious to observe 
that there is a perfect identity between the metaphysical 
ideas underlying his logic and the metaphysical ideas under¬ 
lying his Greek predecessor. The method of each proceeds 
on the assumption of the indestructibility of matter, and it 
is from this platform that the English chemist reaches out 
his hand to the Greek philosopher in token of a common 
metaphysic.” 
He realized that it was an honor to be chosen to preside 
over a society which had had Henry, Newcomb, Taylor, and 
Powell for presidents, and that his retiring address should 
be no trivial effort. It only needs a glance at the foot-notes 
to show one that in its preparation his study had been pro¬ 
found and his reading varied. 
The year 1884 saw T the realization of one of his most cher¬ 
ished hopes—the opening of the Corcoran School of Science. 
In 1887, at the request of Mr. Corcoran, he visited the art 
galleries of Europe and brought back, in addition to some 
paintings, ideas to serve as the basis of the projected Corco¬ 
ran School of Art. 
One of the results of his early studies in law, with the 
subsequent delving into the principles of international rela¬ 
tions preparatory to discussing them editorially in their 
