PROCEEDINGS. 
555 
In responding to the toast assigned me I desire to renew the vows of 
fealty of the Anthropological Society to the Philosophical Society. May 
the fire upon the parent altar never go out, or even grow dim. May her 
children come again and again to rekindle their affections, and as all 
studies end in philosophy, it is my prayer that every one of the societies 
that have come forth from the Philosophical may become in turn the 
source from which its most energetic membership may be recruited. As 
in the olden time, whenever a new tribal or subtribal or family establish¬ 
ment was set up there was kindled in the center of the chiefs hut a new 
and sacred fire to Hestia or her prototypes with coals from the parent 
hearth, so in these latter days, with the same loyal spirit a band of your 
sons went forth in 1879, my dear Mr. President, and erected a new sacri¬ 
ficial altar to science in the south tower of the Smithsonian Institution. 
The sparks that kindled our fire were taken from the old hearthstone 
around which we have to this day loved also to worship. 
In primitive Greece the sacred fire was also that of the household, 
whereat was cooked the family meal day by day. How opportune, there¬ 
fore, this banqueting together, whereat each filial society, through its 
representatives, returns to kindle anew the zeal within his own breast. 
The extinction of the fire in the temple of Vesta at Rome was regarded 
as the greatest misfortune that could befall the state. Indeed, we are 
told that it portended the destruction of the empire. No less calamity 
would befall this modern capital on the quenching of the flame in the 
lamp of science. For this reason this Society has sacredly guarded and 
fed this flame for twenty-two years. For this reason she has sent forth 
the younger societies with her benediction and watched their progress 
with the tenderest solicitude. 
It is therefore as an expression of undying attachment to the dear old 
parent Society founded by Professor Henry, whose altar flame was kin¬ 
dled from his own exalted mind, that I beg you all to drink with me this 
toast, praying that the Philosophical Society of Washington shall dwell 
in the land wherein the fathers have dwelt, even they and their children 
and their children’s children forever. 
For the Biological Society C. V. Biley responded. He said: 
The Biological Society, like the others here represented, recognizes 
itself as an offshoot of the Philosophical Society. It had its inception in 
a meeting in November, 1880, of a number of persons interested in biology 
who met in response to a call signed by the honored President of your 
own Society who now presides at this meeting, and myself. Excepting 
C. E. Dutton, Ernest Ingersoll, and W. H. Patten, I believe that every 
one of the gentlemen present at that preliminary meeting is here tonight. 
An organization was effected November 26 of that same year, and the 
meetings have been regularly held from that day to this. During our 
On the subject of the prytaneum consult J. G. Frazer, Jour, of Philol., 
Lond., xiv, 145. 
