ADDRESS

                             fF                 •

             PROFESSOR A. D.  BACHE,

PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR TH^ YEAR 1851,  '
                                                              ■
               ON RETIRING FROM THE DUTIES OF PRESIDENT.
                           ____         .^9 *■•--2.

On retirino- from the office of President of the-American Association
for the Advancement of Science, I submit, in conformity with usage,
to its members, a few remarks in relation  to the circumstances at-
tending its organization, and to its progress, and some considerations
of the  direction in which we may look for its greatest usefulness.
   The condition of society and of science of the day seems to have
called for the organization of general associations for the promotion
and  advancement of science in nearly every country where its cul-
tivators are numerous, zealous, and not closely gathered in one
community ; the precursors of more general unions for thensame good
purpose. To render such meetings  practicable, modern facilities of
communication are indispensable ; and when these shall have brought
Berlin and New-York as near as were Berlin and Paris at the close
of the  last century,  we may pass from o^r present organization  to
something  characteristic of  the day of railroads an£ the dawn  of
telegraphs.
   As the want s^ems to have been universally recognized, so it haft
been modified essentially by circumstances.  In Germany, the cul-
tivators of science  have met in a social way, communicated, and
dispersed.  In Great Britain, an imposing permanent organization
has  kept the British Association always active, even  when not to-
gether. Ouv own Association has scarcely developed a decided track :
its end,  the advancement of science ;  but  the road to that end, left
to the  results of reconnaissance widely made on  each side of the
beaten path, to explore new ways around or through the obstacles. 
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ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT
  Such  associations cannot  stimulate into being  a Newton or  a
Cuvier ; but who can say how much more they would have enabled
Newton and  Cuvier to  do, by removing the load of opposition to
their discoveries, by bringing up the cultivators-of science as a body
at once to the level of their knowledge, and by causing many minor
lights to shine for the benefit of the time, either by reflection, or by
the  enkindling of new flame from their influence ? Who will say that
they do not return wiser, better,  more zealous according to know-
ledge, from a meeting with Arago, with Humboldt, with Gauss, with
Brewster, with Faraday, and their compeers; or, to come nearer
home, with Henry, Peirce,  or Agassiz ? A man  must  be beyond
improvement, indeed, whom such companionship will not benefit.
  But is it true that genius is beyond or above the stimulus of as-
sociation 1 Let the man among us  who has, if ever man had the true
" divine breath,"  tell us, in simple and single-heartedness, whether
he  left that meeting of the British Association the same man who
went there ;  whether  the effect of that simple and single figure on
the blackboard, which showed to the geologists of the day discoveries
to be made, founded on principles which created a new  era in clas-
sification, was limited to his auditors, or even to cultivators of science
through whom  they spread with  lightning rapidity and vividness :
did it not react on him 1
  If such associations  bring out  only common men, it is because
there are none others within their sphere of influence. Men of genius
are still emphatically men, and of all others susceptible most truly
of human and humanizing influences. Of them emphatically it may
be  said, if they  will  not say it  for themselves,  Homo sum, ct nil
humanum alienum me puto. The world is made up of ordinary men,
and it is the  part of comnflon sense not to despise  their doings.  The
specimens collected or the observations made by the humblest geo-
logist who ever wielded a hammer, or the meekest astronomer who
ever noted a transit, serve as  part  of the foundation of the superb
structure raised by Von Buch, or by Leverrier. If the zeal of second-
rate men is warmed into activity and directed in its development by
such influences, the general level of science is raised by slow deposit,
which may on occasion make mountains by upheaval. Associations
 are not proposed as a panacea, but only in cases needing a moderate
stimulant : they appeal  to^some  of the strongest and best motives
of our nature.
   Let us now briefly and rapidly glance at the general condition of 
OF  THE  ASSOCIATION.
xliii
science among us prior to and at  the time of the formation of our
Association, the obstacles which were presented to its organization,
and the mode of its formation.
  In the colonial period of our country, the professors of mathema-
tics and natural philosophy corresponded with the leading scientific
men of Great Britain, some of them  intimately  : they looked for
assistance in their pursuits (chiefly those of astronomy) to them, and
for direction when special occasions of interest rendered their co-
operation desirable. Winthrop of Massachusetts, and Rittenhouse of
Pennsylvania, had the full advantage of such communion. At a later
day,  Franklin,  Canton  and  Priestley, were  intimates, and cor-
responded familiarly.
   The generation which grew up during our revolutionary struggle,
and after our independence was  acknowledged, naturally did not
succeed to these  connections or  friendships.  The  prosecution of
mathematics and physical science was neglected ; indeed barely kept
 alive by the calls for boundary and land surveys of the more extended
 class, by the exertions necessary in the lecture room, or by isolated
 volunteer efforts. As the country was  explored and  settled, the un-
 worked mine of natural  history was laid open, and the attention of
 almost all the cultivators of science was turned towards the develop-
 ment of its riches.  Descriptive natural history is the pursuit which
 emphatically marks that period. As its exponent, may be taken the
 admirable descriptive mineralogy of Cleveland, which seemed to fill
 the measure of that day, and  be  as it were  its chief embodiment,
 appearing just  as the era was passing away.
   I do  not propose to  attempt tracing the influences  which have
 turned attention in America to a wider and  deeper pursuit of na-
 tural, physical,  and mathematical  science. What we are here, at any
 time, lies more in present circumstances than in past history; and
 we share the general movement of the time, without those strongly
 conservative powers which in other countries exist in institutions of
 science and learning of a past day. The calls for mechanical know-
 ledge, and  for  the applications of physics, of mathematics, and of
 natural science, have, without a doubt, thrown us irresistibly into
 the career  which  we are now following, and which, in its objects,
 aims and results, partakes of the general direction of the science of
 the world.  The beginning of this movement was well nigh stifled by
 empiricism ^n forms, and in a strength  which  threatened the very life
 of science. Emboldened by the absence of  accredited  tribunals to 
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ADDRESS  OF THE  PRESIDENT
try its claims, it proffered  boldly its  pretensions to public notice,
calling itself by the respected name of science,  and to outward
seeming  entitled to its  use.
  In  a small country town of France,  as  the worshippers were
pouring  from the cathedral church, I saw drawn up on the public
square on which the building fronted,  a large barouche, transformed
for the time into a stage, from which a man, in a dress imitating that
of the court of the last century,  invited the  issuing worshippers to
try his skill in pharmacy, in medicine and in surgery, while a trumpet
sounded  occasionally appropriate " alarums" to call attention to the
master charlatan. This was the old-fashioned character, hardly de-
ceiving any but the most ignorant, though, withal, exhibiting a power
of tooth-drawing such as would have challenged admiration had it
been  real. Our charlatans carefully doffed the dress, and  laid aside
the tools  and stage, and  their trumpet was blown by the spectators.
They pretended, nevertheless, like him of the village, to that which
they did not know; and  invited, like him, the examination of powers
which they did not possess. Had this association originated at that
time, they would have usurped its seats, and outvoted the devotees
of  science in the election  of its officers. This picture may seem
overcharged; but I appeal for the essential truth of its features to
the fears, which cannot yet be forgotten, of those who shrunk for
many years from an organization,  lest with the form of science it
should want  its spirit. The strife, though not a public and avowed
one, has  not been the less strenuous ;  and if renewed from time to
time, the  ground gained by true science is too well occupied by
defensive works to render any new attack of avail. Our real danger
lies now f¥om a modified charlatanism, which  makes merit  in  one
subject an excuse for asking authority in others, or in all; and, be-
cause it has made real progress in one branch of science, claims to
be  an arbiter in others. Sometimes this authority is thrust on men
who,  not having the force to enlighten those who press them as to
their real claims, injure the cause they would fain promote, by being
too impressible. Merit thus moulded assumes  the form of the im-
pressing  body. Whether the authority be seized or  accepted, it is
unlawful; the usurpers  wear the shoes and buckles, if not  the whole
costume.  This  form of pretension leads men to appeal to tribunals
for the decision of scientific questions, which  are in no  way com-
petent to consider them; or  to appeal to the  general public voice
from the decisions of scientific men or scientific tribunals, in matters 
OF  THE  ASSOCIATION.
xlv
which, as they only are in possession of the knowledge necessary to
make a right decision, so they only can give one which is valid. In
a country where every thing  is free, and every one  may obtain a
hearing, notoriety is often dearly purchased  by the sacrifice of some
portion of real reputation. Let us firmly discountenance the wearing
even of buckles. If, even, we would count reputation by votes alone,
the voice 01 one man of science is sure to be  followed by many votes
from  the general throng.
   The absence of a minute subdivision in the pursuit of science, the
prevalence of general lecturing on various branches, the cultivation
of the literature of science rather than of science  itself, has produced
many of the evils under which American science has labored, and
which are now passing away. You have so much ground to clear,
said an intelligent foreigner,  that you cannot give all your time to
one garden spot. We, though still farmers, begin to garden.  While
a general knowledge of various branches  of science is useful in de-
veloping even  a single branch, it is still  certain that subdivision is
essential to  advancement. An Admirable Crichton rather fixes at-
tention on his own perfection, than perfects  any  art.
   Lecturing and the  pursuit of science have, with us, up to this time,
been very closely connected.   It has been necessary to teach, and
generally to lecture,  in order  to obtain means to pursue research;
and the advantage which results from investigation is even now not
so clearly seen as it ought to be by those who direct our institutions :
they have  yet,  in many cases, to learn that the real estimate of a
professor's services  is  not always the number  of his hours  on the
college roster. Lecturing is,  of all the arts, one of the most easily
 acquired, at least by  our countrymen : it is undoubtedly useful, and
most agreeable, but  should not be the object and end of a man's
 career. It is not necessary to found  institutions especially for  its
 encouragement; nor should the power to diffuse science in success-
ful courses of lectures be considered as a substitute for exertion in
 its advancement. One of the best lecturers in the world, confessedly
 so, made as great a failure in his first attempt as there is on  record ;
 and no one could detect the  germ of one of our most brilliant lec-
turers in the unpromising envelope presented at a first lecture.
   I  remember well the chilling effect produced upon me, when
young, by the remark of one  of our leading literary men, applied to
 a distinguished scientific writer, that he was not a " mere dry man
of science." The remark was intended for advice, and I pondered 
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ADDRESS  OF THE PRESIDENT
over it. Perhaps I did not despise dryness as  I  ought;  for the ob-
servation was drawn out by my unwillingness to  undertake a notice
of the first volume of Bowditch's Mecanique Celeste, some ten days
after it appeared. Delighted with the idea of having the rich stores
of that incomparable volume placed within the reach of a reader of
the differential  and integral  calculus, I  thought it profaneness to
pretend to have read it in so  brief a  time. The immortal work was
noticed by a more rapid reader. It was not then, and is not now, the
prevailing fault of our science to be dry; nor is  dryness one of the
tendencies of our Association. I have sometimes thought there was
danger of the opposite.
  There is nothing more marked in different countries than the dif-
ference in facility of expression. Nothing certainly struck me with
more force than the contrast between the happy fluency with which
the Irish men of science brought out  their ideas, and the difficulty
which marked  the expression of thought by their brethren on the
other  side of the channel.  Some of  the most brilliant  discussions
which I heard  were in  the French Academy, where the absence of
dryness  certifies that dryness is not, as in bitter reflection I  may
have supposed,  a test of soundness.
  The world's philosopher, Humboldt, speaks  of the " self compla-
cent diffuseness" of Aristotle  ; and if the Stagirite could show it in
writing, we may well pardon it in oral communications. Manner is
sometimes the index of mental workings, but not  always. Much self-
reliance may exist under a modest exterior, as apparent forwardness
of manner may coexist  with  a modest opinion of one's self. Let us
be tolerant, unless we see the buckles.
  When the effort was first made  to establish a general American
Association for  the promotion of science, it is certain that  it met with
considerable opposition. There were various reasons for this. From
close communication with many who are now active members of the
Association, I know why this fear prevailed over their hopes of the
usefulness of such an institution. The opposition came not more from
those who were habitually conservative,  than from those  who,  being
earnest  in regard to the progress of science, are usually in favor of
all progressive measures. It proceeded from no under-estimate of the
strength which  there was among the  cultivators of science. Some of
us had studied the workings of the British Association, and had been
convinced of the  absolute necessity for the attendance  there  from
year to year of the men of the universities, to give a tone to the 
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xlvii
proceedings ; and were alarmed,  perhaps, at  the forays into  the
domain of science, which had there been witnessed in some of the
less powerful sections,  and even into  the park of Section A itself.
So far  from having been trained in the same  schools, we scarcely
knew each other personally. How could we irregulars venture into
conflict, when the files to our right and to our left were strangers to
us, and when the cause might thus have suffered from the want of
discipline of its volunteer support 1
   It was very prudently left for the geologists to begin the work. In
looking back, I see no reason to regret that such counsels prevailed.
The geological surveys making in several States rendered meetings
of those engaged in them very necessary, for comparison, discussion,
systematic  effort; for  counsel, aid, and  mutual improvement. A
classification, or the basis of one, was to be made ; and only by dis-
cussion, in such a body, could it be formed. In  that association, po-
sitive work was the test of consideration :  to be heard, a  man must
have done something ; and the more he had done, the more patiently
 he was listened to. Thus, far deeper, morally, than the comparative
 depths which they explore, the geologists laid the foundation of the
 American Association. The naturalists associated themselves with
 the  nucleus thus afforded,  and  the association  became one of geo-
 logists and  naturalists. Chemistry  occupied from the beginning a
 portion of the attention of the Association, in its  necessary con-
 nection with geology ;  at first a small, then a  more extended part.
 Meteorology,  which the circumstances of our country have made
 necessarily one of the branches of physics most successfully pursued
 among us,  assisted in  the further development;  and calling in the
 votaries of general  physics and mathematics, the  association was
 expanded to its present dimensions, and  became the American As-
 sociation for the Advancement of Science. May the  care  thus taken
 in gradually raising the edifice from a firm foundation,  secure its
 long duration !
   I  propose now, though conscious that  the discussion  must  be a
 very limited and imperfect one, to add a remark to what has already
 been said on the benefits of associations like our own, to discuss the
 special advantages of our meetings ;  pointing  out, as well as I may,
 those directions most likely to lead to our object, and some which I
 think,  however alluring,  should not  be  followed.  But first a few
 observations on the ordinary modes of promoting science;  in con-
 nexion with which, I would throw out for your consideration some 
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ADDRESS  OF THE  PRESIDENT
reasons which induce  me  to believe  that an institution of science,
supplementary to existing ones, is much needed in our country, to guide
public action in reference to scientific matters.
  One of the modes apart from education, by which, by common
consent, everywhere science has been  promoted, has been by the
organization of societies for holding meetings, and publishing trans-
actions and proceedings. Local institutions of this sort exist in all
parts of the civilized world, sometimes endowed by the government,
sometimes by individuals, and sometimes supported  by voluntary
contributions. To affirm that these institutions are not useful, would
be to contradict universal experience : to withdraw our support from
them, because they had failed to do all the good desirable, would be
Utopian. The present  condition of science in France is  in a great
degree due to its Institute, which took the place of a less effectively
organized body, when the nation determined to be the immediate
patron of science.  The departments have their societies, and some,
 as  those of Lille  and Lyons,  with considerable vitality. In Great
 Britain, there is no large town without its philosophical or natural
 history society ; and in all the more important cities, there  are  as
 many societies as  prominent departments of scientific research.  In
 London, the subdivision is still more minute, and some branches have
 more than one association devoted to  their advancement. Science
 cannot, in its writings of research,  appeal to  the mass of general
 readers ;  and must be furnished, by association or endowment, with
 even its means of publication. Applied science is profitable in a
 pecuniary sense; but abstract science, on which the other hangs, is
 not  remunerating. Yet how many applications flow from one prin-
 ciple !  The world would  gain, in a very high ratio, by bestowing its
 rewards for principles, instead of for applications.
    With us, two  philosophical societies only have struck very deep
 and wide their roots  : the American Philosophical Society of Phi-
 ladelphia, and  the American Academy of Boston ; and several so-
  cieties for the encouragement of natural  history have been perma-
  nently useful. Not one of these  associations is well endowed.  For
  our  only  endowed national institution (the  Smithsonian), we are
  indebted to the  liberality of a foreigner ; and  had it fivefold its
  present endowment,  it would not be able to meet the actual demands
  upon its funds for purposes embraced in what its learned Secretary
  has^classed as its " active operations" for "the increase and diffusion
  of knowledge." 
OF  THE  ASSOCIATION.
xlix
  The Institute of France gives its members  a moderate support,
that  the  country may have the benefit of their labors. The  other
institutions afford means for the publication of researches, but not,
usually, for making them ; nor, except incidentally in the persons of
their officers, do they support  their members. The means furnished
for educational purposes are those generally which enable the vo-
taries of abstract science to live. Where  there  are richly endowed
universities and colleges, governed by the academic body itself, the
facilities thus afforded  are so  extended  as to  require few others.
Where institutions depend mainly upon the fees of pupils for their
support, or, being endowed, are governed by those who take narrow
views  of the labors of scientific men, the professors  are so loaded
down with labor  that neither body nor mind is capable of effective
research. How very many there are who want only time and means
for research, to advance those departments in which they now  mere-
ly impart the doings of others!  Will not a more healthy tone of
opinion  arise in time on this  subject, from our intercommunication,
and the  candid expression of temperate and mature opinions  1
   Some of our institutions, and prominently among them the Frank-
lin Institute of Pennsylvania, have furnished means for experimenla
on important subjects, and enlisted their most zealous members in
researches ;  but  even here the laborers were  without hire, though
neither they nor  their works were deemed unworthy of it. Some of
these researches  remain to this day unpublished, from the necessary
withdrawal of the members to other spheres of active exertion re-
quiring all their time and thought; and will, if they have not already,
become  obsolete by the progress of the branches to which they
belong. Among the obstacles  to the progress  of science with us,
must be reckoned, as one of the largest, the want of direct support
for its cultivators as such.
   It is, I believe, a  common mistake, to associate the  idea of  acade-
mical institutions with monarchical institutions. We show in this, as
in many other things, the prejudice of our descent. We have among
us the two extremes  of exaggerated nationality and of excessive
imitation :  let us modify each  by the other, and be wise. A national
institute is not necessary to Great Britain, with her rich and powerful
universities. Republican France has cherished  her Institute, seeking
rather to extend than  to curtail its proportions. One of the most
ardent of republicans is its perpetual secretary — that setting sun,
whose effulgence shows that it is merely passing below the horizon 
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ADDRESS  OF THE PRESIDENT
to illuminate  another  sphere ! Nor does the idea of a necessary
connexion between centralization and an institution strike me as  a
valid one. Suppose an institute of which the members belong in turn
to each of our widely scattered States, working at their places of
residence, and reporting their results ; meeting only at particular
times, and for special purposes ; engaged in researches self-directed,
or desired by the body, called for by Congress or by the Executive,
who furnish the means for the inquiries.  The detail of such an or-
ganization  could  be marked out so  as to secure efficiency without
centralization, and constant labor with its appropriate results. The
public treasury would be saved many times the support of such  a
council, by the sound advice  which  it would give in regard to the
various projects which are constantly forced upon their notice, and
in regard to which they are now compelled to decide without the
knowledge which alone can ensure  a wise conclusion. The men of
science who are at the seat of government either constantly or tem-
porarily, are too  much occupied in  the special work which belongs
to their official occupations, to answer such a purpose ; besides, the
additional  responsibility which, if they were called  together, they
must necessarily bear, would prove  too great a burthen, considering
the fervid zeal, and I might almost  say fierceness, with which ques-
tions of interest are pursued, and the very extraordinary means
resorted to to bring about a successful conclusion. If it were ad-
missible that I should go into detail on this subject, I could  prove
the economy  of a permanent consulting body like  this. This is,
however, a lower  view than the saving of character by avoiding
mistakes and  misdirection of public encouragement, and by loss of
opportunity of encouraging that which is  really useful. I should
subject the Association to some criticism if I unfolded this subject
specifically, particularizing  the errors here generally alluded to ;
and I abstain, merely remarking that the amount which would have
been saved to one department of the  government  alone, from the
 application of the principle of the  equality of action and reaction,
would have supported such a council for twenty years, including the
furnishing of means to show experimentally the applications of the
 principle to the case  in  question.  Not  only in  new undertakings
 would the advice of such a body be most important, but they would
 be appealed to for information in regard to existing ones, and would
prove most serviceable in advising in doubtful points.
   Our country is making such rapid progress in material improve- 
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li
ment, that it is impossible  for either  the legislative  or  executive
departments of our Government to avoid incidentally, if not directly,
being involved in the decision of  such questions. Without specifica-
tion, it is easy to see that there are few applications of science which
do not bear on the  interests of commerce and navigation, naval or
military concerns, the customs, the light-houses, the public lands,
post-offices and post-roads,  either directly or remotely. If  all exa-
mination is refused, the  good is  confounded with  the bad,  and the
Government may lose a  most important advantage. If a decision is
left to influence, or  to imperfect knowledge,  the worst consequences
follow.
   Such a body would supply a place not occupied by existing  in-
stitutions, and  which our own is, from its temporary and voluntary
character, not able  to supply.
   Astronomy,  chiefly at first from its connection with navigation,
has  been  the science which all governments, our own inclusive, have
selected to encourage ; fostering thus one of the highest branches of
theoretical science,  on account of its practical applications. It may
be truly said that we know  more of the laws which govern the mo-
tions of the distant  bodies of the universe, than we do of those which
regulate the constitution of bodies around us. Would not the same
results, or assuredly similar  ones, flow from  a systematic encourage-
ment for  a long period of any one branch of science 1 The experi-
ment  is certainly worth  trying.
   If meteorology could be encouraged with a world-wide patronage,
like astronomy, what practical and theoretical results would not be
 derived 1 The results of even the partial effort made in behalf of
 magnetism and meteorology, is encouraging : brief as the term  has
 been, the materials are gathered, or gathering, from which important
 conclusions are  daily derived, and which  await  the  master mind
 to weave into new " Principia," a new " Mecanique," or  a new
 " Theoria."
   Every  man of genius  seems, on setting out from the mental level
where education and circumstances have placed him, to be capable
of a certain amount of effort in  his "journey to the stars," and no
more. Even animal natures are educated to view railroads without
fright, first, and then without emotion, even of curiosity. No professor
of physics lives that studies his pupils, who has not been disappointed
at some time, after the elaborate preparation of a new experiment,
to find how coldly it was looked upon : it was new to him ; but to 
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ADDRESS  OF THE  PRESIDENT
his class all was new, and the same level included  the motion of a
needle by the galvanic current, and the magnetism of oxygen. The
next generation will start from the level of the steamboat,  the rail-
road, the phototype, and the telegraph.
   It has seemed abroad,  and  with  us in  the United States, that
something more was wanting  to keep up the healing motion in the
waters of science, than was obtained from the existing  institutions
already alluded to ; that without interfering with their useful labors,
good was to be gained by bringing  their members together in one
general association, holding its meetings in different places, in part
to give facilities for attendance to different  persons in turn, and in
part to stimulate local exertion by the influence, so important in
social as well as  chemical action, of presence. Are such associations
destined to an enduring existence, or are they  only to be temporary
in their action 1  Is their animation to be life-long, or to be from time
to time suspended 1 If the want which they  supply is  temporary,
they will  have spring-time, summer, and winter. If, having fulfilled
their end, they pass into other forms of institutions  better adapted
to the wants of science, we will not regret  their longer or shorter
life,  nor hold them less in veneration that they died. The good they
may do, cannot be lost.
   Separated by vast distances, scattered  in larger or smaller com-
munities,  the daily avocations of men of science in the United States
keep us asunder. Our small numbers at any one point produces all
the bad influences of isolation. We  feel cut off from the world of
science, and sink discouraged on account of the isolation ; or having
a  position in the community about us, we become content  to enjoy
this, and forget  that we owe a duty to the world outside;  that we
ought to increase, as well as to diffuse; to labor, as well as to enjoy
the labor  of others. Our country asks for other things from us than
this; and men of science of this day will, as in times past, labor for
progress.  We will hope to have "American methods" in the other
branches of science, besides practical astronomy.
   If these  associations have  proved themselves of value in other
countries, and have commanded the support of all their most active
and  eminent men of science so as to  continue their meetings year
after year, there is none where they could have promised to be so
important to the interests of national science as in the United States.
Organization here, for good or for evil, is the means  to  the  end.
While science is without organization, it is without power : power- 
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liii
less against its enemies, open or secret;  powerless in the hands of
false or  injudicious friends. Not wedded  to existing forms, this
country is  alive to everything  which promises improvement; and
the public mind, in this  or that place, or in the whole country, made
almost a physical point  by the electric telegraph, runs irresistibly in
one course, the result of wise or evil counsels, of knowledge or half-
knowledge. Honor to that great statesman who, passing beyond the
limits of our political and social institutions, came forward on our
national anniversary to  direct the minds of the people in tracing the
progress of our country by its education,  its religion, its literature,
and its science!
   Many of our States are anxiously alive to the promotion of science,
both directly and  indirectly; and it is of the greatest importance,
that in moving, they should go rightly. The legislative and executive
branches of our General Government are called upon often to decide
questions which belong rather to scientific than to political tribunals.
A timely recommendation by a scientific congress would frequently
be a relief from serious embarrassment, and ensure the most bene-
ficial results to the progress of science. The abuse of such power is
less to  be expected  in this than in other bodies, because reacting
immediately upon the body itself. Thus far no single recommendation
made by the American Association has fallen powerless : they have
both done positive good, and averted positive evil.
   In looking at the labors of associations like our own, we naturally
desire to. emulate  them  ; and the spirit of imitation is second nature.
We are prone to think, that what is well done, and successfully, by
others,  we should prove our ability to do;  and that omission is a
confession of inability.  On a warm and sunny afternoon,  I saw the
company in a railroad car prepare a shade before leaving the depot,
by raising the blinds on the east side, because some one who had his
head turned set the example. The value of the example which we
would emulate or imitate, may consist in the circumstance—on the
side where the sun is.
   Let us take up  some of the leading objects to which other associa-
tions have usefully devoted their energies,  and see whether  they
constitute  leading marks for our course.
   One of the most useful fruits of associated scientific labor is in
making, directing, or furnishing the means  and  appliances for ex-
perimental researches.  There is a class of experiments and observa-
tions, the plan of  which can be laid out beforehand, and which it is 
liv
ADDRESS  OP THE  PRESIDENT
eminently the province of  associations to undertake. The British
Association has distinguished itself by directing such through com-
mittees, and considerable appropriations have been made for their
necessary expenses.  The  fee of membership in that  association is
large; the number of members, very large :  we cannot expect to
emulate it in our pecuniary  means. The treasury of our Association
has been relieved by the liberality of the city of Charleston, and of
the citizens of Cincinnati, from the cost of publishing the proceedings
of the meetings ; and yet it is very scantily supplied. Can we collect
means for directing researches,  unless from unlooked-for individual
munificence 1 I think not. Nor do I  see that working spirit in our
committees,  which alone  could bring experiments to a successful
conclusion. The Association disperses ; the members  separate, and
there is no stimulus to apply to  committees for the half or the whole
year. Even the physical constants we have called for, have not been
reported.
   There is one subject in this connection, which I  feel it my duty
briefly to advert to. Painful though it be, it should not  be passed by.
I do not see, on the part of the younger members of the Association,
that disposition which belongs  to their time of life, to take the la-
boring oar in the details of our own work, and without which even
the temporary labors of our meetings cannot be long borne. Perhaps,
from modesty, they shrink from the responsibility. If so, let them be
encouraged  to do  their part, in confidence that  the desire to serve
will be fully appreciated by the Association.
   I  cannot see that experimental researches, undertaken from its
funds and executed by its committees, can successfully form part of
the regular business  of this Association.
   These remarks I do not at all apply to cases where, means being
furnished by public or private munificence, the question is merely to
direct a plan of operations. We can, assuredly, to advantage, direct
the researches of others by suggesting what it is desirable to do, or
how it should be done. If experiments on the change of level of our
coast, on the sediments  of  rivers and estuaries and the  like,  are
desired by geologists; if  special collections are desired by our  na-
turalists, and there  are public works to which these matters  ap-
propriately belong, or private individuals who desire to  see  them
carried through, this Association is a very proper  body to suggest
the observations and to furnish  instructions.
   The standing committee of the Association, and  others organized 
OP  THE  ASSOCIATION.
Iv
to act  during the meetings, have always done much  work. The
members devote themselves to the Association sedulously during the
days of meeting. Why not limit ourselves generally to those subjects
and matters which our committees can transact during the period of
meeting, and why not give time for  committees to deliberate 1 Do
we not press matters too much, for the interest of the Association 1
After  close observation,  I believe that we do. We ought  to allow
ourselves time to do well what we undertake.
   The same course  of reasoning would lead me to  the same con-
clusions  in  regard to computations to be made under the direction
of the Association;  another  field of usefulness, which the British
Association has fully entered into,  attaching its name to the most
extended and best arranged  catalogue of the stars which has yet
been published.
   If we would attempt reports on the progress of science like those
which were so perseveringly and admirably kept up by the illustrious
Secretary of the Swedish Academy,  or like  those which have ema-
nated  from the committees and members of  the British Association,
we are on preoccupied ground, with disadvantages of position and
of pecuniary resources. Not  only must we compete in our own lan-
guage abroad, but with an  institution at home (the Smithsonian),
which, finding this field  of usefulness untilled among us,  has fully
entered  upon it.  This career of usefulness is, except on  special
occasions,  not open to us.
   The objects of our Association are to be considered as they act
directly to increase the amount of scientific knowledge, or indirectly
by the effect on the  associates who attend the meetings, or the com-
munities where they are held.                                    •
   Without a published record of our doings, the effect of our As-
sociation would be limited to the members who attended the meet-
ings, and the importance of  publishing has  been recognized in the
informal arrangements from year to year in reference to it.  The
zeal of the local committees  at Charleston and Cincinnati  not only
relieved the Association from the expense of publishing the volumes,
but  carried them rapidly through the press. To the  local  secretary
at Charleston, Prof.  Lewis R. Gibbes, and the permanent secretary
of the Association, Prof.  Spencer F. Baird, we  are indebted  for the
promptness with which  the  volumes of the Charleston and New-
Haven meetings appeared. When the meetings are merely annual,
there will be time, it is hoped, to  permit authors carefully to examine 
lvi
ADDRESS  OF THE  PRESIDENT
   the proofsheets of their papers, without which dispatch is gained at
   the expense of accuracy.
     It is hardly possible that the publication of our proceedings should
   interfere with the transactions of other learned societies. Our mate-
   rials  consist essentially of abstracts or of brief communications, of
   accounts of researches  often in progress, and  notes  which differ
   entirely from the  elaborate memoirs appropriate to such transactions.
   The memoirs of learned societies, with us, have always been  pu-
   blished at considerable intervals of time; and I  am not aware that
   the intervals have been  increased since our organization. There is
   unmistakable evidence in the  activity of the  American  Journal of
   Science, that we  do not interfere with it.
     At our meetings have been presented 338 communications; of
   which,  107 have been on subjects of physics  and mathematics, 32
   on chemistry, 93 on geology and mineralogy,  83 on natural history
   in its various branches (especially zoology), and 23 on miscellaneous
   subjects.
     For these publications, I  am of opinion that  we have drawn in
   part from material  which had  accumulated  : we  have consumed
   more than the supply of the year would furnish, and will  at last,
   when thrown upon the results of a single year, find our proceedings
   less abundantly supplied than hitherto. Still,  while  our  gatherings
   are numerous as now, and similarly constituted, there will  be  in-
   teresting matter  and  to  spare.  Matters in progress will be brouo-bt
   before us, the full results of which will  be published elsewhere.
     But, have any papers or memoirs been actually produced by these
   meetings, which would not, without them, have been  brought before
*  the public ? Of this I entertain not the least doubt. Indeed, I know
   many which, without the stimulus of preparation for these meetings,
   would not have seen the light;  some, which, in fact, could not  ap-
   priately have been brought forward elsewhere. The desire to add to
   the interest of the meetings, has been a powerful stimulus to exertion
   on the  part of many. This will continue,  perhaps,  intermittingly ;
   but, as localities change,  and new members attend the meetings,  the
   average may remain  nearly constant. Papers  have been produced,
   which otherwise might not have appeared.  We are posted up to  the
   very day of meeting in  the researches actually making in natural,
   physical,  and mathematical science. At the Cambridge  and New-
   Haven  meetings, physico-mathematics had  the leading part; at
   Charleston, natural history, and especially zoology; at  Cincinnati, 
OF  THE  ASSOCIATION.                 lvii
geology and its kindred branches. Each meeting was characterized
by communications of a very high order of interest; each as dis-
tinctly characterized as the part of the country in which it was held ;
each one  excellent in  its way, exhibiting (like our union) unity in
diversity.
  For the good effect, from our meetings, on local science, I  appeal
unhesitatingly to  those who have been  with us since the new or-
ganization. We know that such good has resulted. We can point to
those who have found new motives to research in attending  our
meetings. We can point to one institution, founded and endowed in
part through our  action on public sentiment. May we be able, also,
at no distant day, to  say of another which is an ornament to the last
noble  city where we assembled, that it too has been  endowed in
consequence, at least in part, of our influence.
  There are some subjects which only an association  like  this is
competent to  grapple with  : the subject of regulating standards of
weights and measures, and the scales of barometer and thermome-
ter, and the prime meridian, are of this kind. There  is now no other
scientific body to point out explorations desirable to be made on land
or water, to suggest systems of extended meteorological observation,
plans of surveys, geographical, geological, or others.
  Congress, after changing  the money standard and regulating the
coinage, seems to have stopped short, and, after a long agitation of
the subject of standard weights and measures, to have left it in very
weariness. The whole effort towards uniformity has simply been to
prepare material standards of a quality according with the demands
of the science of the day  : pounds, yards, bushels and  gallons con-
forming to the general average of those in common use, and derived
from England ; and putting aside innovations in  the commonly re-
ceived units, their multiples or  sub-multiples. I have been gratified
to see a spirit of inquiry on this subject alive among the members ;
believing that nowhere can essential changes or  reforms in the whole
system be more fairly or powerfully discussed, than  here. An indivi-
dual, unless  perhaps some  leading legislator,  who would propose
changes at this time in our country on this subject, would but waste
his time and logic.
  The Association determined in Cincinnati  to fix a time  for the
discussion of this subject at the present meeting. Closely connected
with it is the regulation of the various scales used with instruments,
which depend on the unit of length measure, or arbitrary scales. I 
lviii             ADDRESS OP  THE PRESIDENT
hope to see a time set apart at this or some subsequent meeting for
the discussion of this matter, which was  partly opened at Cambridge
by Prof. Guyot.  The world is  obviously ripening  for a general set-
tlement of these questions, and as intercommunication strengthens
the advantage of one system of measures and weights, and of one
general prime meridian, will gain strength with it. A collection of
the weights and  measures, the barometers and thermometers, and of
the charts of navigation and nautical almanacs of each of the coun-
tries represented at the World's Fair, would have presented  in
strong relief the necessity for something better adapted to a world's
use.
  As far as these questions affect  scientific men and science in the
United States alone, they are absolutely within our control; and the
recommendation of this body would undoubtedly lead to the adoption
by  our brethren of such standards of weight  and measure, such
linear unit for the scale of the  barometer, and such scales for the
thermometer as would be recommended. Those who use these stand-
ards would be the first to  become  familiar with them from actual
eight and use;  and I know the great ease with which one becomes
used to measures and weights, the employment of which seems  at
first entirely strange.
  If ever we may expect a combined series of meteorological ob-
servations with exact instruments and  observers, whose business  it
shall be to make the observations, it must be in consequence of a
recommendation of this Association.  The stations should be selected
so as to furnish the best results for climate and the laws of storms,
and not left to  the determination of circumstances foreign to the
consideration of  the  object sought. If we could once communicate
to New-York harbor the coming of a  northeast storm in time  to
prevent vessels from leaving it, the full benefit of these  researches
would  come home to the commercial community of the country, and
means to extend the observations would be freely provided.
  The recommendations already made by the Association have met
with sign.al success. Among these  I may note the appropriation for
the publication of the report of Prof.  H. D. Rogers on the geolo-
gical survey of Pennsylvania,  by  the legislature of that State ; the
law for a geological  survey of Ohio ;  of the scientific  explorers
attached to  the  Mexican Boundary Survey,  under Commissioner
Bartlett;  and of the expeditions under  charge of Lieut. Maury, for
examining special questions connected with winds and currents. 
OF  THE ASSOCIATION.
lix
  It has been doubted whether it was expedient for the Association
to give opinions on questions of science, and to report on scientific
researches. These doubts I do  not share, but believe, on the  con-
trary, that if we decline so to do, we do not come up to the clear
measure of our duty. Where the opinion of the Association is sought,
it should fearlessly, frankly, but carefully be given. The fact that the
researches are by one of its members will not excuse it for avoiding
the task. Instead of stating in  the approved formulary that it gives
no opinion, I would have it guide opinion by forming its own mature
conclusions,  and giving them where desired with all  the weight of
its  authority.
   Whether  the Association should be the arbiter of questions of
priority occurring between its members, is much more doubtful in
my mind. It would be of great value to scientific men to have such
questions, which unhappily often arise, carefully and dispassionately
settled. When  both parties desire the  arbitrement, I think it should
be assumed, as a less evil than that  of avoiding a decision where
the facts  are all  presented. There is but one other course : rigor-
ously to exclude all personal questions; in which case, the Associa-
tion decides that there  is no  tribunal for such, and drives its mem-
bers to appeal to the  public.
   At the last  annual  meeting, the president of the year before was
 called upon to prepare a code of scientific ethics, the result of the
 clear principles laid down upon this subject  in his address. Let us
 hope that he will contribute  this  code, which, like reputable  men
 under the civil code, we will endeavor to live without violating; not
 considering it a law given to compel us to  right, but rather as a line
 far within which we will  walk.
    In considering these meetings in  reference to the effect on the
 individual  members,  we  might claim them as  a relaxation from se-
 vere labor; as an agreeable,  intellectual resort, to learn the results
  of the day, did not  our aims soar higher than this,  and extend to
  substantial  intellectual benefits to others as well as to ourselves.
    That these meetings are, in the individual intercourse which they
  bring about, intellectually and  morally beneficial, is most certain.
  The intellect is excited by such intercourse; the heart is expanded.
  Freedom and frankness of discussion, and the interchange of views
  and friendly criticism, have marked the meetings. If there have been
  exceptions, the shock that was produced has recalled  better feelings,
  or better judgment. It is certainly true, that as far  as a man's re- 
lx              ADDRESS OF  THE PRESIDENT.
searches and discoveries are comprehensible in his day, he receives
full credit for tbem, especially if he ask little and is patient. Conten-
tion about  priority, or contention at all, is as a general rule unne-
cessary ; where it becomes personal, it disgusts, and reacts  against
him who indulges in the personality. It is difficult to avoid contro-
versy; but, if obviously forced on one, the defence finds itself strong
in sympathy. We have not been without examples of the good effect
of submitting to  scientific discussion and decision, pretensions, the
reality of which the  author did not, and could not doubt, but which
had been doubted by others. What triumph greater than that of our
Cincinnati brother, when the committee of the Association reported
so strongly in favor of the admirable method of recording right as-
censions and declinations. Truth triumphed through his love for it!
What a triumph for American science, when the "American method "
of observing is adopted at Greenwich! The contribution, by whom-
soever made, by however many shared, is  a contribution to the glory
of the country. The  generous award  of credit to our country, by
this  name,  by the illustrious astronomer of Greenwich, is not the
less  honorable  to him  than to us. Let us show  ourselves worthy of
the spirit, by sinking all personal views  in a general  contribution
to the American  method. If the Association is worth any thing,  it
should be adequate to this result :  let it be the  test.
  To our meetings each member brings his contribution ;  gathered
from the land or the  sea, the earth, the air, the  heavens, the spirit,
each one lays his offering on the altar  of truth. How little, when
under the influence of this spirit, seem contentions for special lines
of research, the interference in special pursuits, the covetous desire
to enter a particular path, and the determination to jostle the votary
who is following  it, rather than not to  occupy it  exclusively. The
realm is boundless ; the paths are numerous :  each one is wide.
  Let  there be no contention, brother, between thee and me !  Let
there be rather a generous  and eager urging forward, each of the
other, to the good which we all seek. Warmed by the glow of gene-
rous sympathy, let us find our zeal kept alive  by association, and
show that the bond of scientific brotherhood is worthy of christian
men, in a christian land, of  the faith which we  profess in time and
of our hope in eternity.