nected with the name of Rogers on the one hand, and with the diffusion and application of scientific training on the other.
A few words must suffice as to the foreign delegates and visitors who were present. Among these were M. Desirée Charnay, of France, eminent as a student of archaeology in both the Old and the New World; Prof. Benjamin Howard and Mr. C. W. Cooke, of London; and Dr. A. Sasse, of Zaandam, Holland. The presidency of the association had very properly been conferred upon Prof. F. W. Putnam, whose name has been so closely connected with the history and work of the body for the past twenty-five years, as its permanent secretary] while the retiring president was, as already stated, Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, one of the six surviving members of the first meeting in 1848.
Passing over, for present purposes, any account of the many scientific papers and addresses of high interest that were presented at this meeting, we return to the history and influence of the association; It was the first national scientific organization, bringing together students and workers in all departments and from all parts of the country, and it still remains the only one. It has grown and broadened with time, as might be expected; it has been divided into a number of sections relating to different branches, and it has come to embrace Canada as well as the United States; so that it is not merely a national but a truly "American association." Twice it has met in cities of the Dominion, having been received with great respect and cordiality in both Montreal and Toronto (1882 and 1889).
When it was first organized, there were local scientific societies of high standing that had done excellent work for many years. Of these, the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia antedates the Revolution, going back to 1769; next came the American Academy, at Boston, 1780; then the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia), the Boston Society of Natural History, the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.; the Lyceum of Natural History of New York (now the New York Academy of Sciences), and others. These had been publishing reports and proceedings, and around them were gathered a large number of able and eminent workers in science. Yale College had become a center of scientific interest, under such men as Silliman, Shepard, and Olmsted; and the American Journal of Science, long spoken of as "Silliman's Journal," was already a medium of general communication among students of Nature. Scientific surveys had been begun in several States, and the great geological and natural history survey of New York was engaging such leaders as Hall, Emmons, Mather, Vanuxem, and De Kay; while the
