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Transcriber’s note: Table of Contents added by Transcriber.
Rhythms and Geologic Time 339 The Photography of Sound Waves 354 The Psychology of Red 365 Chapters on the Stars 376 Colonies and the Mother Country (III) 390 Causes of Degeneration in Blind Fishes 397 The Evolution and Present Status of the Automobile 406 Scientific Results of the Norwegian Polar Expedition, 1893-1896 420 Discussion and Correspondence 436 Scientific Literature 439 The Progress of Science 442
NEW YORK AND LONDON MCCLURE, PHILLIPS AND COMPANY 1900
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY MCCLURE, PHILLIPS AND COMPANY.
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.]
[A] Read to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at New York, June 26, 1900, as the address of the retiring President.
Custom dictates that in complying with the rule of the association I shall address you on some subject of a scientific character. But before doing so I may be permitted to pay my personal tribute to the honored and cherished leader of whose loss we are so keenly sensible on this occasion. His kindly personality, the charm which his earnestness and sincerity gave to his conversation, the range of his accomplishment, are inviting themes; but it is perhaps more fitting that I touch this evening on his character as a representative president of this body. The association holds a peculiar position among our scientific organizations of national or continental extent. Instead of narrowing its meetings by limitations of subject matter or membership, it cultivates the entire field of research and invites the interest and coöperation of all. It is thus not only the integrating body for professional investigators, but the bond of union between these and the great group of cultured men and women--the group from whose ranks the professional guild is recruited, through whom the scientific spirit is chiefly propagated, and through whose interest scientific research receives its financial support. Its aims and form of organization recognize, what pure science does not always itself recognize, that pure science is fundamentally the creature and servant of the material needs of mankind, and it thus stands for what might be called the human side of science. Edward Orton, throughout his career as teacher and investigator, was conspicuous for his attention to the human side of science. His most abstract work was consciously for the benefit of the community, and he ever sought opportunity to make its results directly available. In promoting the interests of the people of his adopted State he incidentally accomplished much for a larger community by helping it to an appreciation of the essential beneficence of the scientific study of nature and man. As an individual he was a diligent and successful laborer in the field which the association cultivates, and when the association selected him as its standard-bearer it made choice of one who was peculiarly its representative.