The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 19

THE BBOOKLTK DAIIiT EAaiiE SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 1894. TWEKTY FOTJR PAGES. 19 American archaeologists. He was born In ests compelled him to relinquish this and de vote himself to oil digging. His theory Is special problems of Interest.

Over these departments a council or supreme executive body exercises immediate supervision'. The secret of the success of the asociation has lain In the faot that It was not organized to establish nrtv Rnlnntlfir ttmnrv nr nrnmnlrr.atA nnv SCIENTIFIC LIGHTS. This is no doubt partly because of tho groat facilities afforded at Princeton for Western fossil hunting expeditions, but also largely on account of Professor Scott's undonlablo abilities as a student of natural history and evolution. Although of New Jersey parentage ho was born in Cincinnati. In 185S, and graduated atPrinceton in 1877.

He thou went abroad and studied with T. H. Huxley whito with years and crinkling In funny little curls at tho back of his head, eyes that look with humorous kindliness on the observer, an odd, rather straggling, chin beard, contrasting with a skin of the hue of parchment, tho flguro dressed in a sober suit of black, with a small black tie, and a black slouch hat on tho head and you have before you tho man whose text books every high school lad and collegian In the country has conned for his dally tasks. One of the greatest minds of America in tho oddest physical frame imaginable. No man is loved more than Professor Le Conto for his goodness of heart and real benevolence.

He came to tho convention this year professedly to get tho scientists to go out to San Francisco next summor and if a half faro rate can bo secured he will undoubtedly succeed. Professor Le Conte is of Southern birth. Ho has served In tho confederate army and, in fact, he used to make modicines for tho Johnny Robs as government chemist. His ancestry is Huguenot and his father was a man with a great love of natural history. He removed to Liberty county, in the early part of this century to toko personal charge of a large estate and there his son, Joseph, was born on February 26, 1823.

He attended the neighborhood schools, but out of a dozen teachers he only romombers favorably the work of Aloxander H. Stephens, afterward the vice president of the confederacy. Joseph Le Conte had tho best of educational advantages. Ho received his A. B.

degree at tho University of Georgia in 1841, got his medical sheepskin at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in 1845, and five years later he studied natural history under Professor Agassiz at Cambridge. He had practiced medicine a little while, but his tastes ran to pure science, and he filled several scientific chairs In Southern universities before the war. During the rebellion tho confederate government appointed him chemist of tho laboratory for the manufacture of medicines and afterward chemist of the nitre and mining bureau, where, no doubt, he displayed as much zeal in devising means to Chester county, May 13, 1837. He graduated from Yale in 1858, and aftorward took a medical degree at Jefferson Medical college. Dr.

Brinton served in the army as surgeon and surgeon in chief in tho Second division, Elovonth corp3. At the close of the war he was breveted lieutenant colonel and honorably discharged. Ho was superintendent of schools In Qulncy and Springfield, 111., for a time, and then settled in Philadelphia, where he became editor of tho Medical and Surgical Reporter and the Quarterly Compendium of Medical Science. He also edited a series of medical text books known as Naphoy'a "Modern Thcrapeu TBOTZ.BS0H E. X.

COPE, Paleontologist. tics." In 1884 ho was elected professor of ethnology and archaeology in tile Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Ho Is also president of the Numismatic and Antiquarian society of the same city. Of late Dr. Brinton has been connected with lecturing and instructing at tho University of Pennsylvania and was the editor of the archaeology column in Science.

A groat deal of Dr. Brlnton's best work has been done in tho study of the languages, institutions and arts of the aboriginal tribes of North America. He has published several volumes on this subject and has essayed tho remarkable task of making a collection of the writings of aboriginal American authors, thus putting the poetry and prose of the red Indian into type for almost the first time. EX PBESIDENT WILLIAM HARKNESS, ASTKpNOMER. It is a curious coincidence that Dr.

William Harkness, whom Dr. Brinton succeeds in office, was born in the same year as his predecessor. Professor Harkness first saw the light in Ecclefechan, Scotland, famous as the birthplace of Carlyle. He was tho son of the Rev. James H.

Harkness, a respectod minister of tho Presbyterian faith, who settled in America and was pastor for a long term of years of the Third Presbyterian church in Jersey City. William Harkness studied at first at Lafayette and afterward at Rochester university, where his father was stationed as pastor. Leaving college in 1858 he graduated in medicine four years later and was appointed aide In the United States naval observatory at Washington. He was in the army as surgeon at the second battle of Bull Run and the attack on Washington. He was then commissioned professor of mathematics In the United States navy with the relative rank of lieutenant commander.

In a cruise to South Amerl POLYTECHItlC INSTITUTE HEADQUARTERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. and prominent in one or of its sclen tlflc departments. WHAT BROOKLYN HAS DONE FOR THE BCIESTIST8; The cordiality with the citizen! oi Brooklyn havo welcomed ths iat convention Bclentists speaks weii for the intelligence the people and the public spirit of tho leading men of the city. After the meeting which was held In the council chamber last June a subscription fund to defray local expenses wan opened by the citizens committee and at ones met with immediate and hearty response. Without tho usual bogging which in analogous cases often serves to draw money from unwilling coffers, men of means came forward and handed in their subscriptions until two days before the convention the actual amount subscribed had reached $4,400.

President Fella Campbell of tho People's Tru3t company acted treasurer and Chairman Henry W. Maxwell of the executive and finance committoe, together with Professor Georgo W. Plympton, the secretary, arranged for tho collection ol the subscriptions. Last month association headquarters wera opened in tho offico of the Brooklyn institute, 502 Fulton street. Professor Hooper had charge of a good deal of the correspondenco, while Mr.

E. T. Johnson, formerly employed the Brooklyn instltuto, looked after accommodations for the delegates. A fow days ago William II. Ingersoll was appointed to assi3t Profejdor Putnam with the registry.

Mr. Hamilton Ormshae, a local newspaper man, was made official press agent of the convention, and the work of reporting the proceed ings so simplified that all the reporters of th Now York and Brooklyn papers were enabled get their material at a central press headquarters In the Poly institute. As a consequence, tho newspapers have printed mora matter about this convention than any of Its predecessors. All the pros3 arrangements were in charga a local press committee, composed of a representative newspaper man from every paper in New York and Brooklyn, and el which Mr. Herbert F.

Gunnison of the Eagle was elected chairman. Tho committer labored early and late to get the doings of the convention before the public in intelligible and attractive form. Tho local committee has aimed to do everything within its power to mako the wheels life run easy for the visiting delegates. Brooklyn might, Indeed, have struck the visitors as a fin de slecle land of lotos eating and indoleuco, if the committee had but thought provido each delegate with a map of tho perplexing cross streets around the heights, but that they have probably reserved for the scientists' next visit. Smoking room, free telephone and messenger service, registry of boarding houses and hotels, free excursions down the bay, up the Hudson and into Long Island sound, cool and convenient meting halls and a public reception, at which the wives and daughters of Brooklyultes have been introduced to the men science, are some of the features this unusually thoughtful committee have provided.

Professor Plympton, the secretary of the committee, has been identified with educational work here for more than a quarter, ot century. As lecturer, teacher, scientific editor, he has accomplished ns much in his day most men would map out for two or three lifo times. Professor Plympton is now professor of physical science in the Polytechnic, and director of night schools at Cooper Union. His life has been devoted to the study of engineering and the problems connected with It. He was born in Northam, Massachusetts, in 3827 and graduated at Troy Polytechnic.

He took post graduate studies and became Instructor there, and later he spent ten years PBESIDENT TRUMAN J. BACKUS, Paccur Institute. teaching in the Btate normal schools et Albany and Trenton, N. J. He came to Brooklyn in the sixties.

Professor Plympton made some of tho first borings for Chief Engineer Itoobllng on the sites selected for the piers of the Brooklyn bridge. For a short time also ho was engineer of the little city of Uorgen. N. which was afterward merged into Jersey City. He tells how at one period he used to lecture to tho "Poly" boys in tho daytime, write his editorials for Van Nos trand's Engineering Magazine from 4 to 7 in the afternoon, and then conduct his Cooper Union classt a in the evening.

Saturdays, it ij fair to presume, were reserved for his duties as an active engineer. It is needless to sound the praises of Professor Hooper to Brooklyn people, but the visitors will be interested to know something about him. Professor Hooper is a Yankee by birth. He was born in New Hampshire and after receiving hih educition engaged in teach Ing and became professor in the Polytechnic institute. Ho left this place a few years aga in the effort to resuscitate the moribund Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and make it a living force In the community.

He enlisted, all the school teachers in his work. By some magic known only to himself scientists and savants from all over the country ha induced to come to Brooklyn to lecture and In a comparatively short period he had increased the membership of the institute to several thousand and had a large number of flourishing departments actively at work. One secret of Professor Hooper's success has been his accessibility and hlK willlnijnesH to lend an ear to every proposal In tho line of education. "1 am not my own." he said tiie other day to a reporter who thanked him for a half hour's interview. "I knew that when I entered upon the work of the Brooklyn institute and I expect calls upon my time.

The next twe weeks," he added, with a sort of doubtful smile, "will be a perfect bedlam for me." While Mayor Schieren in his ex otticla capa 1 pbofks'Sor c.Eonor. w. I'Ltmpton, Becrotary Citizens' Committee. ity has boon at the head of tho citizens' committee tho active work, of course, has fallen on the shoulders of tho vice president. President Truman J.

Bac kus, and Henry J. Maxwell, chairman of the executive committoe. Both these men are largely responsible for the complete and final success of the arrangements. JSFKCTE!) CATTLK. 'i'lie Atiorncy Ucut ral I Order Srscctiotl.

Topka, Ebd. Ausuet IS Atorney Gtnoral Little has ordered tho attorneys of Linn and Anderson counties to prosecute tho Missouri, Kansas Tss Railroad company for briujj inc; cnttlo infected with Tcs. cattle levor into th state. He boon iisfortmv.l lv tho live stock sanitary board that within tho past tweivo months infoeie.l cattle veto ua loaded by thu Missouri, Kansas Texas in Liun eouutv and ft' rw aril driven into Airier son county, and that in eonse'juonco tho native cattlo have bono mo infected and the farmers are suffering groat loss. tub rno.H tows.

Polux City. August 13 Two dissolute Dnlton to live in tho outskirts ot that place a fow days no. Last night about llfty women raided a b.irness store, got nt the whivs. wout to the house and drove tho women through tho streets, lashing them unmercifully out into the country, warning them not to coju back. mm, now accentod by all experts in tnose regions.

ProfeEsor White Is a short man and rather I stout. He lias plenty of friends. His suc cesses havo left him as unaffected and genuine as ever, and It la rarely that ho can be In duced to talk about himself. The most pionilnr nt offico he has held has been as treasurer of tho Geological Society of North America. CHAIRMEN OF Next to the executive officers of the association the vice presidents of the various sections attract tho most Interest and attention.

The little federal states which thoy rule have thjtr own government, rules and regulations like the parent association from which they sprung. A good chairman can guide discussion, stoor off tbc rocks of fruitless talk and ami argumont and keep things moving by tho celerity with which ho conducts business. There aro nine vice presidents and they preside over nine scientific departments, from mathematics and astronomy to mechanical science and engineering. To be chosen chairman of a Eectlon stamps a man as being In tho front rank of American scholars and it is an honor that does not often go begging. This year there were two vacancies in tho chairmanships when the association began its sessions.

Professor Samuel H. Scuddcr, zoology, had resigned, and Vice Prosldent Georgo C. Comstock, of the section on mathematics and astronomy, was unavoidably absent. Among the rice presidents who possess interesting personalities is Professor Samuel F. Calvin of the geological section.

Professor Calvin is state geologist of Iowa and professor of geology and biology in the Iowa state university. He is a man In middle life and has PR0FEBSOR I). MARTIN, Geologist been for many years engaged in the study of paleontology. More recently he has been at work on a geological survey of Iowa. His paper on tho Niobrara cbalk beds was read labt week and was of great scientific and practical interest.

Professor Henry Farquhar's name is known to every student of economic science and statistics, as is likewise that of Professor Lucien M. Underwood In botany. The other chairmen of note are each men of note in their respective HneB. THE AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. "The large number of auxiliary societies which have sprung up around the American association in recent yearB have in my opinion considerably crippled Its usefulness," said a prominent geologist the other day.He meant that the special societies bad largely taken up the time and attention that might otherwise have been devoted torthe sections.

Whatever may be thought of this statoment, it cannot be denied that the auxiliary societies just now are in a most flourishing condition. The meetings of the Geological Society of America the sign at tho entrance to the Packer institute looked a little ways off like "The Geologicals of America" were pretty well attended, but what was the most notable was tho keen interest taken by the members in tho proceedings. This society, the writer was told, numbered on its roll of membership about every geologist of any note In the United States; the exceptions could be counted on the fingers. Professor Nathaniel S. Shaler of Cambridge presided at the geolo gists' meeting.

Professor Shaler Is the au thor of the readable popular art.lc.le3 on geology In the Atlantic Monthly. He is also on the commission to improve the highways of Massachusetts, for which a large appropriation was made by tho state legislature. After a paper had been road by some member on the floor, If Professor Shaler dissented from the views of the writer and hud opinions of his own to express, he would immediately arise and favor the society with one of his clear, practical talks on the subject, clearing away the underbrush and tangle weed and setting forth his ideas In the most luminous HENRY W. MAXWELL, Chairman Local Executrvo Committee. way.

These talks by Professor Shaler got to bo a feature of the meetings. Somo of the societies that met hero had mighty curious purposes in view that is, to to the untutored mind. The Economic Entomologists, for instunco. Tho namo was an appalling one to thu uneducated, and it is likely that many newspapor reuders didn't get much furtbor. Those who did discovered that the Economic Entomologists were folks who studied insect life in its relations to the crops and economic products generally.

"Death on bugs" might be a good motto for this society, for it3 members are constantly engaged in dcvsing means to exterminate the Insect pests which worry tho farmers of the country. All the official bug exterminators that Ur.cle Sam employs in his department of agriculture endeavored to attend this meeting. The discussions were interesting to the members, and some good, practical suggestions were carried away as tho result of the conference. Tho president of the society is Mr. L.

O. Howard of Washington, D. C. The multitude of all sorts of societies with different objects in view was rather bewildering. Tho preservation of the forests, the promotion of engineering education, tho promotion of agriculture, tho perfecting of a hotter state weather service were some of the objects for which investigators and workers had come from points far and near.

All these societies had one good effect upon tho subsequent convention they have gathered here In jjrooklyn a greater variety of In different lines of work than would probably havo come here to a series of meetings la the Interest of pure science only. NOTED LOCAL SCIENTISTS. A group of throe scientists of local repute includes Dr. H. Carrington Boltou, formerly of Trinity college; Albert R.

Leeds, professor of chemistry at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, and Daniel S. Martin, profeHsor of geolugy at Rutgr rs female college. Now York city. Dr. Bolton was, in ii s2, vice presldont ot the section on chemistry and a few years later secretary of the council and permanent secretary of the association.

Ho formerly occupied a chair at Trinity college. Hartford, but of lato years his work has been chiefly as an export chemist. Hu has done some important work for the government and the Sralth soulnn institution and has also been quite proiniuont in the Now York Academy of Scl ences. Professor Albert R. Leeds has a wide repu tatlon as a chemist.

His specialty Is water chemistry and his studies take him Into the interesting ueld of the water supply of cities, its purity, mineral solutions, etc. Professor Daniel S. Martin is a well known figure among Now York and Brooklyn educators. Ho was born in New York city in 1S42 and graduated from tho University of the City of New York in 18G3. For moro than i U.

qUUl UL UC UUA UCUU UCUYL'iy connected with educational work at Rutgers college, which Is, by the way, one of tho oldest, if not the very oldeBt, institution for the higher education of girls and women in the United States. Professor Martin has of late taken considerable interest in the Brooklyn institute, of which he is one of the membors of of as at by to of of to of a as i I hard and fast doctrine or dogma. The utmost freedom of individual opinion and belief pro vails and tho society is rather a band of widely scattered workers in cordial sympathy with each other than a close corporation where heresy is a crime and. outspokenness likely to be rewarded by ostracism. Thus every scientists looks forward to the meeting time as a red letter day in the year and returns home with a richer storo of ideas gained by contact with other minds.

The cuts in the following series of sketches are mainly from photographs made under the immediate supervision of Mr. Thomas W. Taylor, of Gardiner the Fulton street photographers. These photographs comprise tho most accurate and woll executed collection of pictures thus far made of Brooklyn'a distinguished visitors, and aro for sale at moderate prices. PROFESSOB PUTNAM IB OF AOE.

The people of Brooklyn have had a good chance, within tho last fow days, to see the scientists actually at work. The driving wheel of the whole convention, and indeed of tho association throughout the year, is found in the person of Professor Frederic W. Putnam of Harvard college, permanent secretary. A short, rather thick set man; with a beard that is turning very gray, a pair of intelligent twinkling blue eyes, a figure clad in clothes of the ordinary cut, a shining black alpaca coat and the head crowned by a broad brimmed straw hat such is the external appearance of the executive organizer and manager of the affairs of the association. Early, before every convention assembles, Professor Putnam may bo found on the ground with his register book, his cash box and his staff of women assistants.

No sooner does a member of the association arrive than he hands his PAST PRESIDENT WILLIAM BARENESS. dues, amounting to $3 yearly, to the professor, enters his name, professional occupation and residence on a card, and receives his badge, entitling him to all the privileges of the meeting. More likely than not he Is from Wayback college, in the interior of some far Western state, and he wants to read a paper on the tusks of the North Dakota mastodons, or on how the Oskeecoochee has changed its bed fifty feet to the east In the last fifty years. He hands his paper, with title and abstract prepared, to Professor Putnam, who receives it with all the other papers from scientists little and big and passes it on to the council for their inspection and Judgment. When the convention has closed Professor Putnam accomplishes a Protean like transformation and reappears before the public as the editor of the association's annual volume.

He acts as librarian, too, and in the absence of the council his is the hand that guides to success or failure. "You are of age?" humorously queried a brother scientist of the professor at his headquarters in the Polytechnic, the other day. "Yes," answered Professor Putnam, "I am just finishing my twenty first year as permanent secretary of the association." This long term of service shows how Professor Putnam's services are valued by his fellows in the society. To a reporter the other day ho gave an interesting little sketch of his professional career. "If ever there was anybody entitled to call himself an American," he said, "I am.

The first Putnam came to Massachusetts bay In 1686, and the Appletons, from whom on my mother's side I am descended, are also an old Pilgrim family. The Putnams settled about Salem and engaged chiefly in farming, while nsomsssoa herhan lerot taiuchild, General Secretary. the Appletons have been more identified with mercantile pursuits." Professor Putnam was born at the homo of his ancestors in Salem in 1S39. He went to Harvard college at the age of sixteen and soon attracted the favorable notice of Agassiz. After a short time young Putnam became an assistant to the great naturalist, and later an instructor.

Strange to say he never graduated from his alma mater. Working actively in her scientific department the current of original research and investigation carried him away from school life. In later years he succeeded to the chair of archaeology and ethnology In Harvard college. He was also chosen curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnolocy. The greatest honor of his life, however, was to come at the world fair in Chicago, when he was chosen chief of the department of ethnol ogy of the Columbian exposition.

Here he labored unremittingly and with such buccoss as to attract the attention of distinguished ethnologists on both continents. Professor Putnam Is a frequent traveler on expeditions to add to the treasures of the Peabody mu seum. The list of learned societies he belongs to would stretch half way from the Eagle of fice to the bridge. Among tho best known is the Boston Natural Academy of Science, which he has served as president. PRESIDENT D.

O. BMKTOn'S CAREER. While tho office of permanent secretary is the one that involves the greatest amount of hard work, the honor of being president is usually assigned to the most distinguished savants in each of the branches of learning. It is a common saying that tho ex presidents Mr 9 PROFESSOR JOSEPH LECONTE, Geologist. of the association are as good as dead after their retirement from office, and indeed, it is too much the custom for them to rest on the laurels of past honors without further participations in the meetings.

This is not true of all, however, as witness tho venerable Professor JoBeph LeConte of Berkeley, and his friends hope it will not be true of Dr. Daniel Garrison Brinton, who was elected last year president for the Brooklyn sesalon. Dr. Brinton stands In the very front rank of The Army of Progress Encamped in Brooklyn To day. MAlNi MhN Op MAKK.

IN THE GATHERING. The Hank and Flic Recruited From Jlalno to California nni Canada to the Southern Stutes The Mokenp and Chiirnclcristics or tho American Association Professor Frederic V. rntnam, Driving Wheel of tho Convention Sketches or I'residents Erlnton and Hnrkness, Secretary ra'relilld, Professor LeConte iinil Other Lenders What Brook lyn Has Done to Entertain the Visitor. For tho past few days Brooklyn has been Invaded by an army over ono thousand strong, recruited from Maine to California and from Ottowa to the Gulf of Mexico, which baa taken possession of her hotels, 5ccupied her public halls and filled the atreots with talk as foreign to the average citizen as the patola of a Yorkshireman in a London This army has not marched with banners or paraded the streets with beating of drums or furnished lurid sensation for the Imaginative mind of the newspaper reporter to work upon. It has met for the most part in small flections or groups in Institute schoolrooms.

It has had a free interchange of views, and Its emotions have been most excited by objects which the everyday, bustling moneymaker of New York and Brooklyn looks upon with cold indifference. It win break up next Wednesday with little of the noiso and hustle which accompanies tho dispersing of great assemblages, and its most distinguished members will silently fold their tents and steal away without any of the fanfare or bursts of acclamation which mark the pro fiicDa ux suiHier or statesman. Yet these militant scientists. Justly so called, because theirs is a battle to conquer the forces of nature, have had a more Important part to play in the making of modern civilization than the actual fighter or the diplomat. Like Atlas of the myth, whom nobody could see simply because he held up the world on his shoulders, the scientists of America and their fellows, a goodly proportion of whom are represented ia Brooklyn, are chiefly responsible for the universal hum of mechanical industry and the latest triumphs of steam and electricity in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The backbone of industrial progress, they have themselves kept in the background, while common mankind has reaped the fruits of their labors. Rarely is 3uch a glimpse of this army PBOFESSOR F. W. TUTNAJt, Permanent Secretary. ef workers afforded as at their yearly national convention, now gathered here, and it Is possible at this time to learn its true significance and appreciate its personnel from the white haired veteran who studied under Agassiz to the youngest subaltern out of college.

The scientific regiments, which are marshaled here under the American Association for the Advancement of Science, seem at first connected by very slight ties. A college professor at Cambridge, a mining export in West Virginia, an engineer in New York city, an astronomical observer at Washington, see nothing or next to nothing of each other for fifty one weeks of tho year, and on the fifty second they come together, elect officers and then adjourn to their several departments to discuss thomes as varied as the strata of the coal fields and the revolution of the fixed star Arcturus. The rank and file of the membership shifts from year to year. Whenever a scientific man gets interested in a subject the association is taking up he pays his dues and becomes a member for the annual meeting, frequently dropping oft after the session is over. Men come and men go.

Distinguished savants are elected president and retire on their honors, but somehow the association keeps on and maintains its prestige as the most influential scientific body in America. Scarcely a student of natural science on the continent but Is in active sympathy with it. Scarcely a school. or college on the very outskirts of civilization but hears the echoes of tho discoveries and theories made known at its annual meeting. The beginnings of the association date back to 1S48, when it was organized in Philadelphia vith a membership roll of 401 persons.

Its first presldont was William C. Redfleld of new orn, wno was long ana nonoraoiy identified with the New York Lyceum or Academy of Natural Sciences. Among its earlier presidents wore Professor Louis Agassiz, Joseph Henry, A. D. Bacho, the late President F.

A. P. Barnard of Columbia college, and Professor James D. Dana of Yale, and State Geologist PBOFESSOB DAOTEL 0. BRINTOS.

James Hall of Albany, honorable survivors of a band of intellectual giants most of whom have since gone to Join the great majority. The association grew apace in the fifties and within six years increased its numbers to a round thousand. Most prominent American scientists were included In its ranks. Its meeting places ranged from Philadelphia, Cambridge and New Haven as far West as Cincinnati and Cleveland and South as Charleston. During the civil war no meetings were held from August 1, 1860, to August IB, 1866, but when peace was restored the annual sessions of the association were resumed, with a small attendance at first, but afterward with gratifying success.

The association first went west of tho Mississippi rivor 1SG7, when It met at Burlington, la. The next year the members visited Chicago and the following they met at the home of Professor V. W. Putnam, Salem, Mass. In the summer of 1882 the scientists met in Montreal with their English cousins, the members of the British Scientific association, who had crossed the ocean to see the sights of the new world.

On this occasion thoy numbered, with their guests. 937 persons in actual attendance. These figures were surpassed, however, at Philadelphia tivo years later, when the total attendance, including members of the British association and other foroign guests, aggregated 1,261. Tho largest meeting of recent years was at Washington, in 1831, when 653 persons wore present. Tho total membership rose that year above two thousand.

Begun very modeBtly at the start, tho work of tho association has broadened and amplified until to day each of Its departments of science has Its executive officer, keeps its own record of proceedings and discusses its own DB. II. CARBINOTON BOLTOX, Now York City. in London and Francis Balfour at Cambridge. He next visited Heidelberg, and worked in comparative anatomy, receiving his Ph.D.

degree from that university. On his return to the United States he was chosen an instructor at Princeton and was elected full professor in June, 1884. Professor Scott's researches have been mostly concernod with the vertebrae fossils of the Western states. He told the writer he had discovered in his expeditions out there a great many missing links necessary In working out the details of evolution. 'Any traces of primeval man?" was asked him when this conversation took place.

"I don't pay any attention to man," quickly responded Professor Scott, "he is far too uninteresting a bruto for me. He has too much mind for one thing: My studies are with the anatomy and physical structure of tho extinct mammals. "I have been on ten expeditions to this region which is the richest of its kind in the world, and I have traveled through every state from tho Missouri river to tho Pacific ocean. I did not go this year, but my assistant has just sent me a shipment of three tons of skeleton, fossils and other scientific curiosities found in the West during the present summer. "How do the scientific men of this country compare with those of Great Britain?" "I believe our American association has men who are fully the equals of British scientists, though we have not as many first rate men as they.

In a new country the materl. ahvays strnly developed and scientific culture does not wield as broad an Influence as in older countries. Still when the two associations met together some' years ago, some of the British members, I bclie remarked that the personnel of the American association seemed to be even ahead of their own. England, you know, is far behind Germany in matters of scientific attainment Professor Scott carries with him a short briar pipe and a package of tobacco and It has been a frequent sight tho past week to see him smoking on the streets. The writer asked him how he acquired tho habit.

"On the Western plains. When a man has ridden fifty miles all day without a mouthful to eat and has got home to his camp at night he sits down In front of his camp fire and gorges himself with food until he can't eat any more. Then he lies under the stars and thinks and smokes till ho becomes drowsy and goes to bed. In those solitary regions tobacco becomes a great friond and one feels a delight in smoking realizod nowhere else." PROFESSOR C. WRITE.

"When I started my scientific work in the Pennsylvania oil regions." said ProfnsHnr C. White to the writer the other day, "the Standard Oil experts made fun of thp gtsts, and tho anti clinial theory of gas and oil was greatly ridiculed. Now the Standard Oil company has its own geologist, and scientific men are constantly called upon to state their conclusions about the desirability of oil and gas prospecting. Here is a letter I received the other day from a Pennsylvania coal dealer, asking me about the name and characteristics of a certain drift in the coal belt, and it is only a sample of those I receive every few day3." The letter in question wa3 addressed to tho state geologist of West Virginia, and asked questions which meant hundrers of dollars to tne writers business enterprises, and which only an expert In geoloev. like Pro fessor White, could answer.

It is interesting to study the mental make up and character of a man who has got the coal and oil fields of the Aleshanles at his fingers' ends, and who, ono is pleased to fancy. can command weaun in mucn tne same fashion as the wand of the Arabian magician. Professor White Is a very modest man, and his achievements have not been noised about like those of many other men. Yet he stands at the head of the coal experts of the eastern half of the continent. He has revolutionized tho metaoas of prospecting by the establishment of tho anti clinial theory, and what is more, he has put his theory to tho test and helped organize a company which is working the rich Mannington regions of West Virginia.

Ho told an Eagle man the other day something about his work and tho way he has reached his present position, which may bo interesting to Eaglo readers. He was born in Morgantown, Monjrnlla county, W. in 184S, and was educated In his natlvo town and in the Columbia school of mines. In 1875 S3 ho was attached to the Pennsylvania state surveys and worked out several difficult problems along tho border line of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Ono of those problems wa3 the discrepancy between tho coal beds of the two states which had been reckoned as amounting to about two hundred feet.

This PROFF.SfiOR A. LEEDS, Stevens Institute. discrepancy In the strata nobody could explain and as long as It existed it was impossible to trace the coal fields In their regular and natural order from ono state to another. Professor White showed that the difference was largely the mistake of Ohio geologists ana no reconciled tne coal measures in a complete and convincing way. He has also traced the Pennsylvania coal beds through Wost Virginia and Kentucky.

In 188ft ho was appointed on tho United States survey with headquarters at Washington and prepared bulletin No. 05 on the bituminous coal fields of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Vir ginia. He also discovered tho existence In Pennsylvania of the sallna group of rocks and I established their connection with the great salt deposits at Syracuae and Onondaga. The theory for which Professor White is mainly famous is. in brief, that water, oil and gass preserve own respective level3 in the porous rocks of the earth just the samo as they do in the open air.

That is. wator, being the heaviest, will naturally stay in the depressions or syncltncs of a geologic formation, while oil and gas will seek tho higher levels of the elevations or anticlines. Thus tho prospector may reasonably oxpect to find water in the valleys, oil on the slopes and ga3 on tho summit of tho hills. Professor White put this theory into practice. He went twonty fivo miles from any oil or gas well3, into the heart of a mountainous region, and made his borings In strict accordance with the theory he had promulgated.

Tho result was a gratifying success. The Mannington regions were opened up, companies were organized and Professor White was retained as geological expert and manager of the borings. Ho had been for some years occupying a chair in the State Unlvorsity of West Virginia, but Increasing business lnter 1 A Wm0 PROFESSOR WILLIAM B. SCOTT, Prinoeton College. blow up Yankees as he afterward has done in elucidating the geology of the Pacific slope.

In 1808 Professor Le Conte was called to the University of California, then about to be organized at Berkeley. For twenty five years his work has lain at the western end of the contlnent.Durlng vacations he has been In the habit of taking frequent rambles with favor ite students and assistants through the Sierras and Oregon, Washington Territory and British Columbia. Ho has published several works, of which the most Important are his wonderfully clear and luminous text books on geology, a work on tho relations of philosophy and religion and a volume on "Sight" in the International Science. Pro fesGor LeConte is not a narrow specialist. He is a very broad minded! maa and it is said PROFESSOR I.

C. wniTE, Geologist of West Virginia. of him that until he was 30 his studies took no special direction in one branch of science more than another. Geology, physics and tho relations science to the abstruser problem of human thought all have their attraction for him, and he has made a mark In each of those three fiold3. FliOFESSOR EDWARD DRINKER COPE.

Among the noted men who are attending the convention from the University of Pennsylvania Is Professor Edward Drinker Cope. Professor Cope is tho grandson of Thomas Pym Cope, one of the executors of the Gi rard estato and a trustee of GIrard college. Ho was born in Philadelphia, July 2S, 1840. He was educated at tho University of Pennsylvania and took courses In comparative anatomy In Philadelphia, tho Smithsonian institution and abroad. For a tlnio Professor Cope occupied the chair of natural science at Ilavorford college.

Later he was employed as paleontologist to tho United States geological survey, and In this capacity he discovered the fossil remains of 1,000 extinct and as many recent vertebrae. Professor Cope continued his work as a paleontologist after he became connected with the University of Pennsylvania. For many years he was secretary and curator of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. In 1S79 the Rlgby gold medal of tho Royal Geological society of Great Britain was conferred upon him and In 18S4 he was president of tho section of biology of tho American Association for the Advancement of Science. His 350 scientific papers, according to good authority, form a systematic record of the development of paleontology in tho United States.

Professor Cope lectured before the Brooklyn Ethical association last winter. Outwardly PRESIDENT L. O. HOWARD, of the Economic Entomologists. he is very unassuming in his manner, but interesting aB a talker on scientific themes.

PROFESSOR WILLIAM B. SCOTT. A very companionable man Is Professor William B. Scott of Princeton collego, who has been attending both the sessions of the Geological society and the American associa tion. He is quite a young man, too, but within tho last few years ho has advanced very rapidly to the front as a paleontologist.

IB' ca on the Monadnock he made observations on terrestrial magnetism In the principal ports and the results were afterward published by the Smithsonian institution. In 1867 Professor Harkness was in the United States hydrographlc office and in 1868 74 he was back in the naval observatory. He discovered the line of tho solar corona at Des Moines, during the total eclipse of August 7, 1869. Dr. Harkness' most notable work has been done in conuoction with the United States government expeditions to observe the transit of Venus.

He was one of tho members of tho commission which went to I'Hobart Town, Tasmania, in 1871. Pen years later he was promoted to the relative rank of captain and in 1882 he fitted out tho second expedition to observe the transit of Venus. He has compiled and reduced the results and scientific men have placed the greatest confidence in his conclusions. He is the inventor of the sperometer caliper, an instrument for measuring the inequality of pivots on astronomical instruments. He has also contrived a device for measuring photographs of the heavens.

Dr. Harkness' learning and breadth of knowledge were well shown In his retiring president's address at the Academy of Music last Thursday evening, GENERAL SECRETARY FAIRCniLB. At the first general session of the association visitors may huve noticed a broad browed, full bearded and rather handsome looking man occupying a place on the platform with the other officers. Old New Yorkers, who are interested in education, had no trouble in identifying this man aa Professor Herman LcRoy Fairchild, a former instructor at Cooper Union and a lecturer on geology in the private schools of the city. Professor Fairchild is one of the most taking men socially of the delegates to the entire convention.

He has made friends wherever he has gone and in his hands has largely come the management of educational affairs successively in tils various placos of residence. When the association was in Rochester two years ago, he managed most of the local details, and likewise in DR. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, Director United States Geological Survey. New York, in 1887, he had mch to do with making the annual meeting of the association a success.

Professor Fairchild was born in Montrose, Susquehanna county. and graduated at Coriiull In 1874. Ho was a pupil there of tho late Professor Charles Frederick Hartt. He taught two years in the Wyoming seminary in the Wyoming valley and then came to New York, wherq he built up a large and profitable scientific industry of his own. This was uo less than lecturing as a specialist in geology and natural history in the many private schools In and about New York.

Ho va3 aftorjvard chosen secretary of the New York academy of sciences and wrote Its history, which was published In book form. In 1SS8 he accepted the chair of geology In the university of Rochester, and there his follow townsmen elected him president of the Rochester academy of sciences. Last year he was secretary to the council of the American association, and this year became its general sec rotary in due course, lie is also the secretary and general executive officer of the Geological society of Amoiica, which numbers practically every noteworthy geologist in America In its roll of members. Professor Fairchlld's original work has been chiefly In the study of fossil coal plants. Of late years be has had so much active administrative work to do that he has not had much time left for the investigations of which he is fond.

At present he is studying the glacial geology of Western New York. PROCESSOR LE CONTE OP CALIFORNIA. No mention of tho personnol of tho convention would be complet.o did It not include Professor Le Conte, one of the loading geologists of America and professor of geology at the University of California. Imagine a tall, rather stoop shouldered old man, his hair www.