Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 78.djvu/627

Rh having its own historic building for its meetings, and the city is generous in its hospitality. The papers presented are of the same high standing and the same mixed character as at Washington.

The spring is also the time chosen for the meetings of some of the state academies of science. A glance at the program of one of these, such as the Michigan Academy of Sciences, shows that it contains an almost bewildering array of papers. These are, however, presented before several sections and thus have a more homogeneous attendance and better chance for discussion. An interesting event this year was the joint meeting of the different scientific and learned societies of California, which will doubtless hereafter become an annual event on the Pacific coast.

The centenary of the birth of John William Draper, which occurred on the fifth of May, was celebrated with adequate ceremonies and addresses by New York University, where he was professor from 1837 until his death in 1882, and where two of his sons were also professors.

Draper was the son of an English Wesleyan clergyman. He came to America at the age of twenty-one, and graduated as doctor of medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1836. His work covered a wide field. He made important researches in chemistry, physics and physiology. He wrote text-books and taught these subjects, being a leader in medical education. He took an important part in the development of two of the most important advances of applied science—electrical telegraphy and photography. Later he turned his attention to philosophical and historical subjects. His history of the intellectual development of Europe and his history of the conflict between religion and science have been widely read and are of great



Miss Dorothy Catherine Draper, taken by her brother. Professor John William Draper, M.D., LL.D., early in 1840. The original daguerreotype is the property of Sir William John Herschel.