CELEBRATIONS IN HONOR OF THE DARWIN CENTENARY
The most notable celebrations of Darwin's birth and of the fiftieth anniversary of the "Origin of Species" are the exercises of the Linnean Society of London, held on July 1 of last year, and the celebrations to be held at Cambridge in June next. The Darwin-Wallace celebration of the Linnean Society was noted at the time in this journal, and a reproduction was shown of a medal struck in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation to the society of the papers on natural selection by Darwin and Wallace. These papers were reproduced in the issue of The Popular Science Monthly for November, 1901. The celebrations at Cambridge in June will last several days, and some three hundred universities and learned societies throughout the world will be represented by delegates.
While, as is becoming, the two most elaborate commemorations of the Darwin centenary have been arranged in his own country, celebrations have been more general in the United States than in Great Britain. The most notable exercises were arranged by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and held at Baltimore on January 1. Professor E. B. Poulton, probably the most distinguished living representative of the theory of natural selection, came from England as the guest of the association to make the opening address, and this was followed by a series of papers giving an account of the state of research in the biological sciences based on the doctrine of evolution. These papers are about to be published for the association in a memorial volume by Messrs. Henry Holt and Company.
The commemorative exercises that were perhaps next in interest were held in New York City on Darwin's birthday. The New York Academy of Sciences presented to the American Museum of Natural History a heroic bust of Darwin in bronze by Mr. William Couper, illustrations of which are reproduced in this number of the Monthly. The addresses made on this occasion are printed above. At Columbia University, on the same day, a series of lectures on Charles Darwin and his influence on science was begun, the opening address being printed in this memorial issue.
An equally notable series of lectures on Darwin's influence is being given at Chicago, and commemorative ceremonies and addresses have been arranged not only in large centers, such as Boston and Philadelphia, but also at universities throughout the country these include Michigan, Cornell, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Iowa State College, Georgia, Brown, Wesleyan and other institutions. In some cases the celebrations extended over several days and as many as ten or more papers and addresses were given.
