Book Description

Excerpt from Address by Frederic Wars Putnam: The Retiring President of the American Association for the Advancement-of-Science, Columbus Meeting Fifty-First Anniversary, August, 1899 While engaged in writing the address that I am to read to you this evening, the sad news readied me of the death, on July 31, of our President of five years ago, Doctor D. G. Brinton. Although not unexpected, as his health had been failing since he was with us at the Boston meeting where lie took his always active part in the proceedings of Section H, and gave his wise advice in our general council, yet his death affects me deeply. I was writing on a subject we had often discussed in an earnest but friendly manner He believed in an all-pervading psychological influence upon man's development, and claimed that American art and culture were autochthonous, and that all resemblances to other parts of the world were the results of corresponding stages in the development of man; while I claimed that there were too many root coincidences with variant branches to be fully accounted for without also admitting the contact of peoples. Feeling his influence while writing, I had hoped that he would be present to-night, for I am certain that no one would have more readily joined with me in urging a suspension of judgment, while giving free expression to opinions, until the facts have been worked over anew, and more knowledge attained. His eloquent tongue is silent and his gifted pen is still, but I urge upon all who hear me to-night to read liis two addresses before this Association: one as Vice-President of the Anthropological section in 1887, published in our 36th volume of Proceedings, the other as Retiring President in 1895, published in our 44th volume. In these addresses he has in his usual forceable and comprehensive manner presented his views of American anthropological research and of the aims of anthropology. Dr. Brinton was a man of great mental power and erudition. He was an extensive reader in many languages, and his retentive memory enabled him to quote readily from the works of others. He was a prolific writer, and an able critic of anthropological literature the world over. Doing little as a field archaeologist himself, he kept informed of what was done by others through extensive travels and visits to museums. By his death American anthropology has suffered a serious loss, and a great scholar and earnest worker has been taken from our Association. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.