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. The subject to which I shall invite your attention this evening is by no means novel, but might better be called perennial or recurrent; for the problem of our earth’s age seems to bear repeated solution without loss of vigor or prestige. It has been a marked favorite, moreover, with presidents and vice-presidents, retiring or otherwise, when called upon to address assemblies whose fields of scientific interest are somewhat diverse--for the reason, I imagine, that while the specialist claims the problem as his peculiar theme of study, he feels that other denizens of the planet in question may not lack interest in the early lore of their estate.