The series of volumes must ever form a work of permanent interest on account of its exhibiting the progress of American science during the long period which it covers. Comparing 1817[3] with 1847, we mark on this subject a very gratifying change. The cultivators of science in the United States were then few–now they are numerous. Societies and associations of various names, for the cultivation of natural history, have been instituted in very many of our cities and towns, and several of them have been active and efficient in making original observations and forming collections. The American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston, and the Academy of Natural Sciences also at Philadelphia, numbered distinguished names among their members, and had published valuable volumes of Transactions before our publication began. The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences had also published a single volume as early as 1813. Since that time the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, the Boston Society of Natural History, the Albany Institute, and the Maryland Academy of Sciences have stood prominent among associations of a like nature, and their memoirs now constitute an important item in our scientific history. Other associations for the departments of history and ethnography have also published memoirs; and we must not omit to mention the American Geological Society, and the Geological Society of Pennsylvania, which has issued one valuable volume.
Of scientific collections we may say, that in the Institution from which we date these remarks, going back only fourteen years from the issuing of our first number, the entire mineralogical and geological collection of the college was transported to Philadelphia in one small box, and there, for lack of information elsewhere, the specimens were named by the late Dr. Adam Seybert, then fresh from the celebrated school of Werner at Freiburg in Germany, perhaps the only man then in this country who could be regarded as a mineralogist scientifically trained. Now, mineralogy and geology are familiar to our legislators and our youth; and the institution which sent forth its little box of unknown mineral treasures, unfolds to its pupils and the world a magnificent collection not surpassed, if equalled, in the United States.
Boston, which at our earliest date presented only the limited collection of the Linnæan Society, now opens to the student a rich and beautiful museum of natural history; and Harvard University at Cambridge has a fine botanical garden under an able and zealous botanist–a well furnished and successful observatory, and a rich collection of minerals and fossils, including a skeleton of the Mastodon, which is rivalled only by the specimen of unexampled magnitude and perfection, in the private museum of Dr. John C. Warren in Boston.
Philadelphia may also boast of her cabinets of natural history, public and private: and one of the noblest collections of birds in the world,[4] bestowed on his country by Mr. Wilson of Delaware, has been, within a few months, added to the valuable collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences at that place.
When we began our Journal, not one of the States had been surveyed in relation to its geology and natural history; now those that have not been explored are few in number. State collections and a United States Museum hold forth many allurements to the young naturalist, as well as to the archæologist and the student of his own race. The late Exploring Expedition with the National Institute, has enriched the capital with treasures rarely equalled in any country, and the Smithsonian Institution recently organized at Washington, is about to begin its labors for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.
It must not be forgotten that the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists–composed of individuals assembled from widely separate portions of the Union–by the seven sessions which it has held, and by its rich volume of reports, has produced a concentration and harmony of effort which promise happy results, especially as, like the British Association, it visits different towns and cities in its annual progress.
Astronomy now lifts its exploring tubes from the observatories of many of our institutions. Even the Ohio, which within the memory of the oldest living men, rolled along its dark waters through interminable forests, or received the stains of blood from deadly Indian warfare, now beholds on one of its most beautiful hills, and near its splendid city, a permanent observatory with a noble telescope sweeping the heavens, by the hand of a zealous and gifted observer. At Washington also, under the powerful patronage of the general government, an excellent observatory has been established, and is furnished with superior instruments, under the direction of a vigilant and well instructed astronomer–seconded by able and zealous assistants.
Here also (in Yale College) successful observations have been made with good instruments, although no permanent building has been erected for an Observatory.
We only give single examples by way of illustration, for the history of the progress of science in the United States, and of institutions for its promotion, during the present generation, would demand a volume. It is enough for our purpose that science is understood and valued, and the right methods of prosecuting it are known, and the time is at hand when its moral and intellectual uses will be as obvious as its physical applications. Nor is it to be forgotten that we have awakened an European interest in our researches: general science has been illustrated by treasures of facts drawn from this country, and our discoveries are eagerly sought for and published abroad.