10 



ence. He was eighteen years of age, therefore, when the French 

 Revolution terminated with the death of Robespierre. Having 

 received his medical diploma from the Universit}' of Leyden, he 

 practised pharmacy for a short time in Amsterdam and at the 

 Hague. Afterwards he travelled extensively in France, Italy, 

 Germany, and Switzerland, and became the pupil and companion 

 of the celebrated Abbe Rene Just Haiiy, with whom he studied 

 crystallography. In Paris he became the associate of niany of the 

 most eminent scientific men of the day, and was elected in 1810 a 

 correspondent of the Museum of Natural History of France. Two 

 years later we find him in Philadelphia assisting in founding the 

 Academy. Of Dr. Mann we simply know that in 1*198 he was old 

 enough to take an active part in the Irish rebellion, and that 

 before coming to this country he also had spent some time in 

 France seeking aid for his compatriots. Mr. William Maclure, 

 who joined the Academy in June, 1812, and who acted as its 

 second president for more than twenty-two years, was born in 

 Scotland in 1763. Endowed with an eminently philanthropic and 

 benevolent mind, and believing that knowledge and intelligence 

 are the true sources of human happiness and prosperity, he used 

 the large wealth of which he was happily possessed, to foster 

 institutions of learning and to disseminate knowledge as much as 

 possible. He travelled much in his own country, in France, Spain, 

 the United States, and Mexico. We are told by his biographers 

 that he u visited these countries while in a state of political revo- 

 lution, that he might be near to extend assistance to the poor and 

 suffering." Now a moment's reflection will show, I think, that 

 these men, in the course of their studies and travels, could not 

 avoid being impressed by the spirit of free inquiry in science and 

 politics by which they were everywhere surrounded. In view of 

 the facts just presented, and from what we know of the lives and 

 opinions of the originators of the Academy, and of the motives 

 which actuated them in banding together for the cultivation of 

 natural knowledge, it appears to me not inappropriate to regard 

 the Academy as, in realitjr, an outgrowth of that great intellectual 

 and democratic movement which, during the latter half of the 

 eighteenth century, swept over Europe and a part of America, 

 and was characterized by an extraordinary activity in the study 

 of nature, coupled with a growing demand on the part of the 

 governed classes for larger social and political privileges. So 



