648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



union of the several States, a large demand was made for a certain 

 degree of practical astronomical knowledge in determining the bound- 

 aries of the different States, and Territories ; and, later, the establish- 

 ment of the Coast Survey, and an Engineering Bureau, has tended to 

 keep up an interest in investigations relative to these subjects. The 

 wide extent of our national domain, and the gigantic scale on which 

 its geological formations are presented, have served as the basis of 

 valuable contributions to geology, mineralogy, botany, and zoology. 

 The contributions that have been made within the last forty years to 

 meteorology, especially in the simultaneous observations over the 

 large extent of our country, and the subsequent comparison of results, 

 have materially assisted in developing the laws of storms, and have 

 almost advanced meteorology to the character of an exact science. 

 While there have been no especial facilities for prosecuting chemistry 

 or physics, yet American researches in these lines have not been un- 

 fruitful of results worthy of a place in the history of science. 



But whatever maybe said as regards the value of the contributions 

 of this country to the scientific knowledge of the day, it must be 

 admitted that there is a great popular craving among us for a knowl- 

 edge of the results of scientific investigation, and that in no other part 

 of the w r orld could Prof. Tyndall have been more highly appreciated 

 or more enthusiastically welcomed. 



It must be to him a source of high gratification to have his sympa- 

 thies so widely extended, and his kindly feelings so warmly recipro- 

 cated. There is a spirit of improvement awakened in this country in 

 regard to scientific investigation which I doubt not will be stimulated 

 into more active exercise by the visit of our illustrious friend, which 

 will induce men who, by the exercise of peculiar talents, have accumu- 

 lated wealth, to endow institutions for the special cultivation of scien- 

 tific investigation, and to set apart with liberal support as the priests 

 or interpreters of Nature, those who by special mental endowment are 

 capable of benefiting their fellow-men by the discovery of new prin- 

 ciples. 



We trust the time is not far distant when the grand philosophical 

 vision of the father of modern science, which has waited so long for its 

 fulfilment, will be realized, " by the union and cooperation of all in 

 building up and perfecting that House of Solomon " (as Bacon quaintly 

 termed it), " the end of which is the knowledge of causes and of the 

 secret motions of things, and the enlarging of the bounds of human 

 empire to the effecting of all things possible." 



While we have endeavored to show that abstract science is entitled 

 to high appreciation and liberal support, we do not claim for it the 

 power of solving questions belonging to other realms of thought. 

 What we would claim for it, however, in addition to liberal apprecia- 

 tion and support, is, that it may be untrammelled in its investigations 

 so long as they are conducted with the single intention of the dis- 



