THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 795 



turbations, to lively emotions, and sudden frights. Frequently, as in 

 the case of the patient who has been referred to so often, the origin 

 of the disease entirely escapes us. 



While suitable medical remedies are no doubt proper in their place, 

 the principal part in the treatment should be given to moral remedies. 

 It is, of course, useless to reason with the patient, or to try to show 

 him how baseless his delusion is ; but his attention should be engaged 

 and his mind diverted from the set ideas that tyrannize over it, and 

 a wisely arranged intellectual gymnastics should be prescribed. Phys- 

 ical exercise may also be made of service in turning to the profit of 

 the body a little of the exaggerated activity that torments the mind. 

 A final remedy is sequestration in a sanitary institute. It need not be 

 applied to all patients, but may evidently be of use in cases where the 

 surroundings, the habits of life, and the occupations to which the sub- 

 ject has been devoted, seem to have participated to any extent in the 

 explosion of the psychical troubles. 



-++- 



THE PEOGEESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY.* 



By Professor GEOEGE J. BEUSH, 



RETIRING PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



ME. PEESIDENT, and Fellow-Members of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science : The change 

 in the Constitution effected at our last meeting, extending the scope 

 of the Association and dividing it into nine sections, each with a vice- 

 president, whose duty it is to deliver an address to the section over 

 which he presides, has relieved the retiring President from attempting 

 a general review of the progress of science during the past year. 



I turn, therefore, to a more special subject, and invite your atten- 

 tion this evening to a sketch of the progress of American mineralogy, 

 since the commencement of this century, with particular reference to 

 the labors of some of the early workers in the science on this conti- 

 nent. 



During the last quarter of the eighteenth century, while great ac- 

 tivity existed and rapid advance was made in the study of chemistry 

 and mineralogy in Europe, almost nothing was accomplished in this 

 new country. It is true that students in other departments of science, 

 especially members of the medical profession, in the cities of Philadel- 

 phia, New York, and Boston, attempted to arouse an interest in min- 

 eralogy, believing that the diffusion of a knowledge of this science 

 would be of the utmost importance in the material development of the 



* An address delivered before the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, at Montreal, August 23, 1882. 



