79 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



country. There were, however, no text-books to aid the inquirer. 

 There were no collections of minerals to stimulate the student. In 

 the absence of these it was almost impossible that an interest in this 

 science should be fostered, or that a spirit of investigation should be 

 awakened. 



As the first distinct beginning of the science, I may mention an 

 association formed in 1798 in the city of New York, which assumed, 

 as they expressed it, " the name and style of the American Mineralog- 

 ical Society." It announced as its object " The Investigation of the 

 Mineral and Fossil Bodies which compose the Fabric of the Globe, 

 and more especially for the Natural and Chemical History of the Min- 

 erals and Fossils of the United States." The distinguished Dr. Samuel 

 Latham Mitchill, who seems to have been a man of universal genius, 

 was at once its first president, its librarian, and its cabinet-keeper. 

 The committee of the society issued a circular in which, while express- 

 ing themselves " desirous of obtaining and diffusing by every means 

 in their power a correct and extensive knowledge of the mineral treas- 

 ures of their country, they earnestly solicited their fellow-citizens to 

 communicate to them on all mineralogical subjects, but especially on 

 the following," viz. : 



1. Concerning the stones suitable to be manufactured into gun-flints: where 

 are they found? and in what quantity? 2. Concerning native orimstone or sul- 

 phur or the waters or minerals whence it may be extracted? 3. Concerning 

 saltpeter: where (if at all) found native? or the soils which produce it in the 

 United States? 4. Concerning mines and ores of lead: in what places? the 

 situation ? how wide the vein ? in what kind of rock it is bedded ? 



This warlike demand seems to call more for the discovery of the 

 materials for national defense than for the advancement of science, 

 and, besides being a commentary on the spirit of the times, gives a 

 rather humorous impression of their strangely inadequate conception 

 of the science of mineralogy and its possible bearings on practical life. 

 But in justice to them I should add that it is further announced that 

 "specimens of ores, metals, coals, spars, gypsums, crystals, petrifac- 

 tions, stones, earths, slates, clays, chalks, limestones, marbles, and 

 every fossil substance that may be discovered or fall in the way of a 

 traveler, which can throw light on the mineralogical history of Amer- 

 ica, will be examined and analyzed without cost, sufficient pieces, 

 with the owner's leave, being reserved for placing in the society's col- 

 lection." I have quoted the circular almost verbatim to give you some 

 idea of the genuine though crude longings for knowledge felt by our 

 early mineralogists, and also of the generous spirit in which they 

 worked. 



A still more forcible picture of the ignorance of the time is given 

 by the elder Professor Silliman in 1818. "Notwithstanding the laud- 

 able efforts of a few gentlemen," he says, " to excite some taste for 



