432 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the American Ambassador at the court of France were all grist to the 

 mill of the Society which gained corresponding members from the 

 literati of Europe and exchanged its transactions with every principal 

 scientific body in the world. Membership in a short time came to be 

 looked upon as a mark of distinction for most of our revolutionary 

 leaders, for Washington and the other presidents of the United States, 

 for the Supreme Court judges, the members of the cabinet, senators and 

 congressmen and for the various diplomatic representatives who made 

 Philadelphia their headquarters while the city was the American capital. 

 Strange ideas haunted the minds of the philosophers, and scientists 

 in Europe must have chuckled with amusement when they read some 

 of the Society's reports. Franlvlin's practical spirit breathes through 

 this statement of the purposes of the Society, which was published in 

 the first volume of the Transactions in 1771 : 



Knowledge is of little use when confined to mere speculation. But when 

 speculative truths are reduced to practice, when theories grounded upon ex- 

 periments are applied to the common purposes of life; and when by these agri- 

 culture is improved, trade enlarged, the arts of living made more easy and 

 comfortable and of course the increase and happiness of mankind promoted, 

 knowledge then becomes really useful. That this Society therefore may in some 

 degree answer the ends of its institution the members propose to confine their 

 disquisitions principally to such subjects as tend to the improvement of their 

 country and the advancement of its interest and prosperity. 



The writer of this salutatory fondly hoped that America would in 

 time come to possess much likeness in the wealth of its industries to 

 China. It lay in the same latitude as China and our climate was like 

 the Chinese climate. "Could we be so fortunate," said the American 

 Philosophical Society, " as to introduce the industry of the Chinese, 

 their arts of living and improvements in husbandry, as well as their 

 native plants, America might in time become as populous as China 

 which is allowed to contain more inhabitants than any other country 

 of the same extent in the world." To England no less than to her 

 colonies the philanthropic work of the Society should make appeal, 

 ' for if by these means the continental colonies can supply her with the 

 rarities of China and her islands can furnish the rich spices of the East 

 Indies her merchants will no longer be obliged in order to obtain these 

 to traverse three quarters of the globe, encounter the difficulties of so 

 tedious a voyage and after all submit to the insolence and exorbitant de- 

 mands of foreigners.' 



The trees in the wood and the bushes by the roadside were full of 

 possibilities for these philosophers so young in scientific investigation. 

 The persimmon and the sassafras trees, the sumach, the leaves of which 

 the Indians mixed with their tobacco, 'to render it more aromatic and 

 agreeable in smoking,' and many trees and plants it was surmised might 

 yield mankind drugs and dyes and other useful products. Great store 



