50 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



begotten by science upon fact," has been born within the past 

 few decades, and pressing itself daily and hourly upon our atten 

 tion, has worked miracles which have not only modified the whole 

 future of the lives of mankind, but has reacted constantly upon 

 the progress of science itself. 



It is to the development of this new nature, then in its very 

 infancy, that we must look for the revival of interest in science 

 on this side of the Atlantic. 



The second decade of the century was marked by a great 

 accession of interest in the sciences. The second war with 

 Great Britain having ended, the country, for the first time since 

 colonial days, became sufficiently tranquil for peaceful attention 

 to literature and philosophy. The end of the Napoleonic wars 

 and the restoration of tranquillity to Europe tended to scientific 

 advances on the other side of the Atlantic, and the results of the 

 labors of Cuvier, whose glory was now approaching its zenith, 

 of Brongniart, of Blainville, of Jussieu, of Decandolle, of Werner, 

 of Hutton, of Buckland, of De la Beche, of Magendie, of Hum- 

 boldt, Daubuisson, Berzelius, Von Buch, of Herschel, of Laplace, 

 of Young, of Fresnel, of Oersted, of Cavendish, of Lavoisier, Wol- 

 laston, Davy, and Sir William Hooker, were eagerly welcomed 

 by hundreds in America. 



" In truth," wrote one who was among the most active in 

 promoting these tendencies, " in truth, a thirst for the Natural 

 Sciences seemed already to pervade the United States like the 

 progress of an epidemic." 



The author of these enthusiastic words was Amos Eaton 

 [b. in Chatham, N. Y., 1776, d. May 6, 1842], one of the most 

 interesting men of his day. In 1816, at the age of forty, he 

 abandoned the practice of law and went to New Haven to 

 attend Silliman's lectures on Mineralogy and Geology. He was 

 a man of great force and untiring energy, and one of the pio 

 neers of American geology ; though the name, "father of Amer- 



