PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 91 



man coming to take part as a central figure in the greatest po- 

 litical ceremony of our country, and bringing with him an 

 original contribution to science, is certainly one we shall not 

 soon see repeated."* 



When Jefferson became President, his scientific tastes were 

 the subject of much ridicule as well as of bitter opposition 

 among the people in whose eyes, even in that day, science was 

 considered synonymous with atheism. William Cullen Bryant, 

 then a lad of thirteen, wrote a satirical poem, " The Embargo," 

 since suppressed, in which the popular feeling seems to have 

 been voiced : 



" Go, wretch, resign the Presidential chair; 

 Disclose thj secret measures, foul or fair. 

 Go search with curious eyes for horned frogs 

 Mid the wild wastes of Louisianian bogs, 

 Or, where the Ohio rolls his turbid stream, 

 Dig for huge bones, thy glory and thy theme." 



A prominent personage in the history of this period was Peter 

 Kalm, a pupil of Linnasus and Professor in the University of 

 Aobo, who, was sent to America by the Swedish government, 

 and travelled through Canada, New York, New Jersey, and 

 Pennsylvania from 174S-51. Although the ostensible object of 

 his mission was to find a species of mulberry suitable for accli- 

 matization in Sweden, with a view to the introduction of silk- 

 culture, it is very evident that he and his master were very willing 

 to make of applied science a beast of burden, upon whose back 

 they could heap up a heavy burthen of investigations in pure 

 science. Kalm's botanical collections were of great importance 

 and are still preserved in the Linnaean herbarium in London. 

 His " Travels into North America " are full of interesting obser- 

 vations upon animals and men, as well as upon plants, and give us 

 an insight into the life of the naturalists at that time resident in 

 America. After his return to Sweden he published several pa- 

 lmers relating to his discoveries in America. 



*op. cit. 



