INTRODITCTTON. 





in organizing and estal)lishing new political institutions. 

 The people, tliinly spread over a vast territory, -were 

 busied in developing its resources, or were engrossed by 

 the excitements resulting from the unsettled condition of 

 pubhc affairs, and the frequent collisions mth foreign 

 powers, which disturbed the peace of the country for 

 twenty-five years, until the termination of the war with 

 England, in 1815. At the close of that conflict, which 

 finally established for the country a rank among nations, 

 and left it in repose, the movement which had sometime 

 before been communicated from Europe, began to pro- 

 duce sensible effects here. 



The state of society was not, at that time, suited to 

 the favorable reception, much less to the rapid diffusion 

 of science. Wealth was so equally distributed, that few 

 were rich ; and, although a respectable degree of intel- 

 ligence was common, all the energies of the people 

 were spent in pursuits immediately connected with the 

 practical utilities of business. As a consequence of this 

 condition of things, few were willing to cultivate science 

 for its o-wTi sake, and most of these were persons who 

 had not yet become engaged in the serious labors of 

 life. It was by the young men of that period, therefore, 

 that the Zoology of the modern school was welcomed to 

 North America, and the earliest efforts made to promote 

 its study. Their exertions were at first of the most 

 unpretending character, but they sufficed to attract the 

 attention of those possessing similar tastes, and led to 

 the establishment of institutions in our principal cities. 



