184 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



VIII. 



SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Kead, April 14, 1874. 

 MEMORIAL. 



To THE HONCTIABLE THE GENERAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS : 



The American Academy of Aj-ts and Sciences respectfully presents the 

 folloiving Memorial^ urging a new and thorough Scientific Survey of 

 the Commonwealth. 



It is now more than forty years since the State of Massachusetts 

 began a survey of its territory, the results of which were published in 

 a series of Reports upon the geology, zoology, and botany of the State, 

 with a map and a geological chart. It was the first public survey under- 

 taken in this country, and was followed by similar ones carried on by the 

 other States and by the General Government. Massachusetts has the 

 honor, not only of originating this series of surveys, but of giving to the 

 country a large proportion of the scientific men who conducted those of 

 the other States. The survey was at once of great practical value to 

 the Commonwealth, and a school for scientific education. 



The several Reports thus published have been absorbed by the 

 public, and it is now impossible to procure them ; the State recognized 

 this fact when it ordered the republication of two of them ; and the 

 demand for others of the series suggests the pertinent inquiry whether 

 a simple republication or a revised edition of one and another of the 

 Reports would meet the demands of the people. In the main, the 

 Reports represented fairly the condition of science at the time they 

 were made ; but the lapse of one generation has witnessed such prog- 

 ress in the methods of scientific investigation, and such an addition to 

 the store of knowledge, that, though the Reports contain much valuable 

 material, most of them are now incomplete and to some extent anti- 

 quated. The time has come when a new survey is necessary, more 

 thorough and comprehensive than the old, as the method and knowl- 

 edge supplied by science now are in advance of what was at the com- 

 mand of the men of that day. 



