INTRODUCTION 7 



Kentucky. He was a pioneer botanist and zoologist and is now remem- 

 bered by the large number of new species of mollusks and of fishes, as 

 well as of plants, which he described. He is also remarkable as being the 

 first American who clearly enunciated the principle of the transformation 

 of species. 



Philadelphia was during this period the most important scientific 

 center of the country, but it was not the only one. The interest in natural 

 history was widespread and every city had its public museum of natural 

 curiosities and its scientific society. The Philadelphia Museum, which was 

 established by Charles Wilson Peale, and the Baltimore Museum estab- 

 lished by Rembrandt Peale were especially famous. In the South the 

 eminent Georgian Dr. Lewis Le Conte, father of Professor Joseph Le 

 Conte, and Stephen Elliott of Charleston were prominent as naturalists, 

 and in the west Dr. Robert Best had founded the Western Museum in 

 Cincinnati and given the initial impulse to those scientific activities which 

 have ever since distinguished that city. 



In New England the principal scientific interest was in geology and 

 mineralogy. The most influential scientist was Benjamin Silliman of 

 New Haven, a geologist and a chemist. In 1818 he founded the American 

 Journal of Science and Art which at once became and has since remained 

 one of the most influential in the country. 



The fourth and most of the fifth decades were not a period of marked 

 activity in the study of American animals. The remarkable development 

 of the zoological and physiological sciences in Europe under the leader- 

 ship of von Baer, Johannes Mliller, Owen, Milne-Edw^ards and others 

 apparently awakened little interest on this side of the Atlantic and the 

 most important investigators were chiefly occupied with descriptions of 

 shells and msects. In 1838, however, occurred an event important to 

 the development of American science, for in that year the United States 

 Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes started on its four years' 

 voyage, taking as one of its naturalists James Dwight Dana. 



It was in 1846 that light at lengih began to appear in the general 

 darkness and the way to be prepared for the important advances of later 

 years in the field of natural science, for in this year the Smithsonian 

 Institution, which was to become the center of most important scientific 

 activities, was founded under the secretaiyship of Joseph Henry, and in 

 this year also Louis Agassiz came to America. 



The modern study of animals in America may be said to begin with 

 the arrival of Agassiz on our shores. His great reputation and attractive 

 and inspiring personality brought him at once into prominence and drew 

 to him a large number of brilliant young men who wished to study animals 

 under his leadership, and Cambridge and Boston soon became the most 



