322 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. X. 



may mention an association formed in 1798 in the city of New 

 York, which assumed, as they expressed it, " the name and style 

 of the American Mineralogical Society," It announced as its 

 object " the investigation of the mineral and fossil bodies which 

 compose the fabric of the globe, and more especially for the 

 natural and chemical history of the minerals and fossils of the 

 United States." The distinguished Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill, 

 who seems to have been a man of universal genius, was at once its 

 first President, its librarian and its cabinet-keeper. The com- 

 mittee of the society issued a circular in which, while expressing 

 themselves, "desirous of obtaining and diffusing by every means 

 in their power a correct and extensive knowledge of the mineral 

 treasures of their country, they earnestly solicited their fellow- 

 citizens to communicate to them on all mineralogical subjects, but 

 especially on the following, viz.: — 



" Concerning the stones suitable to be manufactured into gun- 

 flints : where are they found ? and in what quantity ? 2. Con- 

 cerning native brimstone or sulphur or the waters or minerals 

 whence it may be extracted? 3. Concerning saltpetre: where 

 (if at all) found native? or the soils which produce it in the 

 United States ? 4. Concerning mines and ores of lead : in what 

 places ? the situation ? how wide the vein ? in what kind of rock 

 it is bedded." 



This warlike demand seems to call more for the discovery of the 

 materials for national defence than for the advancement of science, 

 and besides being a commentary on the spirit of the times, gives 

 a rather humorous impression of their strangely inadequate con- 

 ception of the science of mineralogy, and its possible bearings on 

 practical life, but injustice to them I should add that it is further 

 announced that '" specimens of ores, metals, coals, spars, gypsums, 

 crystals, petrifications, stones, earths, slates, clays, chalks, lime- 

 stones, marbles and every fossil substances that may be discov- 

 ered or fall in the way of a traveller, which can throw light on 

 the mineralo2;ical historv of America, will be examined and ana- 

 lyzed without cost, sufficient pieces, with the owner's leave, being 

 reserved for placing in the Society's collection." I have quoted 

 the circular almost verbatim to give you some idea of the genuine 

 though crude longings for knowledge felt by our early mineralo- 

 gists, and also of the generous spirit in which they worked. A 

 still more forcible picture of the ignorance of the time is given 

 by the elder Professor Silliman in 1818, " Notwithstanding the 



