ELISHA MITCHEl.L SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 1 3 



But unfortunately he labelled very few of them, and what he knew 

 ■about theui must be re-collected, because it cannot be rei ollected. 

 But he was the principal authority, while he lived, as to th*"* con- 

 tents of the soil and sub-soil of our hills, and plains, and moun- 

 tains. The light that the Mineralogy of State throws on its Geology, 

 arly engaged his attention. And he was in correspondence with 

 Agassiz and other Scientists, to learn what their museums contained 

 and how they explained the curiosities he sent them. It must be 

 remembered that, to Dr. Mitchell, Mineralogy and Geology and 

 Chemistry were juvenile members of the great family of Science. 

 He knew them when puny inhabitants of the cradle and he helped 

 to nurse them into their present vigorous growth, ani that without 

 the helps in Geography, Lithology, Petrology, and Biology that 

 a,bound in our Modern Laboratories. Hence, while the larger fea- 

 tures of the Geology of North Carolina were well known to him, he 

 passed away from contemplating them before the bounds of its 

 various deposits had been ascertained, and their relations to each 

 other settled, and the upheaval of our mountains traced with the 

 accuracy and fulness that marks the work of our accomplished 

 Geologist, Dr. Kerr. Here let me remind the members of the Mitch- 

 ell Scientific Society that as the first Astronomical Observatory i-n. 

 these United States was built at the University of North Carolina — 

 so by a Professor of the same University, Dr. Mitchell's fellow- 

 student and colleague, Dr. Olmsted, was planned and begun the 

 first Geological survey of a State in our Union. Waddy Thom^-son, 

 the brilliant Congressman from South Carolina, in conversing with 

 Gov. Swain, gave North Carolina great credit for its early, consist- 

 ent and persistent efiorts in behalf of political liberty. But he 

 complained that 'SSVie has done nothing since.'''' So also in Physical 

 Science she has exhibited an early and intelligent desire for knowl- 

 edge both theoretical and priactical. But herein she has lost much 

 of the ardor of her first love. Let it be the reward of the Mitchell 

 Society that its labors have moved her to "repent and do her first 

 works." 



Besides "Notes on Natural History," and " Civil and Biblical HiS' 

 tory," intended to be guides for his students in their private studies, 

 Dr. Mitchell published two editions of a Manual of Chemistry to be 

 used in connection with his lectures and experiments. This was 

 another department of Science wherein evolution was rapid all the 

 time that Dr. Mitchell was a teacHer therein. But he was in the 

 front line of its progressives. His library and his laboratory showed 

 that he withheld neither time, labor nor money to keep himself 



