National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 317 



coiiiinent. It should be mentioned, however, that General Harrison pub- 

 lished in Cincinnati, in 1838, A Discourse on the Aborigines of the 

 Valley of the Ohio, and was the only President, except Jefferson and 

 John Ouinc.v Adams, who has ever produced a treatise upon a scientific 

 theme. 



In 1841 John Tyler, of Virginia, became President. His period of 

 administration was a stormy one, and the atmosphere of Washington at 

 that time was not favorable for scientific progress. During this Admin- 

 istration, however, important reforms took place in the organization of 

 the Navy, which resulted in great benefit to science. These were largely 

 the result of the interest of Hon. A. P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy, 

 at whose instance President Tyler abolished the existing Board of Naval 

 Commissioners and vested the authority formerly- exercised by them in 

 separate bureaus. To many of the pressing necessities for reform of the 

 service, lyieutenant Maury had called attention in his essays, published 

 in the Southern Literary Messenger, under the title of vScraps from a 

 lyUcky Bag, and over the signature of Harry Bluff. As a result of this 

 movement, experiments in applying steam to war vessels were actively 

 prosecuted, and the first bill was passed for the establishment at Annap- 

 olis of the United States Naval Academy, finally accomplished in 1845, 

 and a little later (in 1848) the position of the professors of mathematics 

 in the Navy was dignified and improved, and their numbers limited, with 

 manifest advantage to the scientific service of the Government. ' 



Indirectly, the reorganization of the Navy had a powerful influence in 

 the development of the Coast Survey, which was reorganized in 1843-44, 

 with Alexander Dallas Bache as its superintendent, for this new system 

 afforded ample means to that organization for ascertaining the topog- 

 raphy of this coast and making contributions to the science of ocean 

 physics. 



Another enterprise was the sending of the Fremont exploring expedi- 

 tion to California and Oregon. It is interesting to know that Captain 

 Fremont was appointed the leader of this expedition against the indig- 



is $600,000. The several States appropriate about f 125,000 in addition, making the 

 sum total of about 1725,000 given from public funds the present year for the siipport 

 of agricultural experiment stations in the United States. 



Of all the scientific enterprises which the Government has undertaken, [wrote 

 Secretary Colman,] scarcely any other has impressed its value upon the people 

 and their representatives in the State and national legislatures so speedily and so 

 strongly as this. The rapid growth of an enterprise for elevating agriculture by the 

 aid of science, its espousal by the United States Government, its development to its 

 present dimensions in the short period of fourteen years, and, finally, the favor with 

 which it is received by the public at large, are a striking illustration of the apprecia- 

 tion on the part of the American people of the wisdom and the usefulness of calling 

 the highest science to the aid of the arts and industries of life. 



'The names of W. A. Chauvenet, J. H. C. CofBn, Mordecai Yarnall, Joseph Win- 

 lock, Simon Newcomb, Asaph Hall, William Harkness, and J. R. Eastman are a few 

 of those to be found on this list of astronomers and mathematicians. 



