The Beginnings of American Science. 425 



began in 1806 a career of great usefulness. "For thirty years," wrote 

 Francis, ' ' he was the acknowledged head of all other teachers of chem- 

 istry among us (in New York), and he kept pace with the flood of light 

 which Davy, Murray, Gay Lussac, and Thenard and others shed on the 

 progress of chemical philosophy at that day. ' ' About 1 820 he went abroad 

 to study scientific institutions, and his charming book, A Year in Europe, 

 supplemented by his regular contributions to Silliman's Journal, com- 

 menting on scientific affairs in other countries, did much to stimulate the 

 growth of scientific and educational institutions in America. 



Francis tells us that he was for thirty years the acknowledged head of 

 the teachers of chemistry in New York-. ' 



A zealous promoter of zoology in those days w'as F. Adrian Vander- 

 kemp, of Oldenbarnavelt, New York, who, in 1795, we are told, deliv- 

 ered an address before an agricultural society in Whitesburg, New York, 

 in which he offered premiums for essays upon certain subjects, among 

 which was one for the best anatomical and historical account of the 

 moose, $50, or for bringing one in alive, $60. " 



Having mentioned several American naturalists of foreign birth, it 

 may not be out of place to refer to the American origin of an English 

 zoologist of high repute. Doctor Thomas Horsfield, born in Philadelphia, 

 in 1773, and after many years in the East became, in 1820, a resident of 

 London, where he died in 1859. His name is prominent among tho.se 

 of the entomologists, botanists, and ornithologists of this century, 

 especially in connection with Java. 



XL 



In New England science was more highly appreciated than in New 

 York. Massachusetts had in John Adams a man who, like Franklin and 

 Jefferson, realized that scientific institutions were the best protection for 

 a democratic government, and to his efforts America owes its second 

 scientific society — the American Academy of Arts and vSciences, founded 

 in 1780. When Mr. Adams traveled from Boston to Philadelphia, in 

 the days just before the Revolution, he several times visited at Norwalk, 

 w'e are told, a curious collection of American birds and insects made by 

 Mr. Arnold. This was afterwards sold to Sir Ashton Lever, in whose 

 apartments in London Mr. Adams saw it again, and felt a new regret at 

 our imperfect knowledge of the productions of the three kingdoms of 

 nature in our land. In France his visits to the museums and other 

 establishments, with the inquiries of academicians and other men of 

 science and letters respecting this country and their encomiums on the 

 Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, suggested to him the idea of engag- 



' John H. Griscom, Memoir of John Griscom, New York, 1S59, P- 424- 

 = De Witt Clinton, Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society, New 

 York, I, p. 59. 



