National Sciciilific and luiiicalioiial Tiislitittioiis. 3 1 7 



conuueiit. It should be lueiitioiied, lunvcvcr, lliat General Harrison pub- 

 lished in Cincinnati, in 183S, A Discourse on the Aborii;ines of the 

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

 John Onincy Adams, who has ever produced a treatise upon a scientific 

 theme. 



In 1841 John Tyler, of \'ir<.^inia, became President. His period of 

 administration was a stormy one, and the atmosphere of W'ashinj^ton at 

 that time was not favorable for scientific pro'^ress. 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 Nav\', 

 at whose instance President Tyler abolished the existing Board of Naval 

 Commissioners and vested the authority formerly exercised by them in 

 .separate bureaus. To man}- of the pressing necessities for reform of the 

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

 in the vSouthern Literary Messenger, inider the title of Scraps 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 acti\-ely 

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

 olis of the United States Naval Acadeni}-, finally accomplished in ICS45, 

 and a little later (in 184S) the position of the professors of mathematics 

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

 manifest advantage to the scientific .service of the Government. ' 



Iridirectly, the reorganization of the Nav}- had a powerful infiuence 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 am}:)le means to that organization for ascertaining the topog- 

 raphy of this coast and making contril)Utions to the science of ocean 

 physics. 



Another enterpri.se was the sending of the P'remont exploring exi)edi- 

 tion to California and Oregon. It is interesting to know that Ca])tain 

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



is |i6oo,OfX). The several vStates appropriate about |;i 25,000 in addition, niakint;^ the 

 .sum total of about 1725,000 given from pu1)lic funds the present year for the support 

 of agricultural experiment stations in the United States. 



Of all the scientific eiiterpri.ses 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 .si)ee(lily and .so 

 strons^ly as this. The rapid growth of an enterprise for elevating agi-icuUure by the 

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

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

 which it is received by the piiblic 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. IF. C. Cofini, Mordecai Yaruall, Jose])!! Win- 

 lock, Simon Newcomb, A-sajjli Hall, William Harkncss, and J. R. Ivistman are a few 

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



