39^ Memorial of George Broivn Goode. 



the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, and the species 

 is still known as Megalonyx jeffersoni. 



"The spectacle," remarks Luther, "of an American statesman coming 

 to take part as a central figure in the greatest political ceremony of our 

 country and bringing with him an original contribution to the scien- 

 tific knowledge of the world, is certainly one we shall not soon see 

 repeated." ' 



When Jefferson became President his scientific tastes were the subject 

 of much ridicule as well as of bitter opposition among the people in whose 

 eyes, even in that day, science was considered synonymous with atheism. 

 William Cullen Bryant, then a lad of thirteen, wrote a satirical poem, 

 The Embargo, since suppressed, in which the popular feeling seems 

 to have been voiced: 



Go, wretch, resign the presidential chair. 

 Disclose thy secret tneasm-es, foul or fair. 

 Go, search with curious eyes for horned frogs, 

 'Mid the wild wastes of L,ouisianian bogs; 

 Or, where the Ohio rolls his turbid stream. 

 Dig for huge bones, thy glory and thy theme. 



A prominent personage in the history of this period was Peter Kalm, a 

 pupil of Linngeus and professor in the University of Aobo, who was sent 

 to America by the Swedish Government, and traveled through Canada, 

 New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania from 1748 to 1751. Although 

 the ostensible object of his inission was to find a species of mulberry suit- 

 able for acclimatization in Sweden, with a view to the introduction of silk 

 culture, it is very evident that he and his master were very willing to 

 make of applied science a beast of burden, upon whose back they could 

 heap up a heavy burden of investigations in pure science. Kalm's 

 botanical collections were of great importance and are still preserved in the 

 lyinnaean Herbarium in London. His Travels into North America are 

 full of interesting observations upon animals and men, as well as upon 

 plants, and give us an insight into the life of the naturalists at that time 

 resident in America. After his return to Sweden he published several 

 papers relating to his discoveries in America. 



Another traveler who deserves our attention, Johann David SchcEpf 

 [b. 1752, d. in Baireuth, 1800], the author of one of the earliest mono- 

 graphs of the Testudinata, was a surgeon of mercenary troops under 

 the Marcgrave of Anspach, and was one of the hated Hessian aux- 

 iliaries during the Revolutionary war (1776-1783). While stationed at 

 New York he wrote a paper upon the Fishes of New York, which was 

 published in Berlin in 1787. This was the first special ichthyological 

 paper ever written in America or concerning American species. Imme- 

 diately after the treaty of peace in 1783, Schcepf made an extensive tour 



'Magazine of American History, April, 1885, p. 386. 



