xlviii Centetinial Anniversary 



chemistry and geology, but these were not founded on natural 

 laws in the sense in which these sciences are now understood. 



The practical application of the natural sciences to the arts and 

 industries began with the development of the sciences themselves, 

 and the two went on together, so closely associated that they were 

 never independent of each other. They were parallel and corre- 

 lated. This was more especially felt as chemistry and geology 

 progressed. Their applications were so important and varied, and 

 the possible effects so far-reaching, that learned men began to 

 take means to disseminate the knowledge gained and to make it 

 available. While investigators in pure science thus labored 

 directly to increase the sum of human knowledge, and indirectly 

 to increase man's intellectual pleasure by contemplation of the 

 phenomena of nature, the practical applications of science fur- 

 nished the proper stimulus. 



Hence, tlie dawning of the light of modern science inaugurated 

 a new era in the arts and industries. Agriculture and manufac- 

 tures form the foundation of civilization. Cultured nations subsist 

 on the products of the soil ; and without manufactures, particu- 

 larly of the metals, there can be no considerable wealth. As arts, 

 these industries had been developing from pre-historic times, but 

 as mere arts unaided by science, they furnished little hope for 

 advance in higher development. As populations became denser, 

 and the soil was longer tilled, new problems arose which art alone 

 could not solve, Tliere was and could be no science of metal- 

 lurgy or of agriculture until there was a science of chemistry; 

 and other industrial arts liad scarcely advanced for thousands of 

 years. 



As soon as chemistry and geology began to assume the dignity 

 of exact sciences, their aid was, therefore, immediately invoked in 

 various arts and industries. But it was agriculture that made 

 the strongest demands for assistance. Consequently, before the 

 close of the last century, agricultural societies were established in 

 nearly every country of Europe, and in America as well. " The 

 Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture''^ was 

 instituted in February, 1785, less than two years after the 

 achievement of our national independence. A similar society 

 was formed in Charleston, South Carohna, in August of the 

 same year; another in New York, in February, 1791, one in 



