Address by Professor Brexcer. xlix 



Massachusetts, in March, 1792 ; and in Connecticut, in August, 

 1794. The New York society was organized " for the promotion 

 of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures ;" the others specified 

 agriculture only. " The Connectimit Society for the Promotion 

 of Agriculture " was founded three and a half years before this 

 Academy, and for many years some of its leading members were 

 the same men who were prominent in the Academy. 



The material interest involved was so vast, that a few states 

 attempted to carry on agricultural scliools. Finally, in 1862, the 

 United States Congress appropriated land for the establishment 

 of schools of science in every state in the Union ; and the organi- 

 zation of Agricultural Experiment Stations soon followed. That 

 all this might have been accomplished in time, without the stim- 

 ulus of " societies," is possible. It is probable, however, that, 

 but for them, there would have been no such rapid spread of 

 instruction in science and its applications. 



We must bear in mind that in 1799 there was very little, if 

 indeed any, natural science taught in the colleges and universities 

 of this country. One or two professors of chemistry were 

 appointed in the very last years of the last century, and a few 

 more in the first decade of this. Instruction in geology came in 

 somewhat later, but for forty years or more after the foundation 

 of this Academy, in only half a dozen of the numerous colleges 

 of tiie country was anything more than the merest rudiments of 

 chemistry and geology taught, and nothing whatever of natural 

 history except a little botany, which was also taught in some of 

 the medical schools. 



During this period, a somewhat better condition of things 

 existed in the universities of Europe. There was a continuous 

 appeal from the various industries to the colleges and higher 

 institutions of learning for more instruction in the natural 

 sciences. But from no other source was this appeal more persist- 

 ent and at the same time more effective than from the many socie- 

 ties which had been formed in all these countries for the promo- 

 tion and encouragement of science. 



Polytechnic schools were started after a fashion about the 

 beginning of this century, but it was not until later that they 

 came into existence as schools of science, to be pursued for 

 its application to the liberal arts. In a number of cases, these 



