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Natural history, agriculture, commerce, and the use- 

 ful arts, go hand in hand ; wherever the first is encour- 

 aged, the other branches, which depend much upon it 

 for their support, will flourish ; but wherever it is neg- 

 lected or lightly regarded, the other branches languish 

 and lose their value. How many substances of rare 

 materials grow throughout this vast region which are 

 unknown in the United States, but which might be- 

 come articles of extended commerce, if every State in 

 the Union would seriously set to work to explore its 

 resources in the three great kingdoms of nature. 



It is true that some of the States have set the exam- 

 ple of geological surveys, and have made collections of 

 mineral and geological specimens ; but what, for the 

 most part, has become of these collections ? They are 

 dispersed where neither the Government nor the people 

 generally can make use of them. For the promotion 

 of science and the useful arts, we require a central in- 

 stitution, in which all the natural productions of this vast 

 territory may be exposed to public view, for the benefit 

 of the people, and which may contribute to the advance- 

 ment of the sciences, by affording the means of compari- 

 son with natural and analogous productions of other 

 parts of the world. 



Zoology presents a subject of more varied interest 

 than any other branch of natural history. To be well 

 acquainted with it, requires that the student should be 

 versed in several other branches of science. He ought 

 to possess a knowledge of human and comparative ana- 

 tomy, and of chemistry, physiology, and geology, in 

 order that he may understand the subject of fossil re- 

 mains and the formations in which thev are found. 



