CHAPTER XII. 



THE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE: DOMESTIC EVENTS: THE CABI- 

 NET OF MINERALS. 



The Establishment of the Journal of Science. The Death of his Mother. 

 The Death of his Son. Journey to Canada with Mr. Wadsworth. 

 Purchase of the Gibbs Cabinet. Robert Bakewell and his Contribution 

 of Minerals. Alexander Brongniart. William Maclure and his Ser- 

 vices. Dr. Thomas Cooper : his Character. Letters from John C. 

 Calhoun, Chancellor Kent, Robert Y. Hayue, &c. 



IN following up, as far as possible, the annals of our 

 scientific labors, we now come to the birth of the " American 

 Journal of Science and Arts." In the preface to the fiftieth 

 volume of that work, being the index volume of the entire 

 series to that time, 1846, there is a full history of the 

 rise and progress of the Journal. It is not my design to 

 recapitulate it on this occasion, except so far as to mark its 

 origin at this era. Dr. Archibald Bruce of New York, had, 

 in 1810, instituted an American journal of mineralogy ; it 

 was ably conducted, and was most favorably received ; but 

 it lingered with long intervals between its four numbers, 

 and stopped with one volume of two hundred and seventy 

 pages. The declining health of Dr. Bruce, ending in apo- 

 plexy, rendered any prospect of the continuance of his 

 Journal hopeless. His own life hung in doubt, and was act- 

 ually ended the 22d February, 1818, in the forty-first year of 

 his age. Anticipating the death of Dr. Bruce, and it being 

 certain that his Journal could never be revived by him, 

 Colonel George Gibbs, in an- accidental meeting on board 

 the steamer Fulton on Long Island Sound, in 1817, urged 

 upon me the duty of instituting a new Journal of Science ; 



