366 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the mind of the Legislature woukl be forced to entertain the 

 subject, and make full inquiry. . . . We met a second time, 

 when I reported concerning Harvard College, and ujDon some 

 questions as to the Smith fund at Northampton. I have never 

 again had the pleasure of seeing either of these gentlemen 

 before their death. ^ 



Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

 Mr. Bush is authority for the following statement : — 



On Feb. 18, 1859, a meeting of about forty "individuals 

 representing associations of agriculture, horticulture, art, 

 science, and various industrial, educational, and moral interests 

 of the State," was held in the library of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, Mason Street, Boston. This a2:)pears to have 

 been the first step in organization of an effort for the promotion 

 of some form of popular and more extended scientific educa- 

 tion. ... At this first meeting Mr. Marshall P. Wilder pre- 

 sided. Professor Louis Agassiz, Hon. A. H. Rice, Mr. John D. 

 Philbrick and others spoke. A committee was appointed to 

 memorialize the Legislature, and did so in March, 1859.^ 



The result of this movement was Acts of 1861, chapter 

 183, being " An Act to incorporate the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology, and to grant Aid to said Institute and 

 to the Boston Society of Natural History." By section 1 cer- 

 tain persons were made a " body corporate by the name of 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the purpose 

 of instituting and maintaining a society of arts, a museum 

 of arts, and a school of industrial science, and aiding gen- 

 erally, by suitable means, the advancement, development 

 and practical application of science in connection with arts, 

 agriculture, manufactures and commerce." 



' From "Historical Address " delivered at the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College, Amherst, June 21, 1887. 



^ History of Higher Education in Massachusetts, by George Gary Bush, 

 United States Bureau of Education, Washmgton, 1891, p. 281. See also House, 

 No. 260, 1859, and House, No. 13, 1860. 



