64 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



Spain, and the expedition was finally abandoned, owing to the 

 hostile attitude of the Seminole Indians in that territory. 



XIV. 



The third decade of the century, beginning with 1820, was 

 marked by a continuation of the activities of that which pre- 

 ceedcd. In 1826 there were in existence twenty-five scientific 

 societies, more than half of them especially devoted to natural 

 history,* and nearly all of very recent origin. 



The leading spirits were Mitchill, Maclure, Webster, Torrey, 

 Silliman, Gibbs, LeConte,. Dewey, Hare, Hitchcock, Olmstead, 

 Eliot, and T. R. Beck. 



Nathaniel Bowditch [b. 1773, d. 1838], who, in 1829, began 

 the publication of his magnificent translation of the "Mecanique 

 Celeste" of La Place, with those scholarly commentations which 

 secured him so lofty a place among the mathematicians of the 

 world. 



Still more important was the lesson of his noble devotion of 

 his life and fortune to science. The greater part of his monu- 

 mental work was completed, we are told, in 1817, but he found 

 that to print it would cost $12,000, a sum far beyond his means. 

 A few years later, however, he began its publication from his 

 own limited means, and the work was continued, after his death, 

 by his wife. The dedication is to his wife, and tells us that 

 u without her approbation the work would not have been under- 

 taken." 



Another person was W.. C. Redfield [b. 1789, d. 1857], who, 

 in 1827, promulgated the essential portions of the theory of 

 storms, which is now pretty generally accepted, and which was 

 subsequently extended by Sir William Reid in Barbadoes and 

 Bermuda, and greatly modified by Professor Loomis, of New 

 Haven. An eloquent eulogy of Redfield was pronounced by 



* Amer. Journ. Sci., x, p. 368. (Cut). 



