INTRODUCTION. 
169 
Germany), under the patronage of the elector Charles Theodore. Simeon De 
Witt, who appears often in this memoir as a friend of science, published in 1792 
a “ Plan of a Meteorological Chart for exhibiting a comparative view of the cli¬ 
mate in North America, and the progress of vegetation.” This plan contained 
suggestions which have since been found useful, but we are not informed what 
portion of them was original. Mr. De Witt, Gardner Baker, Jonathan Eights 
and John Griscom contributed, from 1795 until 1814, very useful papers in this 
department, which were published in the Transactions of the Society for the 
Promotion of Agriculture and the Useful Arts. In March, 1825, the regents of 
the university, on the motion of Mr. De Witt, adopted the system in pursuance 
of which the academies have since that time made daily observations upon the 
weather and the wands, together with notices of the progress of vegetation, and 
the occurrence of remarkable atmospheric phenomena. T. Romeyn Beck, Jo¬ 
seph Henry, professor Ten Eyck, Benjamin F. Jocelyn, W. C. Redfield, Mat¬ 
thew Henry Webster, Charles Dewey, James H. Coffin, and others, have assidu¬ 
ously collated the facts obtained by academical and other observations, and the 
success of their labors has received the praise of transatlantic as well as Ameri¬ 
can philosophers.* 
Dr. Franklin’s experiments proving the identity of electricity and lightning, 
signalized the commencement of American chemical science. A chair of chemis¬ 
try was established in the medical school founded in New-York before the 
revolution; and the science received a new impulse from the labors of Dr. 
Priestley, who, driven by popular bigotry and violence from his own country, 
renewed his learned studies in his retreat at Northumberland in Pennsylvania. 
It was not, however, until after the commencement of the present century, that 
the importance of chemistry was fully appreciated on either side of the Atlantic. 
* Notes on Chemistry and Mineralogy were received from Lewis C. Beck, M.D.; Notes on Meteorology, from T. 
Romeyn Beck, LL.D.; Notes on Scientific Societies, from Horace B. Webster, Esq.; Notes on Natural History, from 
John W. Francis, M.D.; Notes on Zoology, from Ebenezer Emmons, M.D.; Notes on Botany, from John Torrey, 
M.D.; and Notes on Geology, from James Hall, A.M., and L. C. Beck, M.D.; and Notes on the Progress of Know¬ 
ledge, from Samuel Blatchpord, Esq. 
Intr. 
22 
