26 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1332 



constitutional convention make comment on 

 these points unnecessary. Of special interest 

 here is his activity in foimding our first 

 academy of science.^ As early as 1743 Ben- 

 jamin Franklin issued his circular entitled 

 "A proposal for promoting useful knowledge 

 among the British plantations in America," 

 in which he urged the establishment of a 

 society to be called " The American Philo- 

 sophical Society." From this Society and an- 

 other organized in 1Y66, of which Franklin 

 was first president, grew in 1769 The Amer- 

 ican Philosophical Society of to-day. Of this 

 society Franklin was president from its or- 

 ganization until his death and Dr. Benjamin 

 Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of 

 Independence, was one of the secretaries. 

 The American Philosophical Society began in 

 1771 the publication of the American Philo- 

 sophical Transactions and soon assumed na- 

 tional importance and assisted in making 

 Philadelphia for many years "the metropolis 

 of American Science."^ 



To John Adams, who in 1776 seconded the 

 famous resolution of Eichard Henry Lee that 

 "these colonies are, and of right ought to be 

 free and independent states " and bore the 

 foremost place in the debate on the adoption 

 of the Declaration of Independence, our sec- 

 ond Academy of Science owes its origin. 

 The circumstances which led to Adams' deep 

 and lasting interest in scientific foundations, 

 and his part in foimding the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences which was in- 

 cooperated by the legislature of Massachu- 

 setts in 1780 and published its first memoirs 

 in 1785, are detailed by GUsode.^ One of the 

 original members of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences was Levi Lincoln, At- 

 torney-General of the United States under 

 Jefferson. 



When Washington became president these 

 two societies were the only scientific organiza- 



1 Goode, George Brown, ' ' The Origin of the Na- 

 tional Scientific and Educational Institutions of 

 the United States," Rpt. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1896-97, 

 p. 266, 1901. 



2 Goode, George Brown, op. cit., p. 268. 



3 Goode, George Brown, op. cit., p. 268-269. 



tions in this country and it is worthy of note 

 that the president, vice-president and the 

 secretary of state in that first administration, 

 were all fellows of the American Philosoph- 

 ical Society. The efforts of Washington him- 

 self and later of Madison to establish a na- 

 tional xmiversity might well be mentioned 

 here but for the fact that the national imi- 

 versity which was urged in presidential 

 messages over a century ago is not yet an 

 accomplished fact. 



The activities of the author of the Declara- 

 tion of Independence in behalf of science and 

 education are well known. In the opinion of 

 Goode* 



no two men have done so much for science in Amer- 

 ica as Jefferson and Agassiz — not so much by their 

 direct contributions to knowledge as by the im- 

 mense weight which they gave to scientific inter- 

 ests by their advocacy. 



In 1782 appeared Jefferson's "Notes on the 

 state of Virginia,"^ the first comprehensive 

 treatise on the natural history and resources 

 of one of the states, and the precursor of the 

 numerous state surveys since issued. When 

 in 1797 Jefferson came to Philadelphia to be 

 inaugurated vice-president' he brought with 

 him a collection of the fossilized bones of 

 some large quadruped and the manuscript of 

 a memoir upon them, which he read before 

 the American Philosophical Society. " The 

 spectacle," remarks Luther,' " of an American 

 statesman coming to take part as a central 



4 Goode, George Brown, ' ' The Beginnings of 

 Natural History in America," Ept. IT. S. Nat. 

 Mus., 1896-97, p. 394, 1901. 



B The first edition, 1782, was published in Paris 

 and but few copies were printed. The preface to 

 the second edition, London, 1787, states with refer- 

 ence to the Paris edition "the subjects are all 

 treated imperfectly; some scarcely touched on 

 . . . They are now [1787] offered to the public in 

 their original form and language." 



6 Goode, George Brown, ' ' The Origin of the Na- 

 tional Scientific and Educational Institutions of the 

 United States," Ept. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1896-97, 

 p. 280, 1901. 



7 Luther, E. N., ' ' Jefferson as a Naturalist, ' ' 

 Mag. Amer. Hist., Vol. 13, No. 4, p. 386-387, 

 April, 1885. 



