January 4, 1895. ] 



SCIENCE. 



Got'tlie in his Spriiche in Prom. In the 

 present address I have spoken, not of 

 ^'American Science," but of what has been 

 done in America for science. I have sum- 

 marized the work accomplislied in the 

 study of the physical conditions and bio- 

 logical statistics of two great continents. I 

 have shown that our countrj-men have 

 made important contributions to exact 

 knowledge in every one of its departments 

 from astronomy to anthropologj-, and that, 

 contrary to general belief, these have been 

 chieHy in pure science rather than in the 

 application of science. Most of our Ameri- 

 can advances in economic science, with the 

 exception of those in tlie field of electricitj^, 

 have consisted in multifarious adaptation 

 and bold application of principles and meth- 

 ods first made known in Eui'ope. Except 

 in ingenious mechanical inventions, Ameri- 

 cans have done little in connection with ap- 

 plied science that is strikingly new or great. 



It is not, however, by determinate con- 

 tributions to the aggregate of human knowl- 

 edge that America has aided most largely 

 the advance of science. It has been in a 

 manner vastly more subtle and far-reaching, 

 tlirough the action of an intellectual leaven 

 which has imbued the thought of all man- 

 kind. 



America has ahvaj-s afforded to scientific 

 workers a most sympathetic and apprecia- 

 tive audience — even at periods in her his- 

 tory when she has been producing the least 

 at home. When Auguste Comte was young 

 he intended, it is said, to seek a career on 

 this side of the sea. but was dissuaded by a 

 friend, who assured liim that if Lagi'ange 

 himself were to conu; to the United States 

 he could only earn his livelihood by turning 

 land surveyor. Tliis was alism-dly faLse, 

 for in that very year Laplace's Micuniqtie 

 Celeste was being tran.slated, for the first 

 and only time into Englisli, by Nathaniel 

 Bowditch, whose service to science, which 

 was more important througli liis connnen- 



taries than his translation, was fully ap- 

 preciated even during his own lifetime, and 

 who has ever since been esteemed one of the 

 most distinguished of our countrymen. 



European science has always been more 

 warmly appreciated by our people than con- 

 temporarj' European literature, and men 

 like Lyell, Huxley Wallace and Tyndall, 

 when thej' have come among us, have re- 

 ceived the most enthusiastic welcome, and 

 their books have been consumed in much 

 larger editions than at home, and not with- 

 out becoming royalties to their authors. 



Many others have come to us, not in pros- 

 perity but through necessity, and were none 

 the less heartily welcomed^Gallatin, Hass- 

 ler. Priestly, Cooper, Bernard, Duponceau, 

 Cupont de Nemours, Nicollet, Eau and 

 others. 



Humboldt wrote in 1807 : 



" During five years passed in the Spanish 

 colonies of America a few French emigrants 

 we found at Nueva Valencia, in Guatemala, 

 were the only ones we saw. Beyond the 

 Atlantic the United States of America af- 

 ford the only asylum to misfortune. A 

 government, strong because it is free, con- 

 fiding becausi' it is just, has nothing to fear 

 from giving refuge to the proscribed."* 



Priestly, who had been forced to with- 

 draw from the Royal Society, called Amer- 

 ica ' The Land of the future,' and Richard 

 Price, in the midst of the Revolution, one 

 of the most ])opular men in England, in de- 

 clining the invitation of Congress to remove 

 to this country wrote : " The United States 

 is now the hope and likeh' soon to become 

 the refuge of mankind." 



There is even more to be said concerning 

 the influence of our peoi)le ui)on the thought 

 and practice of the Old World. 



The liberal policy of our State and Na- 

 tional governments toward many branches 

 of scientific work is well understood abroad, 

 and has had an influence, especially in en- 

 *I'eimnnl Xairalife, Vol. ii., Cliapter I. 



