September 22, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



163 



its applications, a great deal that was worthy of the 

 name. The germs, however, were there, and the scien- 

 tific method of to-day sometimes makes them fructify in 

 ways that the authors never dreamed of. 



The materials for a history of the sciences in America 

 are ample enough. If we have regard to any one of the 

 three main divisions of the twofold continent as occupied 

 by Europeans — New Sj)ain, New England and New 

 France — we happily find that, in every instance, among 

 the pioneers, there were educated observers who, although 

 their mental horizon was contracted by prejudices char- 

 acteristic of their time, country, creed or party, or all 

 conjoined, were able to express their thoughts in intelligi- 

 ble and often in vigorous language. In some cases these 

 scribes, priests for the most part, though sometimes lay- 

 men, have given us their imj)ressions of the aborigines with 

 whom they came in contact. A few of these latter — or at 

 least half-castes — had also learned the accomplishments 

 of the new-comers and have left us what purj)ort to be 

 traditions of their race. It is also of importance, for the 

 subject under consideration, that the most learned and 

 enlightened of the conquerors won the sympathy of the 

 natives, and, although their treatment of them was not 

 always such as science would approve, they nevertheless 

 elicited from them information that science can turn to 

 advantage. If we seek to know where the materials for 

 the history of scientific progress in America may be 

 found, it is enough to mention Mr. Justin Winsor's His- 

 tory. The critical essays on the sources of information in 

 these eight volumes will, if wisely used, guide the in- 

 quirer along the path by which science, in all its 

 branches, developed during the first three centuries of 

 civilized life and labor in the new world. 



A beginning of such an investigation for the northern 

 part of the continent was made a few j'ears ago simul- 

 taneously by two members of the Eoyal Society of Can- 

 ada. Singularly enough, though one (Professor La- 

 tiamme) is a geologist, and the other (Professor Penhallow) 

 is a botanist, they both chose the same line of inquiry — 

 the progress of botanical research in Canada. Professor 

 Laflamme made a single savant (Michel Sarrazin) the 

 centre of his study, while Professor Penhallow undertook 

 to trace the successive steps by which plant-lore was de- 

 veloped in Canada. Although in each case the ground, 

 both biographic and historic, was virtually unoccupied 

 before, each winter succeeded in clearing a considerable 

 tract for the benefit of the historian of science. The 

 scientist trained in the methods of the present meets, in 

 such surveys of the past, with much that makes him 

 smile, much, perhaps, that tries his patience, but occa- 

 sionally he discovers an anticipation of knowledge long 

 ascribed to later workers. Sarrazin was a pioneer in 

 comparative anatomy as well as botany, and his observa- 

 tions were highly esteemed by the French Academy of 

 Sciences. To-day he is chiefly remembered in connection 

 with the order of polypetalous esogens (SarraceniacecB) 

 that bears his name. Another botanical name due to a 

 Canadian scientist of the French regime is Gualtheria. 

 Again, Diervilla was the name given by Tournefort to a 

 species of bush honeysuckle, out of compliment to Diere- 

 ville, who wrote the "Voyage du Port Eoyal de I'Acadie." 

 Kalm, whose assiduous services to science in North Amer- 

 ica are commemorated in Eahnia, spent considerable time 

 very pleasantly with one of the most learned of the gov- 

 ernors of the old regime, De Galisouniere. 



If we begin with the "Voyages de Decouverte" of Jacques 

 Cartier, recording impressions made on an explorer of 

 the days of Francis the First, and follow the course of 

 settlement, organization and research down to the time of 

 Kalm's visit, soon after the publication of Charlevoix's 

 history, we are not likely to miss frequent indications 



helpful to the historian of scientific progress. Sir Wil- 

 liam Dawson's "Fossil Men"is based on the discovery of re- 

 mains on the site of the Indian village of Hochelaga, 

 which, after an interval of nearly three centuries and a 

 half, confirmed the truth of Cartier's hitherto unsupiport- 

 ed story. A few years later the astrolabe of Champlain 

 was found in the track of his journey to the Mer Douce, 

 not far from the banks of the upper Ottawa, a prize for 

 more than the antiquary. Faulty as he is, when judged by 

 the rigorous standard of modern science, Chamjilaiu has 

 left us, in his writings, a rich mine for the student who 

 would compare things old with things new. In his 

 rough, practical way, he was a watchful observer, and if 

 his handling of the pencil is clumsy, he uses his pen for 

 the most part with clearness and point. In the very year 

 of his death, just a century after Jacques Cartier's visit 

 to Hochelaga, there was published at Paris a book enti- 

 tled Canadensium Flantarum Aliarumque non dum EdUaruin 

 Historia, by Jacobus Cornutus (Jacques Cornut), whose 

 share in the development of the knowledge of new-world 

 botany is the subject of a paper read by Professor La- 

 flamme before the Royal Society at Ottawa last May and 

 now in course of jJublication. Creuxius (Du Creux), 

 who wrote his history of Canada in Latin, pays some at- 

 tention to its natural history and enumerates "arhores 

 plantasque cujuscunque generis quas edere terra sponte solet." 



To the Jesuits' Relation, the Voyages of La Houtan, 

 Lafitau's 3Ioeurs des Sauvages Ameriquain» C'omparees aux 

 Moeurs dea Premiers Temps, the anthropologist and folk- 

 lorist may go as to sources of knowledge not to be 

 found elsewhere. Lafitau is, indeed, for North America, 

 the father of comparative mythology. He wrote when 

 opportunities of observing the manners and customs, 

 ceremonies and habits of thought and belief of the wild 

 tribes of Canada were still abundant, and he has dealt 

 learnedly and, so far as was loossible in his day, liberally, 

 with his themes. His two volumes are still well worth a 

 careful studj^. Besides his own experience of savage life, 

 he had derived great benefit from the gathered knowledge 

 of Pere Garnier, who had spent no less than sixty years 

 among the Indians, and knew the languages of several 

 Algonquin tribes, the Huron and the five dialects of the 

 Iroquis. Lafitau found that if the study of ancient 

 authors threw light on the usages of the Indians, the 

 latter also enabled him to understand a great deal touch- 

 ing the barbarous races of antiquity, to which he must 

 otherwise have remained a stranger. Charlevoix, be- 

 sides describing and illustrating a considerable number 

 of new-world plants, gives fruitful attention to American 

 ethnology and the customs of the aborigines. The re- 

 ports of some of the Intendants, the histories of Boucher, 

 Sagard, Le Clerc, DoUier de Carson and other contempo- 

 rary records of the old regime contain hints that the 

 student of scientific development maj turn to account. 

 Nor would it be wise to ignore the records, both French 

 and English, of far-northern and far-western exjjloration, 

 missionary, military or commercial, during the same 

 period. The story of the La Verendoye family, with its 

 romance and its tragedy, and those persistent Hudson Bay 

 Co. voyages in search of a northwest passage, with the in- 

 structions ever ending in prayer for successful discovery 

 and safe return, have also theii' scientific significance for 

 those who do not despise the day of smaU things. Some 

 of the worthiest heroes of science were those who moved 

 in the long-, slow march, which, in our more fortunate gen- 

 eration, was to be so wondrously quickened. And the 

 grandest triumphs, from the moral standjJoiut, belonged 

 to some of those who iDersevered in the face of failure, 

 knowing that not to them, but to their successors, was 

 the victory destined to fall. The records of scientific 

 progress in America abound in such heroism, and the 



