PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 331 



ble that an interest in this science should be fostered, or that a spirit of investiga- 

 tion should be awakened. 



As the first distinct beginning of the science, I may mention an association 

 formed in 1798 in the City of New York, which assumed, as they ex- 

 pressed it, "the name and style of the American Mineralogical Society." It an- 

 nounced as its object "the investigation of the Mineral and Fossil bodies which 

 compose the Fabric of the Globe, and more especially for the Natural and Chem- 

 ical History of the Minerals and Fossils of the United States." The distinguished 

 Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchell, who'seems to have been a man of universal genius, 

 was at once its first President, its Librarian, and its Cabinet-keeper. The com- 

 mittee of the society issued a circular in jvhich, while expressing themselves, 

 " desirous of obtaining and diffusing by every means in their power a correct and 

 extensive knowledge of the mineral treasures of their country, they earnestly so- 

 hcited their fellow citizens to communicate to them on all mineralogical subjects, 

 but especially on the following, viz : 



I. " Concerning the stones suitable to be manufactured into gun-flints; 

 where are they found ? and in what quantity? 2. Concerning native brimstone 

 or sulphur or the waters or minerals whence it may be extracted? 3. Concern 

 ing saltpetre: where (if at all) found native ? or the soils which produce it in the 

 United States? 4. Concerning mines and ores oilead: in what places? the sit- 

 uation ? how wide the vein ?. in what kind of rock it is bedded." 



This warlike demand seems to call more for the discovery of the materials 

 for national defense than for the advancement of science, and besides being a 

 commentary on the spirit of the times, gives a rather humorous impression of 

 their strangely inadequate conception of the science of mineralogy, and its possi- 

 ble bearings on practical life. But in justice to them I should add that it is fur- 

 ther announced that !' specimens of ores, metals, coals, spars, gypsums, crystals, 

 petrifactions, stones, earths, slates, clays, chalks, limestones, marbles, and every 

 fossil substance that may be discovered or fall in the way of a traveller, which 

 can throw light on the mineralogical history of America, will be examined and 

 analyzed without cost; sufficient pieces, with the owner's leave, being reserved 

 for placing in the society's collection." I have quoted the circular almost ver- 

 batim to give you some idea of the genuine though crude longing for knowledge 

 felt by our early mineralogists, and also of the generous spirit in which they 

 worked. 



A still more forcible picture of the ignorance of the time is given by the elder 

 Professor SilHman in 181 8. " Notwithstanding the laudable efforts of a few gen- 

 tlemen," he says, "to excite some taste for mineralogy, so little had been done 

 in forming collections, in kindling curiosity and diffusing information, that only 

 fifteen years since (1803) it was a matter of extreme difficulty to obtain among 

 ourselves even the names of the most common stones and minerals." 



Such, then, was the state of knowledge in mineralogy here at the commence- 

 ment of the century. A few American minerals, collected by travelers from 

 time to time, had before this been taken to Europe for identification, but among 



