188 
CLARKE. 
The period from. 1820 to the outbreak of the civil war was 
one of steady progress in America, both as regards scientific 
research and in the development of institutions. Colleges 
were founded, societies were organized, there were better facili¬ 
ties for work, and the general appreciation of science became 
greater; but, for the reasons which were stated at the begin¬ 
ning of this address, the so-called natural sciences rather took 
the lead, and there was more activity among geologists and 
zoologists than in the field of chemistry. Many States or¬ 
ganized surveys, the General Government sent out exploring 
expeditions, and so geology and natural history received a 
patronage in which chemistry had little or no share. The 
chemists were mainly dependent upon their own resources 
and got along as best they could. Still, their number in¬ 
creased, their published investigations became more numer¬ 
ous, and their services were in greater demand both commer¬ 
cially and in the work of instruction. 
At first the would-be chemist had to make his own path¬ 
way. Chemistry was taught in the colleges, not as a profes¬ 
sion to be followed, but as a minor item in that ill-defined 
agglomeration of knowledge which in those days was called 
“ a liberal education.” In 1824, however, the Rensselaer 
Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, was founded, and a new era 
in scientific education began. In 1836 Dr. James C. Booth 
opened a laboratory in Philadelphia for instruction in prac¬ 
tical and analytical chemistry, and in 1838 Professor Charles 
T. Jackson did the same thing in Boston. Chemistry could 
now be studied in something like a systematic manner, but 
the students who were able to do so went abroad, at first to 
London, Edinburgh, and Paris, and later to the famous labo¬ 
ratory of Liebig, in Germany. The impulse toward foreign 
study continues to our own day, even though American 
facilities have increased enormously and a good chemical 
training can now be obtained at home. 
The decade from 1840 to 1850 was a period of great ad¬ 
vancement in American science, and several events of the 
utmost importance occurred. In 1829 James Smithson, an 
