The Uses of Astronomy Part 1

The Uses of Astronomy.

by Edward Everett.

A NOTE EXPLANATORY.

The undersigned ventures to put forth this report of Mr.

EVERETT'S Oration, in connection with a condensed account of the Inauguration of the Dudley Observatory, and the Dedication of the New State Geological Hall, at Albany,--in the hope that the demand which has exhausted the newspaper editions, may exhaust this as speedily as possible; not that he is particularly tenacious of a reward for his own slight labors, but because he believes that the extensive circulation of the record of the two events so interesting and important to the cause of Science will exercise a beneficial influence upon the public mind. The effort of the distinguished Statesman who has invested Astronomy with new beauties, is the latest and one of the most brilliant of his compositions, and is already wholly out of print, though scarcely a month has elapsed since the date of its delivery.

The account of the proceedings at Albany during the Ceremonies of Inauguration is necessarily brief, but accurate, and is respectfully submitted to the consideration of the reader.

A. MAVERICK.

NEW YORK, _October 1, 1856._

TWO NEW INSt.i.tUTIONS OF SCIENCE;

AND

THE SCENES WHICH ATTENDED THEIR CHRISTENING.

In the month of August last, two events took place in the city of Albany, which have more than an ephemeral interest. They occurred in close connection with the proceedings of a Scientific Convention, and the memory of them deserves to be cherished as a recollection of the easy way in which Science may be popularized and be rendered so generally acceptable that the people will cry, like Oliver Twist, for more. It is the purpose of this small publication to embody, in a form more durable than that of the daily newspaper, the record of proceedings which have so near a relation to the progress of scientific research. A marked feature in the ceremonies was the magnificent Oration of the Hon.

EDWARD EVERETT, inaugurating the Dudley Observatory of Albany; and it is believed that the reissue of that speech in its present form will be acceptable to the admirers of that distinguished gentleman, not less than to the lovers of Science, who hung with delight upon his words.

THE DEDICATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL HALL.

On Wednesday, August 27, 1856, the State Geological Hall of New York was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies. For the purpose of affording accommodation to the immense crowds of people who, it was confidently antic.i.p.ated, would throng to this demonstration and that of the succeeding day, at which Mr. EVERETT spoke, a capacious Tent was arranged with care in the center of Academy Park, on Capitol Hill; and under its shelter the ceremonies of the inauguration of both inst.i.tutions were conducted without accident or confusion; attended on the first day by fully three thousand persons, and on the second by a number which may be safely computed at from five to seven thousand.

The announcement that Hon. WM. H. SEWARD would be present at the dedication of the Geological Hall, excited great interest among the citizens; but the hope of his appearance proved fallacious. His place was occupied by seven picked men of the American a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, one of whom (Prof. HENRY) declared his inability to compute the problem why seven men of science were to be considered equal to one statesman. The result justified the selections of the committee, and although the Senator was not present, the seven Commoners of Science made the occasion a most notable one by the flow of wit, elegance of phrase, solidity and cogency of argument, and rare discernment of natural truths, with which their discourse was garnished.

The members of the American a.s.sociation marched in procession to the Tent, from their place of meeting in the State Capitol. On the stage were a.s.sembled many distinguished gentlemen, and in the audience were hundreds of ladies. GOV. CLARK and Ex-Governors HUNT and SEYMOUR, of New York, Sir WM. LOGAN, of Canada, Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT, and others as well known as these, were among the number present. The tent was profusely decorated. Small banners in tri-color were distributed over the entire area covered by the stage, and adorned the wings. The following inscriptions were placed over the front of the rostrum,--that in honor of "_The Press_" occupying a central position:

GEOLOGY. THE PRESS.

METEOROLOGY. MINERALOGY.

METALLURGY. ETHNOLOGY.

ASTRONOMY.

The following were arranged in various positions on the right and left:

CHEMISTRY. TELEGRAPH.

PHYSIOLOGY. LETTERS.

CONCHOLOGY. HYDROLOGY.

PALaeONTOLOGY. ZOOLOGY.

MICROSCOPY. ICHTHYOLOGY.

ART. MANUFACTURES.

STEAM. AGRICULTURE.

COMMERCE. PHYSICS.

SCIENCE. ANATOMY.

NAVIGATION. BOTANY.

The proceedings of the day were opened with prayer by Rev. GEO. W.

BETHUNE, D.D., of Brooklyn.

Hon. GARRIT Y. LANSING, of Albany, then introduced Professor LOUIS AGa.s.sIZ, of Cambridge, Ma.s.s., who was the first of the "seven men of science" to entertain his audience, always with the aid of the inevitable black-board, without which the excellent Professor would be as much at a loss as a chemist without a laboratory. Professor AGa.s.sIZ spoke for an hour, giving his views of a new theory of animal development. He began by saying:--

We are here to inaugurate the Geological Hall, which has grown out of the geological survey of the State. To make the occasion memorable, a distinguished statesman of your own State, and Mr.

FRANK C. GRAY, were expected to be present and address you. The pressure of public duties has detained Mr. SEWARD, and severe sickness has detained Mr. GRAY. I deeply lament that the occasion is lost to you to hear my friend Mr. GRAY, who is a devotee to science, and as warm-hearted a friend as ever I knew. Night before last I was requested to a.s.sist in taking their place--I, who am the most unfit of men for the post. I never made a speech.

I have addressed learned bodies, but I lack that liberty of speech--the ability to present in finished style, and with that rich imagery which characterize the words of the orator, the thoughts fitting to such an occasion as this. He would limit himself, he continued, to presenting some motives why the community should patronize science, and foster such inst.i.tutions as this. We scientific men regard this as an occasion of the highest interest, and thus do not hesitate to give the sanction of the highest learned body of the country as an indors.e.m.e.nt of the liberality of this State. The geological survey of New York has given to the world a new nomenclature. No geologist can, hereafter, describe the several strata of the earth without referring to it. Its results, as recorded in your published volumes, are treasured in the most valuable libraries of the world. They have made this city famous; and now, when the scientific geologist lands on your sh.o.r.e, his first question is, "Which is the way to Albany? I want to see your fossils." But Paleontology is only one branch of the subject, and many others your survey has equally fostered.

He next proceeded to show that organized beings were organized with reference to a plan, which the relations between different animals, and between different plants, and between animals and plants, everywhere exhibit;--drew sections of the body of a fish, and of the bird, and of man, and pointed out that in each there was the same central back-bone, the cavity above and the ribbed cavity below the flesh on each side, and the skin over all--showing that the maker of each possessed the same thought--followed the same plan of structure. And upon that plan He had made all the kinds of quadrupeds, 2,000 in number, all the kinds of birds, 7,000 in number, all of the reptiles, 2,000 to 3,000 in number, all the fish, 10,000 to 12,000 in number. All their forms may be derived as different expressions of the same formula. There are only four of these great types; or, said he, may I not call them the four tunes on which Divinity has played the harmonies that have peopled, in living and beautiful reality, the whole world?

PROFESSOR HITCHc.o.c.k ON REMINISCENCES.

ERASTUS C. BENEDICT, Esq. of New York, introduced Prof. HITCHc.o.c.k, of Amherst, as a gentleman whose name was very familiar, who had laid aside, voluntarily, the charge of one of the largest colleges in New England, but who could never lay aside the honors he had earned in the literature and science of geology.

After a few introductory observations, Prof. HITCHc.o.c.k said:--

This, I believe, is the first example in which a State Government in our country has erected a museum for the exhibition of its natural resources, its mineral and rock, its plants and animals, living and fossil. And this seems to me the most appropriate spot in the country for placing the first geological hall erected by the Government; for the County of Albany was the district where the first geological survey was undertaken, on this side of the Atlantic, and, perhaps, the world. This was in 1820, and ordered by that eminent philanthropist, Stephen Van Rensselaer, who, three years later, appointed Prof. Eaton to survey, in like manner, the whole region traversed by the Erie Ca.n.a.l. This was the commencement of a work, which, during the last thirty years, has had a wonderful expansion, reaching a large part of the States of the Union, as well as Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and, I might add, several European countries, where the magnificent surveys now in progress did not commence till after the survey of Albany and Rensselaer Counties. How glad are we, therefore, to find on this spot the first Museum of Economical Geology on this side of the Atlantic! Nay, embracing as it does all the department of Natural History, I see in it more than a European Museum of Economical Geology, splendid though they are. I fancy, rather, that I see here the germ of a Cis-Atlantic British Museum, or Garden of Plants.

North Carolina was the first State that ordered a geological survey; and I have the pleasure of seeing before me the gentleman who executed it, and in 1824-5 published a report of 140 pages.

I refer to Professor Olmstead, who, though he has since won brighter laurels in another department of science, will always be honored as the first commissioned State geologist in our land.

Of the New York State Survey he said:--

This survey has developed the older fossiliferous rocks, with a fullness and distinctness unknown elsewhere. Hence European savans study the New York Reports with eagerness. In 1850, as I entered the Woodwardian Museum, in the University of Cambridge, in England, I found Professor McCoy busy with a collection of Silurian fossils before him, which he was studying with Hall's first volume of Paleontology as his guide; and in the splendid volumes, ent.i.tled _British Paleozoric Rocks and Fossils_, which appeared last year as the result of those researches, I find Professor Hall denominated the great American Paleontologist. I tell you, Sir, that this survey has given New York a reputation throughout the learned world, of which she may well be proud. Am I told that it will, probably, cost half a million? Very well.

The larger the sum, the higher will be the reputation of New York for liberality; and what other half million expended in our country, has developed so many new facts or thrown so much light upon the history of the globe, or won so world-wide and enviable a reputation?

And of Geological Surveys in general:--

In regard to this matter of geological surveys, I can hardly avoid making a suggestion here. So large a portion of our country has now been examined, more or less thoroughly, by the several State governments, that it does seem to me the time has come when the National government should order a survey--geological, zoological, and botanical--of the whole country, on such a liberal and thorough plan as the surveys in Great Britain are now conducted; in the latter country it being understood that at least thirty years will be occupied in the work. Could not the distinguished New York statesman who was to have addressed us to-day be induced, when the present great struggle in which he is engaged shall have been brought to a close, by a merciful Providence, to introduce this subject, and urge it upon Congress?

And would it not be appropriate for the American a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science to throw a pet.i.tion before the government for such an object? Or might it not, with the consent of the eminent gentleman who has charge of the Coast Survey, be connected therewith, as it is with the Ordnance Survey in Great Britain.

The history of the American a.s.sociation was then given:--

Prof. Mather, I believe, through Prof. Emmons, first suggested to the New-York Board of Geologists in November, 1838, in a letter proposing a number of points for their consideration. I quote from him the following paragraph relating to the meeting. As to the credit he has here given me of having personally suggested the subject, I can say only that I had been in the habit for several years of making this meeting of scientific men a sort of hobby in my correspondence with such. Whether others did the same, I did not then, and do not now know. Were this the proper place, I could go more into detail on this point; but I will merely quote Prof. Mather's language to the Board:--

* * * * "Would it not be well to suggest the propriety of a meeting of Geologists and other scientific men of our country at some central point next fall,--say at New-York or Philadelphia?

There are many questions in our Geology that will receive new light from friendly discussion and the combined observations of various individuals who have noted them in different parts of our country. Such a meeting has been suggested by Prof. Hitchc.o.c.k; and to me it seems desirable. It would undoubtedly be an advantage not only to science but to the several surveys that are now in progress and that may in future be authorized. It would tend to make known our scientific men to each other personally, give them more confidence in each other, and cause them to concentrate their observation on those questions that are of interest in either a scientific or economical point of view. More questions may be satisfactorily settled in a day by oral discussion in such a body, than a year by writing and publication."[A]

[Footnote A: In the letter alluded to, on examination, we discover another pa.s.sage bearing on the point, which, owing to the Professor's modesty we suspect, he did not read. Prof. Mather adds. "You, so far as I know, first suggested the matter of such an a.s.sociation. I laid the matter before the Board of Geologists of New-York, specifying some of the advantages that might be expected to result; and Prof. Vanuxem probably made the motion before the Board in regard to it."]

Though the Board adopted the plan of a meeting, various causes delayed the first over till April, 1840, when we a.s.sembled in Philadelphia, and spent a week in most profitable and pleasant discussion, and the presentation of papers. Our number that year was only 18, because confined almost exclusively to the State geologists; but the next year, when we met again in Philadelphia, and a more extended invitation was given, about eighty were present; and the members have been increasing to the present time. But, in fact, those first two meetings proved the type, in all things essential, of all that have followed. The princ.i.p.al changes have been those of expansion and the consequent introduction of many other branches of science with their eminent cultivators. In 1842, we changed the name to that of the a.s.sociation of American Geologists and Naturalists; and in 1847, to that of the American a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science. I trust it has not yet reached its fullest development, as our country and its scientific men multiply, and new fields of discovery open.

Prof. H. said of this particular occasion:--