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"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little
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From 1850 to 1875 despite ready availability and general use in medical practice for a wide range of conditions, cannabis is little used for intoxicating purposes. (86) [See (Cannabis Prohibition Previous, Next)]
In the 1850s European medical experiments with the coca leaf began and Merck became the first to manufacture cocaine, the leaf's active ingredient, in active form. (44)
In 1850 hemp was second only to cotton and tobacco production in the United States. Tariffs on imported hemp was high in order to encourage local growing. (106) In 1850 U.S. census records 8,327 hemp plantations of 2000 acres or more and an uncalculated number of small hemp farms. (28) It was America's third largest crop. It was exceeded only by cotton and tobacco. (88) [See 1849, (Cannabis Prohibition Previous, Next)]
In 1850 alanine was synthesized and obtained as a product of protein hydrolysis. (82)
In 1850 Homeopathic college founded in Cleveland, Ohio. (6)
In 1850 the Epidemiological Society (Great Britain) was founded. (1)
In 1850 the Chicago Medical Society was formed. (1)
In 1850 the average Englishman's annual consumption of sugar was 20 pounds. (44)
In 1850 Spencer F. Baird was hired by Joseph Henry as "Curator of Natural History" at the Smithsonian Institution. "With the support of the geologist James [Dwight] Dana, [John] Audubon, and (importantly) George [Perkins] Marsh of Vermont [see 1857, 1864], Baird had applied for, and after three years of delays had finally been appointed to, the new position of Curator of Natural History at the Smithsonian." (164) [orig. Dall 1915, p. 156] As indicated on page 56 of the report to the board of regents, the actual position that Baird was hired to fill was that of "Assistant Secretary". (274) "From the start the Department of Explorations was under his (Baird's) charge; and in his reports to the Secretary, published year by year in the annual report of the Institution, may be found the only systematic record of government explorations which has ever been prepared. From 1850 to 1860 several extensive government expeditions were sent to the western territories,…" (273) [See Dana 1847, note 164, note 173]
In 1850, John Pitkin Norton announced a plan calling for primary, secondary, and collegiate instruction in agricultural science and proposing that public and private schools in each State cooperate to provide an integrated course of study. At the top of his three-level system he placed "one grand central State institution, and Agricultural College," equipped with an experimental farm and staffed by professors well trained in science. The graduates of the college, he urged, should form the faculties of numerous private academies and normal schools, which in turn should train teachers for primary schools. (301)
In 1851 John S. Gould appointed to find cheapest, most nutritious kinds of diets for almshouses, prisons and hospitals in New York. (82)
In 1851 Dr. Samuel Cartwright creates a mental illness peculiar to black people. Calling the effort of slaves to escape, "Drapetomania," he says the condition can be cured by recapturing the patient, rubbing him down with oil and beating him. He feels that blacks can only achieve proper "vitalization" of the blood through manual labor: "It is the red, vital blood, sent to the brain that liberates their mind when under the white man's control; and it is the want of…red, vital blood, that chains their mind to ignorance and barbarism, when in freedom." (116)
In 1851 the American Pharmaceutical Association was founded. (91)
In 1851 Hofmeister described alternation of generations in higher plants. (87)
In January 1851, the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society is founded by Frederick Watts who then serves as the society's first president. Watts will later become as Commissioner of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (323)
In 1851, the American Geographical Society is organized (though apparently under a different name than this, its current name). The following year it is incorporated as the American Geographical and Statistical Society. (352)
On January 14, 1851, in an effort to give leadership to the movement (of creating a national organization for the promotion of agriculture), the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture requested its president, Marshall P. Wilder, to correspond with State and other agricultural societies as to the expediency of holding a national agricultural convention. This resulted in a meeting at Washington, June 24, 1852, at which the United States Agricultural Society was formed, with Wilder as president. (441) [See 1852]
In 1852 the Victoria Medical Association was founded in Australia. (1)
In 1852 philosopher Herbert Spencer coins the word, "evolution". He introduces the evolutionary theory of the brain to psychology and defines intelligence as determined by environmental influences, spurring the development of genetic psychology. He originates the phrase "survival of the fittest". He states that because women use most of their energy in the reproductive process, they have little left over and are thus naturally inferior, intellectually, to men. (116)
On June 24, 1852 the United States Agricultural Society was established. "One hundred and fifty-two delegates from 23 states and territories met at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C." (302) The meeting was called by the President of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, Marshall Pinckney Wilder. (302) The convention was called by 12 state agricultural associations. (302:24) The Michigan delegate to the convention was Rev. Charles Fox, "an Englishman educated at Rugby, and rector of the Episcopal church at Grosse Isle, near Detroit." As lecturer on "theoretical and practical agriculture," Fox will provide free lectures on agricultural science at the University of Michigan during the following year (1853). "Other lectures were given by Professor Douglass, of the geological department..." (302:59) Dr. Daniel Lee was delegate to the convention from the state of Georgia. Like Rev. Fox, he too delivered lectures on agricultural science; albeit, in different parts of the state of New York. In the Fall of 1846 he gave lectures on both agricultural chemistry and geology. "From 1851 to 1853 he was in Washington as collector of agricultural statistics for the agricultural section of the Patent Office." (302:72) "Daniel Webster, the "Marshfield farmer," attracted much attention as a delegate. Mr. Wilder presided, and on motion of Daniel Lee, editor of the Genesee Farmer in New York, but then connected with the Patent Office in Washington, it was voted to form a national agricultural society." (302) "At the meeting in 1852 there was a long discussion on a proposal to ask Congress to establish an agricultural department in the Federal Government." (302) "Justin Smith Morrill was a delegate to the United States Agricultural Society, which specifically advocated for land-grants for agricultural education in each state, based on Turner's Plan for Illinois." (442) The society met annually in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Institution. (443), (446) At the fourth annual meeting of the United States Agricultural Society held On January 9, 1857, Benjamin B. French, Joseph Henry and Spencer F. Baird were each delegates from the District of Columbia. (445) Interestingly, Benjamin B. French happened to be the Grand Master Mason of the District of Columbia who in 1847 had laid the cornerstone for the Smithsonian Institution. Likewise, Samuel T. Shugert, who at this meeting was nominated to be Vice President for Pennsylvania, was also a Mason. (444) Daniel Lee served as Secretary of the society during its formative years. (446) Benjamin B. French served as Treasurer. (445) [See note 185, note 186, 1839, 1851, 1854, 1862]
From 1853 to 1856 Florence Nightingale fed sick soldiers during the Crimean War. (82)
About 1853 Arthur Count de Gobineau publishes Essay on the Inequality of Human Races. He describes a race of Aryans superior to all other races. (116)
In 1853 an informal group of men originally named the Florentine Academy and later calling themselves the "Scientific Lazzaroni" (Italian term meaning Neapolitan beggars or idlers) is organized by Louis Agassiz and others. (162), (167) The superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey, Alexander Dallas Bache, was the group's leader. (165) His home served as the Washington, D.C. headquarters for the Lazzaroni. (166) "The goal of the Lazzaroni was to ensure that the nation's leading scientists kept control of the nation's scientific institutions..." (165) "They gathered once each winter…to review efforts and plans to secure university appointments for men who had their approval, to defend the operations of the [U.S.] Coast Survey and the Smithsonian Institution, to conclude alliances with men in strategic positions, and to wage war on 'old fogeyism,' 'charlatanism,' and 'quackery' in their profession." (182) "The original Lazzaroni consisted of Superintendent of the [U.S.] Coast Survey Alexander Dallas Bache, naturalist Louis Agassiz, Harvard Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy Benjamin Peirce, astronomer Benjamin Gould, and Harvard Professor of Greek and Latin Cornelius Felton. The group was soon joined by others, including Joseph Henry, who was perhaps the leading scientist in America at the time." (167) Smithsonian head Joseph Henry was a Lazzaroni member. (165) Other members included Yale professor of zoology and geology, James Dwight Dana, physicist John F. Frazer and the chemist Wolcott Gibbs. (162) "The national dominance of the Lazzaroni was demonstrated by the fact that its members held the office of president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science six times between 1848 and 1855. Outsiders saw these men as the 'Cambridge clique' or the 'Bache and Company party,' whose purposes were to advance personal power, control the American Association [for the Advancement of Science], the Smithsonian, and the [U.S.] Coast Survey and to exert a dominant influence over the entire structure of American science." (162) "They were instrumental in reforming the American Association for the Advancement of Science (of which Bache was president of in 1850)." (165)
By 1854 the United States Dispensatory began including marijuana as medicine. (88), (104), (123)
In 1854, 1855 Daniel Coit Gilman (S&B 1852) was at the University of Berlin working under Karl von Ritter and Friedrich Trendelenberg, both prominent "Right" Hegelians. (26)
In 1854 the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Victoria is founded in Australia. (1)
In 1854 the difference in nutritive value of proteins, (cereal seeds and legumes) shown by Lawes and Gilbert at Rothamsted, England. (82)
In 1854 the Agricultural Division of the Patent Office now employed a chemist, a botanist, and an entomologist, and was conducting experiments. During this period many farm editors, agricultural leaders, and officers of the numerous county and state agricultural societies continued to urge that agriculture be represented by a separate agency. The United States Agricultural Society assumed leadership of the movement. (94) [See 1852, 1862]
In 1854 Bayard Taylor publishes his essay, Visions of Hashish. (89) He also published A Journey to Central Africa and in 1855, The Land of the Saracens; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain. Taylor first learned of hashish in Egypt. (106)
In 1854, a secretive organization was begun in Cincinnati, Ohio called the Knights of the Golden Circle. This was the military organization of what was to become the Confederate States of America. (49)
On February 28, 1854 Pezuela confiscated the American merchant ship Black Warrior in Havana harbor and arrested its "Young America" intriguing captain, James D. Bulloch. Were it not for significant Spanish-Cuban resistance and congressional opposition, the incident would have have led to war with Attorney General Caleb Cushing calling for an immediate naval blockade of Cuba. (49) James Bulloch was Theodore Roosevelt's uncle. About four years following this event, Bulloch's sister gave birth to the future President. "Uncle Jimmy" would go on to become head of the Confederate Secret Service in Europe as well as procurer of the Confederacy's entire navy. (49) What couldn't be accomplished at this time would be attempted again in 1898, this time, at the hands of Bulloch's nephew, Theodore. (49)
In 1854 the Republican Party is created by abolitionist and ex Whig, Alvan Earle Bovay and several of his political companions, including fellow Norwich alumnus, William Huntington Russell. (355) Also an abolitionist, Russell is a close friend of John Brown (and was in fact listed in Brown's will as a trustee). Russell is also a co-founder of Yale's secret society, Skull & Bones created in 1832. (355), (357) The party's founding is generally believed to be mostly in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act which repealed the Missouri Compromise, responsible for keeping Kansas a "free" state. (356) Another founder of the party is Justin S. Morrill who introduced the Land Grant College Act signed into law in 1862. (436) [See 1832]
In 1855 the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Victoria merges to form the Victoria Medical Society. (1)
On May 1, 1855 Dr. J. Marion Sims founded Women's Hospital with the financial assistance of Mrs. Melissa Phelps Dodge. (48) Sims advertised himself as a women's specialist, particularly in "vesico-vaginal fistula," an abnormal passage between the bladder and the vagina. It is now known that this condition has always been "iatrogenic," that is, caused by the ministrations of doctors. (48)
In 1855 the first steps were taken toward eventual production of rayon. After 1900, technology would be developed to allow production of rayon and cellophane. Both are products derived from cellulose extracted from wood chips. (87)
In 1855, Pennsylvania State University is founded as the "Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania". (325) It's charter is to provide "a knowledge of the English language, grammar, geography, history, mathematics, chemistry and such other branches of the natural and exact science as will conduce to the proper education of a farmer;…" (327) It's first board Chairman is Frederick Watts of Carlisle who will eventually be appointed as Commissioner of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Penn State charter initially named 13 individuals to serve as the institution's founding Trustees. (326) These men, are noted in section 3 of the charter: "That the Governor, Secretary of the Commonwealth, the president of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, and the principle of the institution, shall each be ex-officio a member of the board of trustees, and they, with Dr. Alfred L. Elwyn, and Algernon S. Roberts, of the city of Philadelphia, H. N. McAllister, of the county of Centre, R. C. Walker, of the county of Allegheny, James Miles, of the county of Erie, John Strohm, of the county of Lancaster, A. O. Hiester, of the country of Dauphin, William Jessup, of the county of Susquehanna, and Frederick Watts, of the county of Cumberland, shall constitute the first board of trustees;..." (327) According to section 8 of its charter, the trustees of the new institution must report annually to the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. (327) [See Amos Eaton 1824, agricultural high schools 1909]
From 1856 to 1858 Timothy Dwight (S&B 1849) studied at the University of Berlin and Bonn. (26) Andrew Dickson White (S&B 1853) studied at the University of Berlin during the same period. Notably also at the University of Berlin in 1856 (at the Institute of Physiology) was none other than Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of experimental psychology in Germany. (26) [See also 1854]
In 1856 the Skull & Bones secret society at Yale is incorporated under the name Russell Trust Association. (26), (3), (361) The trust is set up by Daniel Coit Gilman (S&B 1852). (26) Gilman, Andrew Dickson White (S&B 1853) and Timothy Dwight (S&B 1849) were each educated at the University of Berlin where they were indoctrinated with Hegelian Determinism, which states that everyone must be controlled to achieve predetermined goals. (26) Daniel Coit Gilman became Treasurer and William H. Russell, the cofounder, was President. (26) The other names listed in the act of incorporation were: John S. Beach (S&B 1839), Henry B. Harrison (S&B 1846), Henry T. Blake (S&B 1848) and Henry D. White (S&B 1851). (26), (361) [See 1832, note 92, note 167]
In 1856 John Stuart Mill becomes secretary of the East India Company. (6)
In 1856 the hypodermic syringe was introduced into American medicine from England by Barker and Ruppaner. (104)
In 1856 Trypsin was described by Corvisart. (82) Lucien Corvisart described trypsin, also used pepsin therapeutically. (105)
In 1856 the first of the aniline dyes, eosin, is synthesized. This dye would later prove useful for selectively staining cytoplasmic proteins. (105)
In 1856 valine was isolated by Gorup-Besanez and the structural formula was determined by Emil Fischer. (82)
In 1856 the Provincial Medical and Surgical Society becomes the British Medical Association. (1)
In 1856 the Odontological Society of Great Britain was founded. (1)
In 1856 the California Medical Association was organized. (1)
In 1856 Dr. William Brooke O'Shaugnessy was knighted by Queen Victoria for introducing the telegraph system into India. He retired in 1861 at 52, and "for some unknown reason he changed his name to William O' Shaugnessy Brooke." (106)
From 1856 to 1860 the second of the Opium Wars is fought in order to crush Chinese resistance to opium traffic exploitation. (1) The British establish Hong Kong and Shanghai corporations to act as clearinghouse for drug transactions. (6) The British win the war and the Treaty of Tientsin is signed, legalizing opium. (86) This second war was an effort by the 'Great Powers' of the time - Britain, France, Russia, and the United States to win concessions from China. It led to the legalization of opium trafficking in China. (122) [See also 1839]
On May 24, 1856 John Brown, four of his sons, and three other followers went in the middle of the night to the cabins of pro-slavery Kansas settlers and proceeded to brutally murder the residents. Brown's deeds that night, known as the Pottawatomie Massacre, were actually defended by abolutionist newspapers. (49)
In 1857 Louis Pasteur demonstrated that lactic acid fermentation is carried out by living bacteria. (105)
In 1857 glycogen was isolated by Claude Bernard. (82)
In 1857 the Morrill Land Bill was introduced into Congress. (26) The bill included four conditions of which the fourth was as follows: "An annual report shall be made regarding the progress of each college, recording any improvements and experiments made, with their cost and results, and such other matters as may be supposed useful—one copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free, by each, to all the other colleges which may be endowed under the provisions of this act, and to the Smithsonian Institution, and the agricultural department of the Patent Office, at Washington." (302)
In 1857 Fitz Hugh Ludlow publishes The Hasheesh Eater. (89) He was captivated by The Land of the Saracens. He was profoundly influenced by Confessions of an Opium Eater. Ludlow published his book anonymously. A reviewer of the book in an 1857 edition of Harper's Magazine took considerable comfort in declaring that America was fortunately "in no danger of becoming a nation of hasheesh eaters". (106) [See 1854]
In 1857 physician John Bell, in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal said that "specimens of hashish that he had obtained from Damascus contained about 25 percent opium!" (106)
In 1857 Smith Brothers of Edinburgh market Cannabis Indica extracts. (89)
In 1857 Corvisart demonstrated the digestion of protein by pancreatic juice. (82)
In 1857 vaccination in England is enforced by fines. Smallpox epidemic begins in England that lasts until 1859. Over 14,000 die. (6)
In 1857 George Perkins Marsh publishes a report, made under authority of the legislature of Vermont, on the artificial propagation of fish, in which he also explores the effects of deforestation, agriculture and industry on fish populations. (142), (447) "At almost the same time a similar report was made to the Legislature of New Hampshire by Mr. A. H. Robinson. These had an undoubted effect on public opinion, …" (289) "The State [of Vermont] commissioned George Perkins Marsh to find out the reasons for fish decline, and study the feasibility of establishing a state-run fish-culture program to restore Vermont's depleted waters. His Report, Made Under Authority of the Legislature of Vermont on the Artificial Propagation of Fish, ... antedates by seven years the publication of his classic Man and Nature (1864), which has been called the 'fountainhead of the conservation movement'..." (236)
In 1857 the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science is created in Britain under the presidency of Henry Peter Brougham, Baron Brougham and Vaux. Among the political backers who sustained the National Association from its inception were Britain's Foreign Minister, Lord John Russell and Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, who guided the political training of ex-American George Peabody, founder of the Morgan financial empire. Russell and Shaftesbury both served as Association vice-presidents. The principle philosopher for the National Association was Herbert Spencer whose works the Association widely promoted. The president of the trade section of the National Association was Sir John Bowring. (49)
In 1857 George Perkins Marsh is appointed as Vermont's Fish Commissioner. (290), (291)
In 1858 the Obstetrical Society of London was founded. (1)
In 1858 Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz proposes that carbon atoms can form chains. (105)
In 1858 was the joint announcement by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace of the theory of natural selection. (105)
In 1858 England experiences a 7 year epidemic of Pertussis (ending in 1865) in which 120,000 die. (6)
In 1858, in Little's Living Age Magazine, an article cites drug use statistics around the world: "Tobacco is the one universal narcotic; the others are consumed by the human race in the following proportions; opium by four hundred millions, hemp by between two and three hundred millions, betel by one hundred millions, and coca by ten millions." No mention was made of alcohol, "in spite of the fact that alcohol abuse was a major problem in England in the mid-nineteenth century." (106) [See (Cannabis Prohibition Previous, Next)]
In 1859 Darwin published the Origin of the Species. (6) Actually, it was entitled, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, subtitled (note carefully) The Preservation of the Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (111)
In 1859 New York opens the first hospital for the criminally insane. (116)
In 1859 the Morrill Land Bill passed but was vetoed by President Buchanan. (26)
In 1859 the Agassiz Zoological Club was founded by a group of Louis Agassiz's aspiring students who included Alpheus Hyatt, Frederick Ward Putnam, Edward S. Morse, Addison Emery Verrill, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, Samuel H. Scudder and Albert Ordway. (162) Others included Albert S. Bickmore and Caleb Cooke. (162) By 1864, almost the entire membership of the club had abandoned both Agassiz and his teachings. (162) Agassiz had apparently helped some of his students to gain membership in the Boston Society of Natural History. (162) Addison Verrill went on to Yale where he helped to reorganize the study of zoology. Albert S. Bickmore went on to establish the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Morse, Hyatt, Packard, Putnam and Cook all took positions at the newly established Peabody Institute in Salem. (162) James Dwight Dana had encouraged students like Verrill and Bickmore in their display of independence in the museum (Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology) revolt, and Dana had hired Verrill at Yale. (162)
On October 16, 1959 John Brown and about 20 followers attacked and temporarily captured the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. (49) Brown's most determined backer, and later, controller who helped organize the raid, was one Thomas Wentworth Higginson whose family had benefited from the opium trade. (49) [See Higginson, 1876]
About 1860, whaling became less profitable and Woods Hole, (Massachusetts) entered into the second phase of its economic life which was dominated by the establishment and operation of a new commercial venture known as the Pacific Guano Works. (68)
From 1860 begins the introduction of antibiotics and immunization into the U.S. (6)
In the 1860s…A.C. Abbott of Chicago, finding plant extracts unreliable, studied Belgian techniques and isolated pure alkaloids. The drug industry, also stimulated by the Civil War, began to expand rapidly. (1) In 1860 the chief alkaloid of coca is isolated and called cocaine. (86)
In the 1860s morphine gained popularity as an anesthetic in combination with the hypodermic syringe. (44)
In 1860 the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Ohio State Medical Society's Committee on Cannabis Indica records that noted Biblical scholars of the day believe "The gall and vinegar, or myrrhed wine, offered to our Savior immediately before his crucifixion was, in all probability, a preparation of Indian hemp." (28) This is the first governmental commission to study cannabis and hashish. It catalogues the conditions for which cannabis is beneficial: neuralgia, nervous rheumatism, mania, whooping cough, asthma, chronic bronchitis, muscular spasms, epilepsy, infantile convulsions, palsy, uterine hemorrhage, dysmenorrhea, hysteria, alcohol withdrawal and loss of appetite. (89) In that report physicians told of success in treating stomach pain, childbirth, psychosis, chronic cough and gonorrhea with hemp products. (104) In 1860 the Ohio Medical Society catalogued some of the illnesses aided by marijuana: neuralgia, rheumatism, mania, asthma, convulsions, palsy, hysteria, withdrawal from alcohol, and loss of appetite. (88) Dr. R.R. M'Meens reported the findings of the Committee on Cannabis Indica to the Ohio State Medical Society. M'Meens reviewed symptoms and conditions for which Indian hemp had been found useful, including tetanus, neuralgia, dysmenorrhea, (painful menstruation), convulsions, rheumatic and childbirth pain, asthma, postpartum psychosis, gonorrhea, and chronic bronchitis. As a hypnotic (sleep-inducing drug) he compared it to opium: "It's effects are less intense, and the secretions are not so much suppressed by it. Digestion is not disturbed; the appetite rather increased; … The whole effect of hemp being less violent, and producing a more natural sleep, without interfering with the actions of the internal organs, it is certainly often preferable to opium, although it is not equal to that drug in strength and reliability." Like O'Shaughnessey, M'Meens emphasized the remarkable capacity of cannabis to stimulate appetite. (123)
In 1860 the British export 58,681 chests of opium to China. (6)
In 1860 the United States government begins a 30-year period of genocide against native American Indians in order to acquire land. Hundreds of thousands of people are rounded up, killed, or relocated to reservations. (6)
In 1860 the Food and Drug Act in England is established. (6)
In 1860 Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology is dedicated and opened to the public. (162) The museum had been incorporated the year prior. Trustees of the corporation included Louis Agassiz, James Walker, Jacob Bigelow, William Gray, James Lawrence, Nathaniel Thayer, Samuel Gray Ward, George Ticknor and Samuel Hooper. (162) The "building committee", headed by Jacob Bigelow and Samuel Hooper, also included Samuel Gray Ward, John Murray Forbes, Martin Brimmer, Gardner Brewer, Ezra Lincoln, James Lawrence and William W. Greenough. Both Theodore Lyman and George Ticknor were key figures in the building's fund-raising drive. (162)
In the latter part of the 1860s, thousands of Chinese immigrants poured into the American west to work on the railways that were beginning to tentacle across the country. By the end of the 1870s, the construction boom petered out and there were more men than jobs. The railway and mining companies, the large farm owners, and manufacturers took advantage of the situation and offered the lowest possible wages for whatever work they had available. Although white laborers were unwilling to accept the pittances being offered, the Chinese had no such scruples. They needed to survive and they took what they could find. White laborers reacted by blaming the Chinese for ruining the economy and taking jobs away from native Americans. (106)
In 1860, over the course of four meetings of the Boston Society of Natural History (occurring from February through April of that year), Louis Agassiz and William Barton Rogers engaged in debate over Darwin's propositions. During the debate, Agassiz argues against Darwin's ideas and Rogers, for them. In July Agassiz published his review of Darwin's book in which he states that the arguments of the Origin "have not made the slightest impression on my mind," he informed readers of the American Journal of Science, "nor modified in any way the views I have already propounded…" (162)
In 1861 the well-known ichthyologist, Theodore N. Gill published his Catalogue of the Fishes of the Eastern Coast of North America from Greenland to Georgia. (68)
On December 3, 1861 President Abraham Lincoln, in a message to Congress, proposed a Federal Agricultural Board. (94)
In 1861 the Civil War begins.
In 1861 Alexander von Humboldt published the last of five volumes of his encyclopedic Cosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe. The first volume was published in 1845. [See note 149]
On May 15, 1862 President Lincoln signed the act authorizing a U.S. Department of Agriculture. He referred to the newly formed Department as the "People's Department". The Department was headed by a Commissioner, Isaac Newton, rather than by a cabinet-level Secretary. (94) Prior to this time, functions relating to agriculture were performed by the Agricultural Division of the U.S. Patent Office. (315) "Of the nine hundred or more agricultural societies in active operation before the Civil War, none had so pronounced an effect on future American agricultural policies as did the United States Agricultural Society." (314) Newton's staff (nine employees) were the members of the former Agricultural Division of the United States Patent Office of the Department of the Interior. (318) The first Commissioner was Isaac Newton, who had also been superintendent of the former Agricultural Division of the Patent Office. (319) The seven Commissioners appointed to head the department in the beginning were: Isaac Newton (1862-1867), John W. Stokes (1867-1867), Horace Capron (1867-1871), Frederick Watts (1871-1877), William G. LeDuc (1877-1881), George B. Loring (1881-1885), Norman J. Colman (1885-1889). (440), (320) [See note 169, 1852, 1854]
On May 20, 1862 Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. (94)
On July 2, 1862 the Morrill Act provided grants of land to state colleges in which the "leading object" should be to teach subjects "related to agriculture and the mechanic arts," without excluding the general sciences and classical studies. It also provided for training in military science. (1) The act led to the establishment of a Land Grant College in each state. (82) Over 13,000,000 acres of federal land were given to states to support the establishment of colleges for the agricultural and mechanical arts. (87) The legal procedure was for the Federal government to issue land scrip in proportion to a state's representation, but state legislatures first had to pass legislation accepting the scrip. Not only was Daniel Coit Gilman (S&B 1852) first on the scene to get Federal land scrip, he was first among all the states and grabbed all of Connecticut's share for [Yale's] Sheffield Scientific School! Likewise, all of New York's share of the Land Grant College Act went to Cornell University. Andrew Dickson White (S&B 1853) was the key activist in New York. (26) Louis Agassiz championed the cause for Harvard. (162) Frederick Watts lobbied for passage of the Morrill Act and land scrip was subsequently obtained for the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. (434), (435) [See note 176, (Morrill Next)]
In 1862 the minimum dietary standards for survival of the unemployed poor was prepared by Edward Smith for the Privy Council of England. (82)
In 1862 Max Joseph von Pettenkofer devised an apparatus for analyzing respiratory gas exchange, thus making possible indirect calorimetry by the determination of respiratory quotients. (105)
In 1862 Abraham Lincoln outlaws the trade in Chinese coolies (laborer / slaves). (6)
In 1863 Daniel Coit Gilman (S&B 1852) became Professor of Physical Geography at [Yale's] Sheffield Scientific School. (26)
In 1863 Senator Henry Wilson nominated Louis Agassiz to the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. (162)
In 1863 Congress establishes a "Permanent Commission" composed of Alexander Dallas Bache, Charles Henry Davis and Joseph Henry. Patterned after the "Select Commission" of the British Navy, this body was charged with the responsibility of reporting to the Navy on scientific research which might be useful in the war effort. (162)
In 1863 the National Academy of Sciences is founded in Washington, D.C. (6) The founding members of the academy (based on the 1924 painting by Albert Herter which hangs in the NAS boardroom) are Benjamin Peirce, Alexander Dallas Bache, Joseph Henry, Louis Agassiz, President Lincoln, Senator Wilson of Massachusetts, Admiral Charles Henry Davis and Benjamin Apthorp Gould. (169) Henry Wilson introduced a bill in the Senate on February 21, 1863, incorporating the National Academy of Sciences according to the arrangements discussed in Bache's home. The bill was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Lincoln on March 3. With official sanction, the American version of the French Academy came into being. The fathers of the Academy were Bache, Davis, Agassiz, and Henry Wilson. (???) Benjamin Silliman was also a founder. (217)
In 1863 Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation frees 3 million slaves in the U.S. (6) [See 1849]
In 1863 England's second major epidemic of smallpox lasts until 1865 and kills 20,000. (6)
In 1863, as a result of continued dissatisfaction by British and Irish fishermen who were concerned that fish species were becoming depleted along the coasts of the British Isles, a Royal Commission was appointed to investigate the status of the coastal fisheries. This commission was comprised of James Caird, G. Shaw-Lefevre and Thomas Henry Huxley. (451) [See Huxley 1872, Exhibition 1883]
In 1864 the Long Walk of the Navajos begins. (6)
In 1864 Ernst Haeckel outlines the essential elements of modern zoological classification. (105)
In 1864 Louis Pasteur invents pasteurization process for wine. (6)
In 1864 chemical methods for analysis of foodstuffs was developed by Henneberg. (82)
In 1864 George Perkins Marsh publishes Man and Nature. (95) Actually it was entitled, Man and Nature: Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, (revised in 1874 as The Earth as Modified by Human Action). It is the first systematic analysis of humanity's destructive impact on the environment and a work which becomes (in Lewis Mumford's words) "the fountain-head of the conservation movement." (142), (236) In his book, Marsh cites the slaughter of menhaden "as evidence of man's destructiveness." (215:74) [See 1840]
In 1864 Ernst Felix Emmanuel Hoppe-Seyler performed the first crystallization of a protein: hemoglobin. (105) According to (82) this took place in 1867.
From 1865 to 1870 the Joseph Beal Steere expedition is carried out in the Philippines and South America, sponsored by the University of Michigan. (145), (148)
In 1865 the average American's annual consumption of sugar was 18.2 pounds. (44)
In 1865 Cornell university, Ithaca, N.Y. is founded by Andrew Dickson White (S&B 1853) with the aid of a gift of money from Ezra Cornell and a land grant from the state, under the Morrill Act of 1862. (1) White serves as the first President of Cornell. (130) Louis Agassiz "helped in the founding of Cornell University." (162) Two of Agassiz's best students, Burt G. Wilder and Charles F. Hartt, were appointed on Agassiz's recommendation as the first teachers of natural history at Cornell. (162) [See (Morrill Previous, Next)]
In 1865 the first major foundation, the Peabody Education Fund is formed by George Peabody, founder of the J.P. Morgan banking firm; it later became the Rockefeller Foundation. (48) This is the first "tax exempt charitable foundation". (6) Daniel Coit Gilman (S&B 1852) was a founding member. (26) The fund was endowed with $1 million in government bonds. Ostensibly set up to educate Southern Negroes after the Civil War, it was a key operation in the carpetbagger strategy to gain control of Southern lands and to control their state governments.…Because of its international connections, the Peabody Fund attracted a stellar board of directors. Gen. Ulysses Grant served on its board for eighteen years; Grover Cleveland served fourteen years; McKinley, two years; Theodore Roosevelt thirteen years. J.P. Morgan served on the board for 28 years and never missed a meeting. His partner, Anthony Drexel, served 12 years. (130) Theodore Lyman served as a trustee. (286)
In 1865 Lincoln is assassinated. (6)
In 1865 the Ku Klux Klan is founded in Tennessee. (96)
In 1865 Gregor Mendel reported his experiments on heredity in peas at the Brunn Society for Study of Natural Science. (82) Gregor Mendel discovered and published the basic patterns of inheritance and his understanding of the hereditary nature of variation between individuals in a population. It is puzzling that Mendel's works, though highly complementary to Darwin's concepts, were not brought forth for general scientific discussion until after 1900. (87)
In 1865 serine was obtained from hydrolysis of silk protein by Cramer. (82)
In 1865 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is founded. (6)
In 1865 the Thayer Expedition, headed by Louis Agassiz parts for South America. Expedition members included William James, Stephen V.R. Thayer (son of the expedition's patron), Joel Asaph Allen, ornithologist; John Gould Anthony, conchologist; Orestes St. John, paleontologist; and Charles Frederick Hartt, geologist. (162)
In 1865, Vermont enacts legislation establishing a state Fish Commission. Albert D. Hagar and Charles Barrett are appointed commissioners. (288)
In 1865, New Hampshire enacts legislation establishing a state Fish Commission. Henry A. Bellows and W. A. Sanborn are appointed commissioners. (288)
On May 3, 1865 Massachusetts enacts legislation establishing the nation's first state Fish Commission. (284) Theodore Lyman III is chosen as Fish Commissioner along with Alfred A. Reed of Boston. "In the governor's eyes, Lyman was perfect for the job. He was a recent veteran, a Harvard man, and a respected scientist and protege of the nation's leading scientist, Louis Agassiz, who had alread advised the state on the issue of fish and pisciculture. Lyman was a member of one of the leading families of the state." (285)
On May 10, 1865, Jefferson Davis, the deposed "President" of the "Confederate States of America" was captured by the U.S. Army in Irwinsville, Georgia. Jefferson Davis's "ladies" Colonel William Preston Johnston, Jefferson Davis's aide-de-camp, and Burton Norvell Harrison, Jefferson Davis's private secretary, were captured along with Jefferson Davis. William Preston Johnston (S&B 1852) and Burton Norvell Harrison (S&B 1859) were both members of Skull and Bones at Yale University! (369)
In the Fall of 1865, the Boston branch of the British Association for the Promotion of Social Science was created. It was initially established as the Social Science League and soon renamed to the American Social Science Association. This new American branch was the Boston headquarters for the movement to outlaw the greenbacks that Lincoln had issued and to force a contractionist credit and currency policy. As of 1869, David Wells, Arthur L. Perry and Amasa Walker—all Cobden Clubbers—were three of the four executive board members of the Association while Charles Francis Adams, Jr., was treasurer. Franklin Sanborne was the General Secretary. John M. Forbes was the Association's actual founder as well as its permanent controller. (49) "The American Association for the Promotion of Social Science (est.1865) was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, by several high-profile academics. Officers in the first years of the society included William B. Rogers, Thomas Hill, George S. Boutwell, Francis Lieber, Erastus O. Haven, Mary Eliot Parkman, David A. Wells, Emory Washburn, Caroline Healey Dall, Samuel Eliot, F. B. Sanborn, Joseph White, George Walker, Theodore W. Dwight, and James J. Higginson." (472) "Meetings took place in Boston at the State House (Oct. 1865) and the Lowell Institute (Dec. 1865); and in New York at the YMCA on 5th Ave. (Nov. 1867). In 1866, the group joined with the 'Boston Social Science Association' to form a joint committee called the 'American Social Science Association' (ASSA); the committee met in Boston's city hall to discuss school reform and other matters. 'The first annual meeting of the ASSA ... was ... held [in] 1868.'" (472) "In 1898, the society founded the National Institute of Arts and Letters which developed into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1912, the society founded the National Institute of Social Sciences which absorbed the ASSA in 1928." (473) "The ASSA was chartered by an act of the 56th Congress on January 28, 1899. In 1912, the ASSA created NISS as a separate department. In 1926, when the ASSA dissolved, an act of Congress transferred its congressional charter to the NISS 'for the furtherance of the interests of social science.'" (474)
In 1866 Ernst Heinrich Haeckel hypothesizes that the nucleus of a cell transmits its hereditary information. (105)
In 1866 German biologist Ernst Haeckel coins the word "ecology". (95) He used the term to describe the study of living organisms and their interactions with other organisms and with their environment. (105)
In 1866 the philanthropist George Peabody presented Harvard University with a gift of $150,000 in the form of a trust fund to found both a museum and a professorship of "American Archaeology and Ethnology." (162)
In May of 1866 the first meeting of the Cobden Club—named in honor of Richard Cobden, the "apostle of free trade" who had died a year earlier—is held. It is organized by Louis Mallet. Its mission is to remove the influence of Lincoln's dirigist economics from U.S. politics and government. Cobden's executive committee was led by John Stuart Mill. Among the important of the American members were the Adams brothers, Henry, John Quincy II and Charles Francis Adams, Jr., the corrupted grandsons of President John Quincy Adams. A more complete list follows: Charles Francis Adams Jr., Henry Adams, John Quincy Adams II, Martin B. Anderson, Edward Atkinson, George Bancroft, Henry Ward Beecher, John Bigelow, William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Cyrus Field, David Dudley Field, James A. Garfield, Reverdy Johnson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hugh McCulloch, Alfred Pell Jr., Arthur Latham Perry, Mahlon Sands, Carl Schurz, Charles Sumner, William G. Sumner, Theodore Roosevelt, David A. Wells. (49) Additionally, the publisher of the Springfield Republican (Illinois), Samuel Bowles—who will soon publicize John Wesley Powell's exploits to a national audience—was elected to the Cobden Club in 1872, the same year as Secretary of Interior, Carl Schurz, to whom Powell will later submit his Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States. (49)
In 1866 New York attorney David Dudley Field traveled to London on a rather strange mission. Meeting with the British Association for the Promotion of Social Science, Field was named head of a commission to write a single code of laws which were intended to be imposed in every country of the world! Frederick Barnard was designated Field's assistant. The Field Code was eventually adopted by the British as the law of India and 24 states of the U.S. took all or part of the code into their statute books. (49)
In 1866, the Western Health Reform Institute was founded by the Seventh Day Adventists. It would later become the Battle Creek Sanitarium and come under the direction of John Harvey Kellogg from 1876 to 1943. (1)
In 1866, Connecticut enacts legislation establishing a state Fish Commission. F. W. Russell and Henry C. Robinson are appointed commissioners. (288)
In February of 1866, the "Calaveras Skull" was unearthed from a "mining shaft at Bald Hill in Angels Camp, California, 130 feet below the surface, beneath a cap of lava." (293), (294) The miner who discovered it was a Mr. Mattison, who was the principle owner of the mine. The skull was eventually sent to California state geologist, Josiah D. Whitney who then journeyed to the site to question Mr. Mattison regarding the discovery. Whitney, convinced that the discovery was authentic, later presented a report to the California Academy of Sciences in which he affirmed that the skull had been found in the Pliocene strata. (294) Almost immediately, articles began appearing in the press declaring the discovery a "hoax". Later, in 1879, Whitney answers his critics in his The Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California in which he…over the course of about 7 pages of text (pp 267-274)…masterfully dismantles their arguments, piece by piece (he then goes on to show that the Calaveras Skull finding itself wasn't unique and nor was it unique in implicating an extreme antiquity of man existing in the same basic form as in modern times). (295) [See also 1873]
In April, 1866 Pennsylvania enacts legislation establishing a state Fish Commission. (284) James Worrall is selected as its first commissioner. (287)
In 1867 the Canadian Medical Association, Toronto is founded. It publishes a Journal and the Canadian Journal of Surgery. (1)
In 1867 the Vaccination Act of 1867 in England begins to elicit protest from the population and increase the number of anti-vaccination groups. It compelled the vaccination of a baby within the first 90 days of its life. Those who objected would be continually badgered by magistrates and fined until the child turned 14. The law was passed on the assurance of medical officials that smallpox vaccinations were safe. (6)
In 1867 Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, (U.S. Geological Survey) leads his first Federally-sponsored survey in the West. The survey ends in 1878. (142)
In 1867 Joseph Lister introduces sanitation into surgery, over the objections of leading English surgeons. (6)
In 1867 iron was believed to be a dietary essential by Boussingault; he analyzed food for iron and calculated iron content of diets. (82)
In 1867, The New York State Fisheries Commission (or Fish Commission) is founded by Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, the uncle of soon to be U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt. For the next 20 years, "uncle Bob" will serve as the state's Fish Commissioner. (250) The New York State Fisheries Commission is created from the efforts of members of the New York Sportsmen's Club (renamed in 1874 to the New York Association for the Protection of Game). Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, a member of the New York Sportsmen's Club since 1864, personally presented the bill to the legislature. He was also appointed one of the Commission's first commissioners and he served in that position "without pay" for 20 years, (1868-1888). (236), (250) In addition to Robert B. Roosevelt, Horatio Seymour and Seth Green were also selected as commissioners. (288) [See 1885]
On March 30, 1867 the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire for 7.2 million U.S. dollars. (395)
On January 1, 1867 Maine enacts legislation establishing a state Fish Commission. (284) Nathan W. Foster and Charles G. Atkins were chosen as commissioners. (288)
In 1868 the National Academy of Science is set up by an act of Congress. (6)
In 1868 glutamic acid was isolated by Ritthausen by acid hydrolysis of wheat gluten. (82)
In 1868 the Pharmacy Act was enacted in Great Britain. (91)
In 1868 the first U.S. Department of Agriculture, (USDA) building was completed. (94)
In 1868 Charles Darwin elaborated the theory of pangenesis and gave it its name. (105)
In 1868 the Emir of Egypt makes the possession of cannabis a capital offense. (89), (106) [See 1874, (Cannabis Previous, Next)]
In 1868, the Commissioner of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Gen. Horace Capron was approached by Hon. Seth Green, then fish commissioner in New York, by United States Treasurer, Spinner and others to bring the possibilities of fish culture to the attention of Congress. A number of articles published at this time and in the years immediately succeeding made way for the United States Fish Commission. (320)
In 1868 the Alaska Commercial Company is organized. The original members include Hayward M. Hutchinson, William Kohl "and five others." (387) Included in these "five others" apparently are the names of Louis Sloss, Lewis Gerstle and A. Wassermann. (388) Both Gerstle and Sloss were San Francisco merchants. (389)
In 1869 chloral hydrate was introduced. (104) It was introduced into medicine (at the time when cannabis, alcohol and opium were the main central nervous system depressants) by O. Liebreich on the erroneous assumption that it would be changed to chloroform in the body and thus act as an anesthetic. (1)
In 1869 the Conference of the British Medical Association devotes its surgery discussions to an attack on antiseptic theory and the work of Lister. (6)
In 1869 margarine was developed by the French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès who used margaric acid, a fatty acid. (1), (9) The high butter prices in France in the period before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870—1871 prompted Napoleon III to organize a competition for the invention of a cheaper and less perishable substitute for butter that could be used to alleviate the fat shortage among the low-income sections of the population and supply the armed forces with a source of food energy. The competition was won in 1869 by Mège-Mouriès who produced a butter substitute by forming an emulsion of skim milk dispersed in beef fat, which was subsequently solidified by chilling and worked to improve the texture. The product was called margarine because of the pearly lustre of the fat crystals, a name derived from the Greek word for pearl—margarites. (83) [See (EFAs Previous, Next)]
In 1869 the Victoria Medical Society changes it's name to become the Medical Association of Victoria. (1)
In 1869 the English psychologist Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, published Hereditary Genius. Cornell University anthropology professor Davydd Greenwood described this work as "an impassioned brief for hereditary aristocracy that became the first modern document of the modern eugenics movement." (78) It stresses that the upper classes should be encouraged to have children, whereas lower class people should be induced, or compelled, to have fewer. He expands on Darwin's theories in an attempt to prove that mental attributes are hereditary and conducts the first word association test. (116)
In 1869 the nucleic acids are discovered by Miescher. (82)
In 1869 John Wesley Powell leads his first expedition through the canyons of the Colorado, with support from the Smithsonian Institution and private organizations. His formal report on this and subsequent expeditions is published in 1875 as Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its Tributaries. (142)
In 1869, the American Museum of Natural History is established. (344) It will open to the public in 1873. (163) The museum is founded by Albert S. Bickmore, a former student of Louis Agassiz. (163) Other founders include Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., the father of the 26th U.S. President, John David Wolfe, William T. Blodgett, Robert L. Stuart, Andrew H. Green, Robert Colgate, Morris K. Jesup, Benjamin H. Field, D. Jackson Steward, Richard M. Blatchford, J. Pierpont Morgan, Adrian Iselin, Moses H. Grinnell, Benjamin B. Sherman, A. G. Phelps Dodge, William A. Haines, Charles A. Dana, Joseph H. Choate, Henry G. Stebbins, Henry Parish, and Howard Potter. (344) In 1900 Hermon C. Bumpus, then director of the Woods Hole Fisheries Laboratory, will become curator of invertebrate zoology at the museum and in 1902, its first director. (345)
In 1869 Ferdinand Hayden presented his report on the exploration of Colorado and New Mexico, to the Secretary of the Interior. (49) [See 1867]
From 1870 to 1871 was fought the Franco-Prussian war. (82)
From 1870 to 1880 the patent medicine craze peaks. (86)
From 1870 to 1880 physiological chemistry began to separate from physiology. (82)
In the 1870s and 1880s margarine is produced in the U.S. by means of typical butter-working equipment of the time. (1)
In the 1870s Jean Martin Charcot's idea that ovarian pressure leads to hysteria causes the removal of millions of women's ovaries. Most patients are middle class females who are not inmates in mental institutions. This treatment is used for symptoms that are vaguely defined. (116)
In the 1870s, Sims began to specialize in the treatment of cancer at Women's Hospital. The trustees of the institution reported that "the lives of all the patients were being threatened by mysterious experiments." Dr. Sims was fired from Women's Hospital. However, because of his powerful financial supporters, he was soon reinstated. (48)
In 1870 the "during the Franco-Prussian War, every German soldier was vaccinated. The result was that 53,288 otherwise healthy men developed smallpox. The death rate was high." This, according to the magazine, Plain Talk. (48)
In 1870 amygdalin, (laetrile) is listed in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia, (the FDA grandfather clause prevents the FDA from claiming jurisdiction). (6)
In 1870 cannabis is listed in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia as a medicine. (89), (124)
In 1870 South Africa, worried about cannabis use among Indian workers, passes a law forbidding the smoking, use or possession of hemp by Indians. (89) European settlers became so alarmed at the alleged dangers of cannabis to South Africa that they passed a law "prohibiting the smoking, use or possession by the sale, barter, or gift to, any coolies whatsoever, of any portion of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa)…" The laws were ignored, and measures taken again in 1887. (106) [See (Cannabis Prohibition Previous, Next)]
In 1870 the third major smallpox epidemic in England begins and lasts until 1872. Over 44,800 dies. (6)
In 1870 the American Fish Culturists' Association is founded in New York City. (66), (254) One of its founders is Livingston Stone. Theodore Roosevelt's uncle, Robert Barnwell Roosevelt was President of the association from 1874 to 1882. (254) In 1878 the association changed its name to the American Fish Cultural Association and in 1884 it was changed again to its present form, the American Fisheries Society. In 1911 the association is incorporated. (346) Officers during the early years (through 1878) included: A. S. Collins, Barnet Phillips, B. F. Bowles, Eugene G. Blackford, George S. Page, Livingston Stone, M. C. Edmunds, Robert B. Roosevelt, William Clift. Others early members include: Seth Green, Frederick Mather, etc. (???) At the third annual meeting, "on motion of Mr. George S. Page, the periodical Forest and Stream—which is edited by George Bird Grinnell—was made the official paper of the association." (347) William Clift became the first president and Livingston Stone the first secretary. (380) In the first meeting held in New York City, attendees "endorsed political support for formation of a U.S. federal agency with a focus on fish and fisheries." George Shepard Page called for the new society to "broaden its purpose beyond fish culture and deal with fishery issues and problems, and work with Congress." (380) The sought after federal agency which the society helped to create was legislated into existence the following year (in 1871) and named, the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. [See 1871]
In 1870 Congress passes An Act to Prevent the Extermination of Fur-Bearing Animals in Alaska, the first of numerous Congressional and Presidential efforts in the coming decades to protect the economically valuable Pacific fur seals by regulating their hunting. (142)
In 1870 Harper's New Monthly Magazine publishes an article by William H. Waddle, Jr., deploring the indiscriminate destruction of American wildlife and advocating stringent legal protection. (142)
In 1870 Congress establishes national weather warning service under the Secretary of War. (136)
In 1870 a bill dated June 29 provided for administration of Marine hospitals within a Bureau of the Treasury Department with a medical officer in charge. (80)
On July 1, 1870 the Alaska Commercial Company is awarded the privilege, through an Act of Congress, to pursue fur sealing on the Pribilof islands. The lease is for 20 years. (387)
In 1871 Charles Darwin's Descent of Man is published in which the role of sexual selection in evolution is described for the first time. (105)
In 1871 worldwide epidemic of smallpox begins. It claims 8 million people worldwide. (6)
In 1871 [Yale's] Sheffield Scientific School was incorporated and the following six men became trustees: Charles J. Sheffield, Prof. G.J. Brush, Daniel Coit Gilman (S&B 1852), W.T. Trowbridge, John S. Beach (S&B 1839) and William W. Phelps (S&B 1860). In addition, the benefactor's son, George St. John Sheffield, was initiated into Skull & Bones in 1863 and the first Dean of Sheffield was J.A. Porter, first member of Scroll & Key, (a competing senior secret society at Yale). (26)
In 1871 the U.S. Dairy Company in New York City began production of "artificial butter." (9)
In January 1871 Spencer Fullerton Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, wrote to Congress calling attention to the problem of depletion of food fishes of the seacoasts and lakes of the United States and offering suggestions for remedial measures (see note 165 for an excerpt from Baird's letter). (63) A Joint Resolution which proposed a study of the problem was debated in the House. The Committee Chairman was Henry Laurens Dawes, Republican of Massachusetts. The Congressional Globe, (predecessor of the Congressional Record) for January 18, 1871 reports: "The Resolution was read and the opposition reserved all points of order whereupon Chairman Dawes read the letter from Mr. Baird and added his own testimony to the need for scientific investigation." The record, as reported in the Congressional Globe, indicated that other scientists involved also would serve without additional salary, and would be recruited from among personnel of the Smithsonian. Due to opposition from Representative Farnsworth, Republican of Illinois, the resolution was deferred. Five days later, on January 23, Chairman Dawes again asked for unanimous consent to introduce the same resolution for immediate action. A vote was taken and it was decided in the affirmative—yea's 137, nay's 47, not voting 54. (63) "With the help of Senator Edmunds of Vermont and Representative Henry Dawes of Massachusetts, Baird had started to work on Congress in 1870." (164) [See 1850, 1875, note 164]
On February 9, 1871 President Grant signed a bill recognizing a national interest in fisheries conservation by creating the independent Office of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, also sometimes known as the Fish Commission or Food Fish Commission. (63), (450), (455) This bill created the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries as the first Federal agency concerned with natural resources and Spencer F. Baird is appointed its first Commissioner. (20) "Since 1871 Congress has given the federal fishery agency a broad mandate to study aquatic resources," (63) The joint resolution passed by Congress authorized the President to appoint a commissioner of fish and fisheries to investigate the declining numbers of coastal and lake food fishes, and to recommend remedial measures to Congress." (142) The Fish Commission was initially created as a part of the Smithsonian Institution (though it became independent of it in 1888). (218) New York State Fish Commissioner Robert Barnwell Roosevelt—uncle of later U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt—assisted "as a member of Congress in getting the law passed which established the United States Fishery Commission [sic]…" (251) Robert Barnwell Roosevelt was the originator of the bill that established the U.S. Fish Commission and as of 1867, he was also Fish Commissioner for the State of New York. (250), (252) [See U.S. Biological Survey 1885, American Fish Culturists' Association 1870]
In 1871 the Select Committee of the Privy Council is convened to inquire into the Vaccination Act of 1867 (England), as 97.5% of the people who died from smallpox were vaccinated for it. (6)
In 1871 the nation's first fisheries laboratory is established at Woods Hole, Massachusetts by the U.S. Fish Commission, the forerunner of today's National Marine Fisheries Service, (NMFS). The first Commissioner is Spencer F. Baird. (20) In the first years, work was carried out by a number of eminent scientists brought to Woods Hole by Baird. Included in the list were such notables as Addison E. Verrill, Louis Agassiz, Theodore Gill, and George Brown Goode. … The permanent buildings ultimately came about, in part, because three institutions, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and Williams College, pledged funds to assist in the purchase of land. Many others, including local citizens, also contributed property and funds. Money was also provided by Alexander Agassiz. Baird noted in 1885 that "The colleges in question and Mr. Agassiz made their contributions with the understanding that, as far as possible, they were each allowed to send one specialist to the station for the purpose of carrying on scientific research." (64) A.E. Verrill was one of the principle collaborators in the studies conducted at Woods Hole. He was a professor from Yale University whom Baird appointed as his assistant and placed in charge of the investigations of marine invertebrates. (68) At the time of his arrival at Woods Hole in 1871, Baird was well known to the scientific circles of this country and abroad as a naturalist [like Charles Darwin], student of classification and distribution of mammals and birds, and as a tireless collector of zoological specimens. He maintained voluminous correspondence with the scientists in the United States and Europe, and was Permanent Secretary of the recently organized American Association for the Advancement of Science. (68)
In 1871 the Fish Commission is directed by Congress…to determine whether a diminution of the number of food-fishes of the coast and lakes of the U.S. has taken place; and, if so, to what causes the same is due; and whether any and what protective prohibitory or precautionary measures should be adopted in the premises… Baird immediately initiates a broad spectrum of ecological research. (20)
In 1871 Vinal N. Edwards, the first permanent federal employee of the fisheries service is employed as an all-around technician, a position he holds until his death in 1919. Edwards had no scientific background but was often described as an "intuitive" naturalist with an encyclopedic knowledge of the ocean processes and marine life in and around Woods Hole. (20)
In April 1871 Dr. John Maynard Woodworth was appointed supervising surgeon, (Surgeon General) of the Marine Hospital Service, (later the U.S. Public Health Service), marking the beginning of central control of Marine hospitals. (80) [See 1870]
In 1871, the national periodical American Sportsman is founded. (236)
On March 13, 1871 the Philosophical Society of Washington was founded by Joseph Henry. (201) "The aims of the Society are the promotion of science, the advancement of learning, and the free exchange of views among its members on scientific subjects." During the first years of the Society the leading themes of the communications were astronomy, geography, physics, and biology. Geology, meteorology, and anthropology gained the floor of the Society during these beginnings owing to the rapid growth of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Weather Bureau (now part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA), and the Bureau of Ethnology (of the Smithsonian Institution). (201) From 1878 to 1887 meetings were held in the library of the Surgeon's General Office in Ford's Theater (converted into Government office space some time after President Lincoln was assassinated there). Since March 26, 1887, (the date of the 300th meeting of the Society), the regular meeting place has been the assembly hall of the Cosmos Club, now called the John Wesley Powell Auditorium. (201) [See Cosmos Club]
From 1872 to 1876 the Challenger expedition greatly extended knowledge of the extent and variety of marine life. (105)
In 1872, 44,480 people were killed by the smallpox vaccine in England. After the use of cowpox vaccine became widespread in England, a smallpox epidemic broke out which killed 22,081 people. (48)
In 1872 the American Fish Culturists' Association named Spencer F. Baird and Samuel Wilmot as honorary members. (66)
In 1872 Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig and Eduard Friedrich Wilhelm Pflüger, (Pflueger) studied the processes of gas exchange in the blood and showed that oxidation occurs in the tissues rather than in the blood. (105) [See 1875]
In 1872 Anton Dohrn established the Naples Biological Station [the Stazione Zoologica]. (105) Thomas Huxley was a founder. (232:195) [Regarding Huxley, see 1863]
In 1872 the first meeting of the American Public Health Association was held. (82), (352)
In 1872 Yellowstone National Park was established. (95)
In 1872 Daniel Coit Gilman (S&B 1852) became President of the newly established University of California. (26) He remained there until 1875. (130)
In 1872 Japan initiated compulsory vaccinations. (48) Compulsory smallpox vaccination was instituted at this time. Within 20 years 165,000 cases of smallpox will ensue. (6)
In 1872 Rio Tinto Zinc company is founded by Hugh Matheson with his uncle's profits from opium trafficking and help from Schroder Bank in Germany which will later fund Adolf Hitler in 1931. (6)
In 1872 Charles Brace publishes The Dangerous Classes of New York. (117)
In 1872, the periodical, Popular Science Monthly was founded by Edward L. Youmans. It published the writings of such men as Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer and Thomas Henry Huxley in support of evolution. In this same vein, it also published articles by Andrew Dickson White (S&B 1853). The magazine's publisher is D. Appleton & Co. (312)
In 1872, fur seal research begins on the Pribilof islands under the U.S. Treasury Department. (396)
In 1872, the American Fish Culturists' Association, at the February meeting held in Albany, New York passed a resolution urging the U. S. Government to take measures for the artificial propagation of shad, salmon and other valuable food fishes throughout the country, especially in the waters common to several states. An appropriation of $15,000 for this purpose was provided by Congress to the U.S. Fish Commission which subsequently established a marine hatchery at Woods Hole. (340)
In April of 1872, acting as an associate and collaborator of the Smithsonian Institution, Henry W. Elliott is asked by Secretary Joseph Henry and Assistant Secretary Spencer F. Baird to go to the Pribilof islands to study the biology and make drawings of the fur seal herd. He spent the seasons of 1872, 1873, 1874 and 1876 living amongst and studying the seals. (379)
In 1873 the French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès receives a U.S. patent for margarine. (1), (9) [See (EFAs Previous, Next)]
In 1873, in his First Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1871, Spencer F. Baird lists the following as contributors to the decrease of summer shore fisheries of the south side of Massachusetts and Rhode Island: 1) decrease or disappearance of the food of commercial fishes; 2) migration of fishes to other localities; 3) epidemic diseases and "peculiar atmospheric agencies, such as heat, cold, etc."; 4) destruction by other fishes; 5) man's activities resulting in the pollution of water, in over fishing, and the use of improper apparatus. (68) The report is authored by Theodore N. Gill. (68) [See 1861]
In 1873 under the influence of Marsh's Man and Nature: Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, Franklin B. Hough reads a paper at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Portland, Maine, entitled, On the Duty of Governments in the Preservation of Forests. This inspires the association to prepare and submit a memorial on forest preservation to Congress, which initiates Congressional interest in forest protection. (142)
In 1873 the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) urged application of research to forestry problems and the reformation of forest management policy. (66) Spencer F. Baird was Permanent Secretary of the organization. (64), (68)
In 1873 Louis Agassiz, with money from the New York real estate speculator John Anderson, established a summer school for nature study on Penikese island, in Buzzard's Bay. (170) It was Nathaniel Southgate Shaler—one of Agassiz's former students and now a professor at Harvard—who had suggested to his former instructor that a summer school for teachers of natural history be established in some seaside locale. (162) The announcement of the school both printed and distributed, listed the resident faculty as Agassiz, Shaler, Burt G. Wilder, Alexander Agassiz, Pourtales, Alpheus Spring Packard, Frederick Ward Putnam, Joel Asaph Allen and Theodore Lyman. (162)
In 1873, the national periodical Forest and Stream is founded. Its "wellborn" editor is Charles Hallock, who in less than 7 years would be bought out as editor of the periodical by his his then natural history editor and business partner, George Bird Grinnell, who himself was "from an old and wealthy Eastern family". Both men would use "Forest and Stream as a vehicle for importing the British concept of sportsmamship" into hunting and fishing. (236) Tarleton Bean, icthyologist of the U.S. Fish Commission, was editor of "one of the departments of the Forest and Stream." (306)
On January 1, 1873, at a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, President Jeffries Wyman, read parts of a letter from a Dr. C.F. Winslow written the prior September "relating the discovery of human remains excavated from a mine shaft dug into Table Mountain" of Tuolumne county, California. Winslow begins his letter by first reminding the addressee (presumably Wyman) of an earlier communication he made to the society in 1856 regarding a similar discovery, also at Table Mountain, in which "human remains" were unearthed from a depth of 180 feet. He then makes mention—without calling it by name—of the recent discovery by California state geologist, J.D. Whitney of the controversial "Calaveras Skull" which had been unearthed from a depth of 130 feet beneath the surface near Angels Camp, California. [see 1866] Afterwards, Winslow reported the details of a third discovery made about the same time as the first, (about 1855, 56) in which, at a depth of 200 feet, a complete human skeleton was unearthed. (299) The skeleton was reportedly found near a petrified tree much like what had been reported by Whitney regarding the Calavera Skull.
From 1874 to 1875 the Fish Commission's research work is centered at Noank, Connecticut. (20)
In 1874 trypsin (enzyme) was discovered by Willy Kuhne. (82)
In 1874 DDT was first synthesized by O. Zeidler in Strasbourg. (1)
In 1874 importation of cannabis into Egypt was allowed provided a duty was paid; possession remained prohibited. (106) [See 1868, 1877, (Cannabis Prohibition Previous, Next)]
In 1874 Hawaii signs a ten year free trade agreement with the U.S. to give it access to the U.S sugar market. (96)
In 1874 Daniel Coit Gilman (S&B 1852) became the first President of John Hopkins University. John Hopkins had willed substantial amounts for both a University and a medical school. Dr. William H. Welch (S&B 1870) was brought in by Gilman to head up the Hopkins medical school. (26)
In 1874 the English researcher C.R. Wright synthesized heroin, or diacetylmorphine for the first time when he boiled morphine and a common chemical, acetic anhydride, over a stove for several hours. After biological testing on dogs showed that diacetylmorphine induced "great prostration, fear, sleepiness speedily following the administration… and a slight tendency to vomiting," the English researcher decided to discontinue his experiments. (44)
In 1874, the sportsmen and recreation periodical, Field and Stream is founded. A year later it's renamed as simply, Field and again in 1877, to Chicago Field. In 1881, when new offices were established in New York, the magazine was renamed yet again; this time to American Field. (236) The magazine is edited by C.W. Marsh & Co. until March of 1876 at which time Dr. N. Rowe assumed editorship. George W. Strell was also managing editor of the magazine. (236), (255), (256) [See note 163]
In the winter of 1874, 1875 nearly 100 sportsmen's organizations were organized all over the country, ten or twelve state associations and one national association. (236)
In 1874, the United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association is founded. (308:358) "At a meeting of the menhaden oil and fish guano manufacturers of Maine, Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, held in New York January 7, an association was formed, to be known as The United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association." … The meeting organized with R.L. Fowler of Guilford, Conn., as chairman, and Luther Maddocks, of Booth Bay, Me., as secretary. After some discussion a committee on statistics was appointed, with instructions to report as soon as possible. The committee was as follows: Mr. L. Maddocks, Maine; Mr. Church, from Rhode Island; Mr. Price, from Long Island; and Mr. Fairchild, from Connecticut. … The meeting then voted to appoint a committee on permanent organization and to report a consitution and by-laws. This committee consisted of Mr. J. G. Nickerson, Boston; Mr. Thomas F. Price, Greenport, Long Island, and Mr. H. L. Dudley, New Haven. Their report was accepted and the constitution adopted, and the following officers chosen for the ensuing year: President, Luther Maddocks, of Booth Bay, Me.; vice-presidents, George F. Tuthill, Greenpoint, Long Island, and R. L. Fowler, Guilford, Conn.; secretary and treasurer, H. L. Dudley, New Haven; executive committee, Luther Maddocks, Booth Bay, Me., David F. Vail, River head, Long Island, B. F. Brightman, Round Pond, Me. (308:358)
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