1800-1860: Science and Medicine: Publications

Louis Agassiz, “Prof. Agassiz on the Origin of Species,” American Journal of Science and Arts, 80 (1860): 142-154—Agassiz’s rebuttal to Charles Darwin’s proposed theory of evolution and natural selection;

“Annual Reports of the Chief of Topographical Engineers,” in The Annual Reports of the Secretary of War, 1839–1861 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1861)—contains geographical and surveying information on selected sites for topographical study;

John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography, or An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America, 5 volumes (Edinburgh: A. Black, 1831–1839);

Audubon, The Vivaparous Quadrapeds of North America, 3 volumes (New York: V. G. Audubon, 1852–1854)—a collection of observations from his 1843 trip to the mouth of the Yellowstone River;

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Count de Buffon, Natural History: General and Particular, translated by William Smellie (London: A. Straham & T. Cadell, 1791)—one of the first arguments for both the polygenic thesis of separate creations of man and the idea that disparate groups emerged at different times and evolved at varying speeds;

James E. DeKay, Anniversary Address on the Progress of the Natural Sciences in the United States: Delivered before the Lyceum of Natural History of New York (New York: G & G Carwell, 1826)—a useful discussion about research in the United States, although it includes little discussion of science in the Trans-Mississippi West;

John C. Fremont, Report on an Exploration of the Country Lying between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains on the Line of the Kansas and Great Platte Rivers (Washington, D.C.: Printed by order of the U.S. Senate, 1843);

Frémont, Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44 (Washington, D.C.: Gales & Seaton, 1845);

Albert Gallatin, A Table of Indian Languages of the United States, East of the Stony Mountains, Arranged According to Languages and Dialects (N.p., 1826)—the first philological attempt to classify Indian groups by language;

Asa Gray, “Review of Darwin’s Theory on the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,” American Journal of Science and Arts, 79 (1860): 153-184;

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, The Journals of the Expedition Under the Command of Capts. Lewis and Clark to the Sources of the Missouri, thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6, 2 volumes, edited by Nicholas Biddle (Philadelphia: Bradford & lnskeep, 1814)—a popular account of the major expedition that prompted curiosity in Western exploration;

Samuel G. Morton, An Inquiry into the Distinctive Characteristics of the Aboriginal Race of America (Boston: Tuttle & Dennett, 1842)—the book builds on Morton’s earlier studies of the comparative crania of North American peoples, asserting essential inequalities that strengthened racial theorists;

Henry R. Schoolcraft, Narrative Journal of Travels Through the Northwestern Regions of the United States, Extending from Detroit Through the Great Chain of American Lakes; to the Source of the Mississippi River (Albany: E. & E. Hosford, 1821);

Benjamin Silliman, “Expedition of Major Long and Party, to the Rocky Mountains,” American Journal of Science and Arts, 6 (1823): 374-375—a brief synopsis of Long’s expedition across the Central Plains and reports on climate, agricultural potential, and indigenous plants and animals;

Jared Sparks, “Major Long’s Second Expedition,” North American Review, 21 (July 1825): 178-189.