Abstract
THE recent bicentenary celebrations of Thomas Jefferson's birth have directed attention once again to the versatility of this remarkable man, some of whose special scientific interests are the subject of a 'pre-reprint' of 64 pp., with illustrations and maps, from Chronica Botanica (8, Nov. 1943), of a study by Dr. Charles A. Browne, of the Bureau of Agricultural and Industrial Chemistry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, on "Thomas Jefferson and the Scientific Trends of his Time". The famous statesman-scientist -a type not unknown among the countrymen of Franklin, Rumford, and Hoover, and all too rare elsewhere-was, it appears, not greatly attracted by theory and speculation, which, indeed, he occasionally condemned in severe terms; his scientific interests were largely utilitarian, as is evidenced by many passages from his voluminous correspondence; and his outlook thus admirably fitted him to play the part of scientific scout for America during his residence in Paris as Minister to France (1784–89).
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President Jefferson, Statesman-Scientist. Nature 153, 584–585 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/153584c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/153584c0