Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his journal:
Now that the civil Engineer is fairly established, I think we must have one day a Naturalist in each village as invariably as a lawyer or doctor. It will be a new subdivision of the medical profession. I want to know what plant this is? Penthorum What is it good for? in medical botany? in industrial botany? Now the Indian doctor, if there were on, & not the sham of one, would be more consulted than the diplomatic one. What bird is this? What hyla? What caterpillar? Here is a new bug on the trees. Cure the warts on the plum, & on the oak. How to attack the rosebug & the curculio. Show us the poisons. How to treat the cranberry meadow? The universal impulse toward natural science in the last twenty years promises this practical issue. And how beautiful would be the profession. C. T. Jackson, [Charles T. Jackson] John L. Russell, and Henry Thoreau, & George Bradford, John Lesley would find their employment. All questions answered for stipulated fees; and, on the other hand, new information paid for, as a newspaper office pays for news. To have a man of Science remove into this town, would be better than the capitalist who is to build a village of houses on Nashawtuck. I would gladly subscribe to his maintenance. He is, of course, to have a microscope & a telescope.
(The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 11:277-278)
