Science and the Public in the Age of Jefferson

... Americans were keenly interested in natural science. Most of their knowledge, to be sure, came from Europe. In geology they debated the rival theories of James Hutton of Edinburgh and Gustav [sic] Werner of Freiburg; in biology the rival classifications of Linnaeus, Buffon and Cuvier. But it was socially significant that these ideas found a general hospitality. They were not imported for a small and artificial market, as they were into Russia by the exotic academy which Catherine the Great sponsored.'