110 TJIK BOTANISTS OF I'll 1 LADKLl'IIIA. 



The trustees of the College of Philadelphia, in estab- 

 lishing a professorship of natural history and botany. 

 elected Dr. Barton, then only twenty-four years of age, to 

 the chair. This election was confirmed in the following 

 year, when the College became a part of the University 

 of Pennsylvania. The chair of materia medica in the Uni- 

 versity became vacant, and this professorship was assigned 

 to Dr. Barton five years later, and was held by him until he 

 succeeded to that of Dr. Rush. He became, in 1708, one 

 of the physicians of the Pennsylvania Hospital, which place 

 he held for the rest of his life. 



Among the first works published by Dr. Barton was a 

 memoir concerning the Fascinating Faculty which has 

 been ascribed to the Rattlesnake and other North American 

 Serpents, published in 1700. A supplement to this memoir 

 was printed four years later, and a new edition in 1814. 

 lie is.-ued a work on the materia medica of the United 

 States, in two parts, published in 1708 and 1804 respectively,* 

 and an edition of the two combined in 1810. His most 

 important work was his " Elements of Botany," which first 

 appeared in two volumes in 1803. A second edition of the first 

 volume was issued in 1812, and of the second volume in 

 181 I, with forty plates.f Dr. William P. C. Barton issued, 

 after the author's death in 1830, a revised edition in one vol- 

 ume, prefixing a biographical sketch, prepared at the request 

 of the Philadelphia Medical Society, of which his uncle had 

 been president. A translation of the Elements appeared in 

 Russian. Dr. Barton also wrote extensively on other subjects 



* C"//i I'/in/ix /,ir nil rxxn/i tnii-arilx ti niu/i'rin iiii'ilicn of till- I'll itctl Ntdtcs. T\\ '() 

 parts. I'liiladi'lpliiu. I'art 1 : 17HS pp. I'.L Part II : 1804, pp. 53. 



t Kli ni' nts <>f r.otiniii : <>r, Oiil/iiit-x f tin- .\tt/iirul, Ilixtorii of Vt<i< tables. 

 Ed. 1: I'hiladulpliia. INI::. Ed. II : L812, pp. xviii, 824 ind. 1814, iv, pp. 180, II: lotah. 



