THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 139 



immediately thereafter appointed Prothonotary and Clerk 

 of the Courts of his native county, by his political and 

 personal friend, Governor Shulze, the duties of which 

 office he continued to discharge until 1830. AVhilst in the 

 office of Prothonotary, Dr. Darlington, and some of his 

 medical friends, co-operated and formed the Medical Society 

 of Chester County, an institution which has had the good 

 effect of uniting in a fraternal union almost all the physi- 

 cians of the county. From his long standing in his pro- 

 fession, and the skill which he had acquired by an extensive 

 practice, Dr. Darlington was unanimously placed at the 

 head of the Society, which position he held till 1852, when 

 he resigned and was immediately elected an honorary 

 member. 



In 1830 he was elected president of the Bank of Chester 

 County, of which institution he had been one of the 

 commissioners named in the charter. He was re-elected 

 annually, and continued in that station to his death. This 

 bank possessed the entire confidence of the community, and 

 its notes were eagerly sought after in preference to those of 

 other banks within range of its circulation. These happy 

 results were mainly due to the financial abilities of the 

 president and his old and long-tried friend, David Town- 

 send, late cashier of the bank, a gentleman who, it is not 

 improper to state, was associated with Dr. Darlington in 

 nearly all of the public enterprises of a local character in 

 which the latter was engaged. Townsend had the high 

 compliment paid him of having his name conferred upon a 

 new and interesting genus of Rocky Mountain plants, by 

 his friend, Professor Hooker, the learned and talented 

 Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, near 

 London. 



