16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1830, 



far as it went, and which on that journey I bought 

 a copy of. I took also a parcel of plants to be named. 

 Finding my way to Dr. Torrey's house in Charlton 

 Street with my parcel and letter, I had the disap- 

 pointment of finding that he was away at Williams- 

 town, Massachusetts, for the summer. It was not 

 until the next winter that at Fail-field I received a 

 letter from Dr. Torrey, naming my plants, and invit- 

 ing the correspondence which continued thence to the 

 end of his life. 



In addition to Dr. Hadley's summer course of lec- 

 tures on chemistry, Dr. Lewis C. Beck used to come 

 and deliver a short course of lectures on botany. He 

 gave this up the year in which I received my M. D., 

 so Professor Hadley invited me to come and give the 

 course instead. The course was given in five or six 

 weeks, beginning in the latter part of May. I pre- 

 pared myself during the winter, gave this my first 

 course of lectures, cleared forty dollars by the opera- 

 tion, and devoted it to the making of a tour to the 

 western part of the State of New York, as far as 

 Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Aurora, a dozen or 

 more miles off, where I visited an uncle, my mo- 

 ther's brother, a well-to-do country merchant, also a 

 chum, Dr. Folwell, in Seneca County, high up between 

 the two lakes, where I passed a week or two ; thence 

 to Ithaca, and across the country by a stage-coach 

 back to Bridgewater. I hardly know what I did the 

 next autumn and winter, but in early spring a Mr. 

 Edgerton, a pupil of Amos Eaton, at Troy, the pro- 

 fessor of natural sciences at the flourishing school of 

 Mr. Bartlett at Utica, died. I applied for the va- 

 cancy, received the appointment, and for two or part 

 of three years, minus a long summer vacation, I 



