284 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. [1842, 



information on the subject, saying that, if freed from 

 other engagements, I would like the botanical part of 

 the professorship, but not the zoology : and that the 

 former, with the charge and the renovation of the 

 Botanic Garden, would be quite enough for one. 



In January I made a flying visit to Boston, where I 

 had never been, and knew no one personally but 

 Greene, to whom, and to Professor Bigelow, 1 I ex- 

 pressed my views ; but we none of us expected that 

 anything would be done at present. I incidentally 

 learned, however, not long since, that the men of sci- 

 ence would generally be well pleased to have me at 

 Boston, and that some with whom I had almost no 

 acquaintance were using their influence to that end. 

 I was never more surprised, however, than this very 

 evening, when I received from President Quincy an 

 official letter, offering me the professorship provi- 

 sionally, with a small salary, to be sure, for the present, 

 but with only the duties of the botanical portion. 



The president states that the endowment is 830,000, 

 yielding an income of 81,500, which, however, not 

 being adequate to constitute a full professor's salary 

 on a permanent foundation, the corporation deem it 

 both their duty and the interest of the professorship 

 to continue for a few years, in a modified form, the 

 policy they have hitherto pursued, and by applying 

 one third of the income annually to the augmentation 

 of the capital, enable themselves to place the profes- 

 sor of natural history, at no distant period, on an 

 equal footing with the other professors of the univer- 

 sity. " To this end they propose to limit your duties, 

 in case you are willing to accept the professorship, to 



1 Jacob Bigelow, M. D., 1787-1879; an eminent Boston physician ; 

 author of the Florula Bostoniensis, 1814. 



