838 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



resided in the crystalline lens. Hosack maintained the opposing 

 theory that it depended upon the external muscles. His paper 

 contained many original views, and its statements were supported 

 by experiments that he had made upon himself and others. 



He returned to New York in 1794 by the ship Mohawk, the 

 passage lasting fifty-three days. On the voyage typhus fever 

 made its appearance and became very general, particularly among 

 the steerage passengers. Dr. Hosack being the only physician on 

 board, was called upon to attend the stricken ones, and was won- 

 derfully successful, not losing a single case. His services were 

 duly appreciated by all, as was evinced by the unsolicited vote of 

 thanks published in the daily papers when the ship reached port. 



Taking up his residence in New York city, Dr. Hosack, at the 

 age of twenty-five years, began again the practice of his profes- 

 sion under the most favorable auspices. Mr. Thomas Law, who 

 had been a fellow-passenger on the Mohawk, introduced him to 

 many of his acquaintances, among whom were General Hamilton 

 and Colonel Burr. He soon became the family physician to these 

 distinguished persons. In 1795 he was appointed Professor of 

 Botany in Columbia College, for which position his diligent ap- 

 plication to this science in London had admirably fitted him. At 

 the end of his first course he published a syllabus of his lectures, 

 afterward inserted in his Medical Essays. In 1795, also, the yel- 

 low fever reached New York, and the violence of the epidemic 

 afforded ample opportunity to young medical men to distinguish 

 themselves. Dr. Hosack at this time attracted the especial atten- 

 tion of Dr. Samuel Bard, one of his former preceptors, who soon 

 after took him into partnership. This was a preparatory step to 

 Dr. Bard's retiring from the profession, which he did three or 

 four years later, leaving Dr. Hosack in the enjoyment of an ex- 

 tensive and profitable practice. 



Having lost his infant son during his absence in England and 

 his wife not long after his return, Dr. Hosack married, December 

 21, 1797, Mary, daughter of James and Mary Darragh Eddy, of 

 Philadelphia. By this marriage he had nine children. 



Upon the death, in 1797, of Dr. William Pitt Smith, his chair 

 of Materia Medica in Columbia College was assigned to Dr. 

 Hosack, in addition to the one of Botany already held by the 

 latter. He continued to fill these two professorships until 1807, 

 when the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the State of New 

 York was established, in which he was chosen Professor of Surgery 

 and Midwifery. He soon, however, relinquished this chair for 

 that of the Theory and Practice of Physic and Clinical Medicine. 

 The Analectic Magazine for 1814 contained a notice of an intro- 

 ductory lecture given in the last-named chair, which had been 

 published. It says that, after an opening statement on another 



