822 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ber, and " honorary," sixty-nine in number, of whicb thirty-one 

 were Europeans ; tlie home list included most of those chemists 

 whose labors contributed largely to the foundations of the science 

 in the New World. Brief notices of the prominent ones are here 

 given : 



Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton (17G6-1815), who has been called 

 by his admirers " the father of American natural history," held 

 the chair of medicine, natural history, and botany in the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania ; he was an agreeable writer on natural 

 history topics. 



Dr. Archibald Bruce (1777-1818) was one of the pioneers of 

 mineralogical science in America, and published one volume of 

 the American Mineralogical Journal in 1810; he held the chair 

 of mineralogy in Columbia College, New York. 



Thomas Cooper (1759-1840), born in London, accompanied his 

 friend Priestley to America in 1793, sharing his radical views in 

 politics and religion. He held the chair of chemistry at the col- 

 lege in Columbia, S. C, of which he afterward became president. 



Dr. Edward Cutbush (1772-1843) was surgeon in the United 

 States Navy and Professor of Chemistry in the medical school of 

 the Columbian University from 1825-'27. 



Dr. John Griscom and Dr. David Hosack were both citizens 

 of New York ; the former had the honor of being regarded as the 

 head of all teachers of chemistry in New York for thirty years ; 

 the latter was Professor of Botany and Materia Medica in Colum- 

 bia College, but is best known as the founder of the first public 

 botanic garden in the United States in 1801. He died under 

 tragic circumstances of shock at the disastrous conflagration in 

 New York city which swept away his property to the value of 

 $300,000. 



Dr. John Maclean (1771-1840) was the first Professor of Chem- 

 istry in the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, to 

 which chair he was elected in 1797. 



The Hon. Samuel L. Mitchill, M. D., F. R S. E. (17G4-1831), 

 was not only an active Professor of Chemistry and Natural His- 

 tory in Columbia College, New York, and editor of the New 

 York Medical Repository, but he was Senator of the United States 

 from 1804. 



Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) was undoubtedly the first pro- 

 fessor of chemistry in America, his appointment dating August 

 1, 1769. In his busy life he was Professor of the Institutes and 

 Practice of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, besides 

 acting as Surgeon General of the United States Army, Treasurer 

 of the Mint, President of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, 

 and Vice-President of the Bible Society of Philadelphia, in which 

 city he also conducted a large medical practice. 



