322 ASA GRAY. 



Following his father's wish, which probably was in accord with his 

 own inclination, he decided to study medicine, and formally entered the 

 Fairfield Medical School in 1829, although for two years previously, 

 while a student in the Academy, he had attended some of the medical 

 lectures. The sessions of the Medical School, like those of the Acad- 

 emy, hardly occupied more than six months of the year, and the re- 

 mainder of the time was spent in study with different physicians in the 

 neighborhood of Sauquoit, one of whom, Dr. John F. Trowbridge of 

 Bridgewater, was a man of good scientific attainments. He was thus in 

 an excellent position for collecting, and even before he graduated he 

 had brought together a considerable herbarium, and had entered into 

 correspondence with Dr. Lewis C. Beck of Albany, and Dr. John Tor- 

 rey of New York, who aided him in the determination of his plants. 

 He received his Doctor's degree at Fairfield on February 1, 1831. He 

 never, however, entered upon the practice of medicine ; but after re- 

 ceiving his degree he became instructor in chemistry, mineralogy, and 

 botany in Bartlett's High School at Utica, N. Y., and taught those sub- 

 jects, for a part of the year, from the autumn of 1831 to 1835. 



The first actual record of any public lectures on botany given by him 

 is found in a circular of the Fairfield Medical School, dated January, 

 1832, in which the following statement is made: "Asa Gray, M.D., 

 will give a course of lectures and practical illustrations on botany, to 

 commence [in June] and continue the same time with the lectures on 

 chemistry [six weeks]. Fee, $4.00." This course was attended 

 apparently by ten persons ; for he states that he spent the $40 earned 

 from these lectures in making a botauical excursion to Niagara Falls. 

 It appears to be the case, however, that in the previous year, just after 

 graduation, he had given a few lectures on botany in the Medical 

 School, in the absence of the regular instructor, Dr. Beck ; and a little 

 later, he gave another course of lectures on mineralogy and botany at 

 Hamilton College, Clinton. DuriDg other intermissions of his work at 

 Bartlett's School, he made mineralogical and botanical excursions to 

 different parts of New York and New Jersey ; and it was while liv- 

 ing at Utica that he published in the American Journal of Science of 

 October, 1833, his first scientific paper on new mineral localities in 

 Northern New York, written in connection with Dr. J. B. Crawe. 



In the autumn of 1833, having leave of absence from Bartlett's 

 School, he accepted the position of assistant to Professor John Torrey, 

 in the chemical laboratory of the Medical School of New York. His 

 time was here mainly occupied in botanical studies ; and, besides aiding 

 Dr. Torrey in his botanical work, he prepared and published several 



