61 



family of New Jersey, a lady of admirable intelligence and great be- 

 nignity of character. 



Dr. Patterson was an inmate of the University almost from his 

 cradle. He received his first lessons in its preparatory school ; and 

 passing upwards through the several collegiate courses he graduated 

 as a bachelor of arts in 1804, and as a doctor of medicine a few years 

 later. 



From the University he went to Paris, and pursued his professional 

 studies for a while in its celebrated hospitals. But the French capi- 

 tal was then, as it has been since, the favoured hemisphere of the 

 more liberal as well as the more exact sciences ; Haiiy, Vauquelin, 

 Legend re, Poisson, were in the zenith. Under their guidance, and 

 sharing their friendship. Dr. Patterson found himself attracted irre- 

 sistibly to the pursuit of natural philosophy, chemistry, and the higher 

 mathematics; and these became from that time the study and occu- 

 pation of his life. After spending nearly three years in France, he 

 crossed the channel in 1811, and completed his education as a 

 chemist, under the instructions of Sir Humphry Davy at London. 

 He returned to the United Stales in the following year. 



His reputation had preceded him. In a few months after his 

 arrival in Philadelphia, he found himself professor of natural philoso- 

 phy in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 and professor of the same branch with chemistry and mathematics 

 in the faculty of arts ; and to these, in the spring of 1814, was added 

 the dignity of Vice Provost. 



He retained these several positions till the year 1828, when he 

 was persuaded to transfer his usefulness and fame to the University 

 of Virginia, — that noble institution, the latest representative of the 

 great mind that founded it.* No selection of a professor was ever 

 more fruitful of benefits to a University, or growth of honour to its 

 inmate. Mr. Madison, and the other distinguished men who were 

 associated with him in the Board of Visiters, gave Dr. Patterson 

 their unreserved confidence, and cherished with him the most inti- 

 mate relations of personal regard. 



But his affections looked back upon his native city; and in 1835 

 he accepted the appointment of Director of the United States' Mint, 

 which once more brought him among us. From this period, until 



* "Here lies buried Thomas JeflFerson, author of th6 Declaration of 

 American Independence, and of the statute of Virginia for religious free- 

 dom, and father of the University of Virginia." — Mr. Jefferson's oim inscrip- 

 tion/or his tomb. Tucker'' s Life, 2d Vol. p. 497. 



