764 luoGRArmcAL memoirs. 



striiction in the acadciii}^, and it was probably through his intincnise 

 that Gray's attention was first strongly drawn towards natural science. 

 Aj)parently, he was not at first so much interested in j^lants as in miner- 

 als ; and it was not until towards the close of his course in the acad- 

 emy that his passion for plants was aroused by reading the article on 

 botany in the Edinburgh Encyclojiedia, and his delight the following 

 spring at being able to make out with the aid of Eaton's Manual the 

 scientific name of the common Glaytonia is now a well known story. 



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 diflerent physicians in the 

 neighborhood of iSauquoit, 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, New York, and taught 

 those subjects, 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. 1)., 

 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." This course was attended 

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

 from these lectures in making a botanical 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. During 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 Prof. John Torrey, in thechem- 



