The Genesis of the United States National Mtisetim. 91 



an important influence toward shaping the course of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



Indeed, the germ of the Smithsonian idea may be found in Cutbush's 

 address — and his spirit was kindred to that of Henry and his associates, 

 who worked under more favorable conditions thirty years later. ' 



the biographical sketch of William Winston Seaton, by his daughter, and in Faux's 

 Memorable Days in America, the review of which in No. 68 of the Quarterly Review 

 evoked Mr. Law's "Reply," which contains much autobiographical matter. 



The following are titles of some of Mr. Law's publications, for the verbal accuracy 

 of which no responsibility is taken, since the}' are usually given second-hand: 

 1792. Law, Thomas. Sketch of some late arrangements and a review of the rising 



resources of Bengal. London, 1792. 8°. Lib. Congress. 

 1794. Law, Thom.\s. "On Bengal," etc. Perhaps another ed. of* that printed in 



1792. Quoted by Allibone. 

 1806. [Law, Thomas.] Ballston Spring. [A poem.] New York, 1806. Boston 



Ath. 

 1820. Law, Thomas. Remarks on the report of the vSecretary of the Treasury, 



March i, 1819. Wihnington, 1820. 8°. Boston Ath. 



1824. Law, Thomas. A reply to certain insinuations, published as an article in the 



sixty-eighth number of the Quarterly Review. Washington, 1827. 8°. pp. 

 1-27. (i.) Lib. Cong. Refers to a libelous article; a review of Faux's 

 Memorable Days in America. 

 1827. Law, Thomas (and others). Report of the proceedings of the committee 

 appointed in Washington in 1824 to present a memorial to Congress, pray- 

 ing for the establishment of a national cxurrency. Washington : Way & 

 Gideon. 1824. 8°. 40 pp. Lib. Cong. ; Boston Ath. 



1825. Law, Thomas. Address before the Columbian Institute. Washington, 1825. 



8°. Boston Ath. 



1826. Law, Thomas. Considerations tending to render the policy questionable of 



plans for liquidating, within the next foior years, of the 6 per cent stocks 

 of the United States. Washington : S. A. Elliott. 1826. 8°. pp. 22. Lib. 

 Cong. ; Boston Ath. 



1827. Law, Thomas. Propositions for creating means for commencing the Chesa- 



peake and Ohio Canal, with report of committee thereon. [Washington, 

 1827?] I folio sheet. Lib. Cong. 



1828. Law, Thomas. Address to the Columbian Institute on a moneyed system. 



Washington, 1828. 8°. Lib. Cotig.; Boston Ath. 

 1830. Law, Thomas. Address to the Columbian Institute on the question, "What 



ought to be the circulating medium of a nation?" Washington, 1830. 8°. 



Lib. Cong. ; Boston Ath. 

 1833. Law, Thomas. Synopsis of a plan for a national ctu-rency. Washington, 



1833. 8°. Lib. Cong. 

 'The two brothers James and Edward Cutbush were among the most active of the 

 popular teachers and promoters of science and education at the beginning of the 

 present century, and it would be unjust to allow their names to drop out of the his- 

 tory of American science. 



Both were physicians, both teachers of chemistry, both enthusiastic in the work 

 of founding schools and learned societies. They were born, certainly in Pennsyl- 

 vania, probably Philadelphia, somewhere between the years 1750 and 1770. Edward 

 entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1790 and 

 graduated in 1794, and his brother James at about the same time or a little later. 

 .James Cutbush at the beginning of the century, and for a few years subsequent, 



