424 Memoi^ial of George Brouni Goode. 



Mitchill was a leader in the New York Historical Society, founder of 

 the Iviterary and Philosophical Society, and of its successor, the lyyceum 

 of Natural History, of which he was long president. He was also presi- 

 dent of the New York Branch of the lyinnsean Society of Paris, and of 

 the New York State Medical Society, and surgeon-general of the vState 

 militia; a man of the widest influence and universally beloved. He 

 served four terms in the House of Representatives, and was five years 

 a member of the United States Senate. ' 



De Witt Clinton [b. 1769, d. 1828], statesman and philanthropist. 

 United States Senator and governor of New York, was a man of similar 

 tastes and capacities. What Benjamin Franklin was to Philadelphia in 

 the middle of the eighteenth century, De Witt Clinton was to New York 

 in the beginning of the nineteenth. He was the author of the Hibernicus 

 lyCtters on the Natural History and Internal Resources of the State of New 

 York (New York, 1822), a work of originahty and merit. As president 

 of the Iviterary and Philosophical Society he delivered, in 18 14, an Intro- 

 ductory Discourse, which, like Barton's, in Philadelphia, ten years before, 

 was productive of great good. It was, moreover, laden with the results 

 of original and important observations in all departments of natural 

 history. Another important paper was his Memoirs on the Antiquities 

 of Western New York, printed in 18 18. 



Clinton's attention was devoted chiefly to public affairs, and especially 

 to the organization of the admirable school system of New York, and 

 other internal improvements. He did enough in science, however, to 

 place him in the highest ranks of our early naturalists.'' 



Hosack has been referred to elsewhere as a pioneer in mineralogy and 

 the founder of the first botanic garden. He was long president of the 

 Historical Society, and exercised a commanding influence in every direc- 

 tion. His researches were, however, chiefly medical. 



Samuel Akerly [b. 1785, d. 1845], the brother-in-law of Mitchill, a 

 graduate of Columbia College, 1807, was an industrious worker in zoology 

 and botany, and the author of the Geology of the Hudson River. John 

 Griscom [b. 1774, d. 1852], one of the earliest teachers of chemistry, 



' See John W. Francis, Life of Doctor Mitchill, in Williams's American Medical 

 Biography, pp. 401-41 1, and eulogy in Discourse in Commemoration of Fifty-third 

 Anniversary of the New York Historical Society, 1S57, pp. 56-60 ; and in his Old 

 New York ; also— 



Sketch by H. L. Fairchild, in History of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1SS7, 

 PP- 57-67; also Doctor Mitchill's own pamphlet: Some of the Memorable Events 

 and Occurrences in the Life of Samuel L. Mitchill, of New York, from the year 1786 

 to 1827. 



A biography by Akerly was in existence, but has never been printed. 



Numerous portraits are in existence, which are described by Fairchild. 



2 David Hosack, Memoirs of De Witt Clinton, New York, 1829. James Renwick, 

 Life of De Witt Clinton, New York, 1840. William W. Campbell, Life and Writings 

 of De Witt Clinton, New York, 1849. 



