The Begimiiiigs qf American Science. 445 



of natural history and botany in the vSouth CaroHna Medical College, 

 which he aided to establish. He pul^lished the Botany of South Caro- 

 lina and Georgia (Charleston, 1821-1827), having been assisted in its 

 preparation by Doctor James McBride; and had an extensive museum of 

 his own gathering. The Elliott Society of Natural History, founded 

 in 1853. or before, and subsequently continued under the name of the 

 Elliott Society of Science and Art, 1859-1875, was named in memory of 

 this public-spirited man. 



Jacob Green [b. 1790, d. 1841], at different times professor in the 

 College of New Jersey and in Jefferson Medical College, was one of the 

 old school naturalists, equally at home in all of the sciences. His paper 

 on Trilobites (1832) was our first formal contribution to invertebrate 

 paleontology ; his Account of some new Species of Salamanders, ' one of the 

 earliest steps in American herpetology; his Remarks on the Unios of the 

 United States,^ the beginning of studies subsequently extensively prose- 

 cuted by lyea and some other entomologists. He also wrote upon the 

 crystallization of snow, and was the author of Chemical Philosophy, 

 Astronomical Researches, and a work upon Botany of the United States. 



The earlier volumes of Silliman's Journal were filled with notes of his 

 observations in all departments of natural history. 



Jose Francisco Correa da Serra, secretary of the Royal Academy of 

 Lisbon, was resident in Philadelphia in 18 13, in the capacity of Portu- 

 guese minister, and affiliated with our men of science in botanical and 

 geological interests. In 18 14 he lectured on botany in the place of B. S. 

 Barton, and also published several botanical papers, as well as one upon 

 the soil of Kentucky. 



Alire Raffenau Delile, formerly a member of Napoleon's scientific 

 expedition to Egypt and the editor of the Flora of Egypt, was in 

 New York about this time, for the purpose of completing his medical 

 education, and seems to have done nuich to stimulate interest in botan- 

 ical studies. 



To this as well as to the subsequent period belonged Doctor Gerard 

 Troost [b. in Holland, March 15, 1776; educated in Leyden; d. in Nash- 

 ville, Augu.st 17, 1850], a naturalist of Dutch birth and education, who 

 came to Philadelphia in 18 10, and was a founder and the first president of 

 the Philadelphia Academy. In 1826 he founded a geological survey 

 of the environs of Philadelphia ; in 1827 became professor of chemistry, 

 mineralogy, and geology in the University of Nashville. As State geol- 

 ogist of Tennessee from 183 1 to 1849 he published some of the earliest 

 State geological reports. 



Another expedition well worthy of mention, though not exceedingly 

 fruitful, was one made under the direction of Mr. Maclure, president of 

 the Philadelphia Academy, to the .sea islands of Georgia and the Florida 



' Contributions of the Maclurian Lyceum, I, January, 1827, p. 3. 

 ^ Idem., I, p. 41. 



