4l6 Memorial of George Bj'owu Goode. 



lectures in America, occupying the platform in Philadelphia, Newport, 

 New York, and Boston, from 1751 to the beginning of the Revolution. 

 The following advertisement was printed in the Penns3'lvania Gazette for 

 April II, 1 751: 



Notice is hereby given to the Curious, That on Wednesday next, Mr. Kinnersley 

 proposes to begin a Course of Experiments on the newly-discovered ElECTricai^ 

 Fire, containing not only the most curious of those that have been made and pub- 

 lished in Europe, but a considerable Number of new Ones lately made in this City; 

 to be accompanied with methodical L,ectures on the Nature and Properties of that 

 wonderful Element. 



Francis Hopkinson [b. 1737, d. 1791], signer of the Declaration of 

 Independence, was treasurer of the Philosophical Society, and among 

 other papers communicated b}^ him was one in 1783, calling attention to 

 the peculiar worm parasitic in the eye of a horse. The horse with a 

 snake in its eye was on public exhibition in Philadelphia in 1782, and 

 was the object of much attention, for the nature and habits of this pecu- 

 liar Filaria were not so well understood then as now. 



The father of Francis, Thomas Hopkinson [b. in London, 1709; d. in 

 Philadelphia, 1 751], who was overlooked in my previous address, deserves 

 at least a passing mention. Coming to Philadelphia in 1 731, he became 

 lawyer, prothonotary, judge of the admiralty, and member of the provin- 

 cial council. As an incorporator of the Philadelphia lyibrary Company, 

 and original trustee of the College of Philadelphia, and president of the 

 first American Philosophical Society in 1743, his public spirit is worthy 

 of our admiration. He was a.ssociated with Kinnersley and Franklin in 

 the Philadelphia experiments, and Franklin said of him: 



The power of points to throw off the electrical fire was first communicated to me 

 by my ingenious friend, Mr. Thomas Hopkinson.' 



The name of Philip Syng is also mentioned in connection with the 

 Philadelphia experiments, and it would be well if some memorials of 

 his work could be placed upon record. 



William Bartram [b. 1739, d. 1823] was living in the famous botan- 

 ical garden at Kingsessing, which his father, the old King's botani.st, had 

 bequeathed him in 1777. He was for some years professor of botany in 

 the Philadelphia College, and in 1791 printed his charming volume 

 descriptive of his travels in Florida, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The 

 latter years of his life appear to have been devoted to quiet observation. 

 William Bartram has l^een, perhaps, as much underrated as John Bartram 

 has been unduly exalted. He was one of the best ob.servers America 

 has ever produced, and his book, which rapidly passed through several 

 editions in English and French, is a classic, and .should stand beside 

 White's Selborne in every naturalist's library. Bartram was doubtless 

 discouraged, early in his career, by the failure of his patrons in London 

 to make any scientific use of the immense botanical collections made 



' Cyclopijedia of American Biography, III, p. 260. 



