234 Collections from American Literature. [Oct. 1, 



amone,' the most ingenious, if not the attention with which he was hoiioureii 



most nspfiil, o! his labours. They en- by all the other professors, it can 



licheil his philosophical inqnirics and scarcely be doubted ihat circumstances 



speculations with cmions facts, and en- of this nature would have increased — if 



lianccd the value of his investiu,alious of they did not originally cxcile, in the 



llip materia nicdica and alinieutaria, mind of a yonno; man of quick sonsi- 



vith some of Iheir most important addi- bilily, those unplca- ant sensations which 



tions. he then ex))erienced. But, liowever this 



Dr. Ritten'iouse, who early ))Prceived may have been, certain it is, that he 



and acknowledfied the talents of his determined to graduate at Goltingen. 

 young relative, proctncd for him tl is im- After an absence of somewhat more 



porlant sitnalion — inii)ortant, as it gave than three years. Dr. Barton returned to 



the first impulse lo that spirit of inquiry Philadelphia. His well-known abilities 



and research into the history of our In- introduced him speedily into notice, 



dians, which has resnttcd in an acoumu- and soon after he began to get into 



lation of so many curious materials rela- some practice as a physician. By his 



live to tlieir origin and the adinitics of reputation, too, for attainments in na- 



their I nguage. This learned man con- tural science, he acquired literary and 



tinned to Dr. Barton, through life, a firm 

 and a constant, as he was an illustrious 

 friend. 



Towards the close of the following 

 finmnirr. Dr. Barton embarked for Great 

 Britain, with the \i(w of prosecuting 

 still finiher his medical studies at the 

 University of Edinburgh, lie remained 

 at that school about two years, except 



academic honors, at a period of life 

 when, in ordinary cases, the conferring" 

 of such would be deemed premature; 

 for soon after his return to America, he 

 was chosen a member of the American 

 Philosophical Society in this city, of 

 which he became on the 1st of Jan. 

 1802, one of the vice-presidents, an ofhce 

 he continued to hold till the day of his 



some few months iu the earlier part of death. From the first period of his 



the vear 1787, which he |)assed in Lon- election to membcr.ship of this society, 



don. Durimr his residence in Edin- he became one of its most active, as he 



fcnrgh, he a|>pli('d himself with unrc- was one of its most intelligent mem- 



niifted zeal to his professional studies, bers. The printed transactions of the 



attending very regularly the lectures of society are evidences of this. They 



tlie eminent medical jnofessors who contain many papers on various sub- 



tlien tannbt in that Lniversity. jects relating to natural science, front 



While Dr. Bartoii was in London in liis pen. 



the first I'.arl of the year 1787, he pub- In the year 1789, the trustees of the 



lishe! a little tract, entitled " Obser- College of Philadel])liia instituted a 



vatirnis on some parts of Natural His- professorship of natural history and 



tory: 1o which is prefixed an account of botany, which was conferred on Dr. 



some considerable vestiges of an ancient Barton, then only twenty-four years of 



date, which ha\c been discovered in age. Dr. Kuhn had previously to this 



difi'ereiit parts of North America." Dr. delivered some courses of lectures on 



Barton chose to obtain his medical botany, but natural history had never 



diploma from the celebi-jited German before been taught. Dr. Barton then 



University, fonmU-d at Gottiiigon, rather was the first lecturer on natural history 



tliun to apply tor one which he was in Philadelphia; and. so far as I know, 



entitled to receive, from the University the first teacher of natural science in tlie 



of Edinburgh. With these reasons, cis-atlantic world. This appointment 



there might, perhaps, hive been blended was confirmed to him in the year 1791, 



some degree of disxalisfaetinn with the on the incorporation of the college with 



deporim'iit of two of the professors in the University of Penns>lvania. Dr. 



the medical school of the latter, towards Barton, at the period of his death, had 



him ; one of these, to whom on his ar- held this professorship for the space o£ 



lival at Edinliurgh he presented a highly six-and-lwenty years, 



recommendatory letter from his pre- A boiit five years after Dr. Barton was 



ceptor iu medicine, professor Shippen — appointed professor of natural history 



uever showed him the slightest attcn- and botany, viz. at tiie close of the year 



lion ; and the conduct of the other was, 1795, Dr. Samuel Powell GrilTiths, wh» 



as he conceived, reprehensible for a is still living, and a respectable prac- 



similar cause. Yet, « hile he acknow- titioner of medicine of the Society of 



led"- d with gratitude and a conimca- Friends in this city, intimated his inteu- 



tlablc pride, the very polLle aud frieudly tiou of icsiguiuj? the professorship ^f 



1 7n<iicri* 



i 



