Domestic Intelligence. 397 
in Yale College, will probably long remain unrivalled in this 
country. But smaller collections, if judiciously made and 
consisting of the most important articles, may be of exten- 
sive utility. Many of the students of our college, by having 
the specimens of Dr. Hosack’s collection exhibited in illus- 
- tration of the lectures they receive on mineralogy, have been 
led to enter into the subject with a zeal, which I hope will 
be productive of public benefit. 
‘Having requested of Dr. Hosack to give me an account of 
the manner in which he obtained this collection, he has obli- 
gingly returned an answer, from which I send you for pub- 
lication the subjoined extract, in connexion with the state- 
ments here made. is I do not only as a merited ac- 
knowledgment of the Doctor’s liberality, but in hope that 
what he has done may serve as an example to others. It 
would be of incalculable benefit to the interests of science 
among us, if American gentlemen, while they visit foreign 
countries for their personal improvement, would remember 
the colleges—perhaps the places of their own education in 
the United States ; and make them such donations as their 
means and inclination should dictate. A principal reason 
why a liberal education with us is less valuable than in the 
Universities of Europe is, that we want the literary appara- 
tus which they possess. If, by the aid of a liberal patron- 
age, the libraries, philosophical apparatus and cabinets of 
natural history in our colleges, could be suitably extended, 
we should, I trust, be able before long to do full justice to 
our national reputation. _ | 
Yours sincerely, 
JACOB GREEN. 
2+ Extract of a letter from Dr. Hosack to Prof. Green. 
by Lord Gardenston. In the summer of 1793, in London, 
Vou. IV......No,, 2. 25 
