On the Natural History of North America. 2G9 



tomologlst is called potatoe-fly, because ir abounds upon 

 the stems and leaves of the solanum tuberosum, or potatoe. 

 It inhabits various other species of vegetables ; such as the 

 flax (linum), the beet {beta), black snake-root {uctcea ra- 

 cemosu), &c. This insect has been found to be a very effi- 

 cacious substitute for the cantharides of the shops, and is 

 now employed, with this view, by many of our physicians. 



I shall conclude this part of my letter by observing, that 

 I still continue n)y inquiries into the natural history of the 

 North American tribes. On this subject I have read before 

 our Philosophical Society a discourse, v/hich it is my inten- 

 tion to publish in a much more enlarged and perfect shape. 

 Since the publication of my New Views, I have made great 

 progress in collecting and comparing the languages of the 

 American tribes with one another, and with the languages 

 ot Europe and Asia. Every step I take only serves to con- 

 firm me in my former opinion, that the (known) radical 

 languages of North America are very few in number, and 

 that all the Americans are of Asiatic origin. I have lately 

 received from Mexico an inestimable treasure, — a collection 

 of a number of vocabularies of the old Mexican dialects. 

 Between these and the dialects of Asia I find great affinities, 

 sufficient to convince me that the Mexican nations (con- 

 trary to the paradox of Camper) are not of European ori- 

 gin ; much more than sufficient to excite in me the greatest 

 surprise that the learned abbe Clarigero, after leisurely 

 comparing the Mexican languages wtth those of the old 

 world, should have found no affinity between them. The 

 affinities, I repeat it, arc very great. 



Of all the branches of natural history, none, I think, is 

 so little cultivated in the United States as mineralogy. This 

 is the more remarkable, not merely by reason of the great 

 utility of this branch of the science, but because its sister 

 science, I mean chemistry, is ardently cultivated in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, particularly in Philadelphia. 

 Mineralogy, however, is not entirely neglected in the United 

 States. It possesses, among other votaries, an ingenious 

 cultivator in Dr. Adam Seybcrt, to whom we are indebted 

 for the discovery of a mineral which is supposed to be co- 

 rundum or adamantine spar. This is found to be abundant 

 in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. -Mineralogy and 

 chemistry, and I may add the other branches of natural 

 history, have lately sustained a loss, not perhaps easily to 

 be repaired, in the death of i\lr. Thomas P. Smith, a young 

 jnan of the most capacious mind, and of the warmest en- 

 thusiasm [or the attainment and promotion of science. 



Vol. '2?. No. 87. -'///1'-//.jM803. O ■ Mines 



