Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch. 23 
he labored in early life for want of books, and was dis 
obtain for others the acvabiagen which had been extended to rte 
self. 
Immediately after his election as Trustee of the ‘heii i in 
1826, Dr. Bowditch, perceiving the paucity and poverty of the sci- 
entific department of the library, which might all be put into one 
small compartment,—“ dim tota domus rheda componitur una,”— 
declared that “it was too bad, and a disgrace to the institution 
and to Boston.” He ancobiliindy set about supplying the de- 
ficiency, by collecting subscriptions for this express purpose. Col. 
T. H. Perkins gave $500, his brother James the same amount, 
Dr. Bowditch himself $250, and other gentlemen $100 apiece. 
With this sum were purchased the Transactions of the Royal 
Societies of London, Dublin, and ~Edinburgh, of the French 
Academies and Iselin, of the Academies.of Berlin, Gottingen, 
St. Petersburg, Turin, Lisbon, Madrid, Stockholm, and Copen- 
hagen; forming, as Dr. Bowditch once told the librarian, “ the 
most extensive and-complete collection of philosophical and sci- 
entific works on this continent.” 
‘Dr. Bowditch also took a deep interest-in the «< Boston Me- 
chanics’ Institution,” which was established in 1826, and of 
which he was elected the first President, January 12, 1827. In 
1828, more than a thousand dollars: was subscribed for the par- 
. chase of philosophical. apparatus, chiefly through his influence 
with his friends, and he headed the list with the sum of one hun- 
dred dollars. On resigning the Presidency, in 1829, he was 
elected first honorary member of the institution. 
Dr. Bowditch was likewise an honorary member of the Mas- 
sachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. On the 3d of April 
a Eulogy on their departed associate was pronounced before that 
body by the author of this Memoir, on which day the flags of all 
the shipping in the port were hauled to half-mast by direction of 
the Boston Marine Society, of which he was likewise a member. 
His sense of the honor thus conferred on him by these elections, 
and his affectionate regard for these Societies, and for the city of 
his eter, will be best seen by the kllerane extract {fom his 
8 And, i in aeank to ee the sand of A adoption, where, 
as a stranger, 1 met with welcome, “and where I have ever con- 
tinued to receive constantly increasing proofs of kindness and re- 
