Revieiv. 175 



mention the names of Withering and Darwin, as proofs 

 of this assertion ? 



" As to myself, gentlemen, I have to assure you, that, 

 in all my studies, I shall have a constant eye to this in- 

 stitution, and to the promotion of its various useful ob- 

 jects. The indispensible calls of my profession ; the 

 necessity I, at length, find myself under, of devoting a 

 larger portion of my time to the arrangement of those 

 materials, relative to the natural history and the ancient 

 state of our country, in the collection of which I have 

 been engaged for near seventeen years, may, for a 

 time, prevent me from devoting much of my attention 

 to the current business of the institution. But viewing 

 as I do the foundation of this Society with much sa- 

 tisfaction ; and believing that its complete establishment 

 will be an event of the highest interest and consequence 

 in the literary history of our country, I cannot but feel 

 proud of associating myself with you ; of attaching my- 

 self more firmly to those studies in the pursuit of which 

 I have passed the happiest hours of my life ; and of 

 connecting myself, by still more endearing ties, to those 

 of you, whom I have been so fortunate as to conduct 

 to the first threshold of the study of Medicine, and of 

 Nature. 



" Permit me to close this feeble and imperfect ad- 

 dress, by assuring you, how sensible I am of the ho- 

 nour you have conferred upon me, by electing me to 

 the place of the first president of the Society." 



