284 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. [1842, 



information on the subject, saying that, if freed from 

 other engagements, I would like the botanical part of 

 the professorship, but not the zoology : and that the 

 former, with the charge and the renovation of the 

 Botanic Garden, would be quite enough for one. 



In January I made a flying visit to Boston, where I 

 had never been, and knew no one personally but 

 Greene, to whom, and to Professor Bigelow, 1 I ex- 

 pressed my views ; but we none of us expected that 

 anything would be done at present. I incidentally 

 learned, however, not long since, that the men of sci- 

 ence would generally be well pleased to have me at 

 Boston, and that some with whom I had almost no 

 acquaintance were using their influence to that end. 

 I was never more surprised, however, than this very 

 evening, when I received from President Quincy an 

 official letter, offering me the professorship provi- 

 sionally, with a small salary, to be sure, for the present, 

 but with only the duties of the botanical portion. 



The president states that the endowment is 30,000, 

 yielding an income of $1,500, which, however, not 

 being adequate to constitute a full professor's salary 

 on a permanent foundation, the corporation deem it 

 both their duty and the interest of the professorship 

 to continue for a few years, in a modified form, the 

 policy they have hitherto pursued, and by applying 

 one third of the income annually to the augmentation 

 of the capital, enable themselves to place the profes- 

 sor of natural history, at no distant period, on an 

 equal footing with the other professors of the univer- 

 sity. " To this end they propose to limit your duties, 

 in case you are willing to accept the professorship, to 



1 Jacob Bigelow, M. D., 1787-1879; an eminent Boston physician; 

 author of the Florula Bostoniensis, 1814. 



