110 THE BOTANISTS OP PHILADELPHIA. 



Tlie trustees of the College of Philadelphia, in estab- 

 lishing a professorship of natural history and botany, 

 elected Dr. Barton, then only twenty-four years of age, to 

 the chair. This election was confirmed in the following 

 year, when the College became a part of the University 

 of Pennsylvania. The chair of materia medica in the Uni- 

 versity became vacant, and this professorship was assigned 

 to Dr. Barton five years later, and was held by him until he 

 succeeded to that of Dr. Rush. He became, in 1798, one 

 of the physicians of the Pennsylvania Hospital, which place 

 he held for the rest of his life. 



Among the first works published by Dr. Barton was a 

 memoir concerning the Fascinating Faculty which has 

 been ascribed to the Rattlesnake and other North American 

 Serpents, published in 1796. A supplement to this memoir 

 was printed four years later, and a new edition in 1814. 

 He issued a work on the materia medica of the United 

 States, in two parts, published in 1798 and 1804 respectively,* 

 and an edition of the two combined in 1810. His most 

 important work was his " Elements of Botany," which first 

 appeared in two volumes in 1803. A second edition of the first 

 volume Avas issued in 1812, and of the second volume in 

 1814, with forty plates.f Dr. William P. C. Barton issued, 

 after the author's death in 1836, a revised edition in one vol- 

 ume, prefixing a biographical sketch, prepared at the request 

 of the Philadelphia Medical Society, of which his uncle had 

 been president. A translation of the Elements appeared in 

 Russian. Dr. Barton also wrote extensively on other subjects 



* Collections for an essay towards a materia medica of the United States. Two 

 parts. Philadelphia. Part 1 : 1798, pp. 49. Part II : 180^, pp. 53. 



t Elements of Botany ; or, Outlines of the Natural History of Vegetables. 

 Ed. 1 : Philadelphia, 1803. Ed. II : 1812, pp. xviii, 324 ind.— 1814, iv, pp. 180, 44 ; 40 tab. 



