SAMUEL LATHAM MITCHILL. jj 



present Dr. Mitchill's life and writings in substantial form, the 

 subject of our sketch would doubtless have received the credit 

 to which he was entitled, and have been made to appear as 

 one of the most vigorous leaders of early American science. 



The scientific items in Dr. Mitchill's record are continued 

 with mention of the introductory lecture to the College of Phy- 

 sicians, etc., on the life and writings of their late president, 

 Samuel Bard, 1821 ; a philosophical discourse in St. Stephen's 

 Chapel, Bowery, to the class formed in that congregation for 

 cultivating the natural and physical sciences, 1822; a discourse 

 on the Life and Writings of Linnaeus, at Prince's Botanical 

 Gardens, Flushing, on the anniversary of the Swede's birth- 

 day in 1823; and the publication of a catalogue of the geo- 

 logical articles and organic remains which he presented to the 

 museum of the Lyceum. In 1823 he appears as performing, 

 after the Venetian example, on an invitation from Albany and 

 a mission from New York, the ceremony of marrying the Lakes 

 to the Ocean, at Albany, " on the day of the unprecedented 

 gathering of the people to witness the scene of connecting the 

 Western and Northern Canals with the Hudson " ; and again, 

 two years afterward, as a member of a committee for celebrat- 

 ing the completion of the Western Canal, when, in the vicinity 

 of Sandy Hook, he pronounced an address " on the introduc- 

 tion of the Lady of the Lake to the estate of her spouse the 

 Lord of the Ocean." This, according to Dr. Francis, was the 

 proudest day of his life. He also acted on a committee, in 

 1824, to receive funds in aid of the efforts of the Greeks to 

 achieve their independence. 



Dr. Francis says, summing up his work, and quoting at 

 least a part of the estimate from the book, Old New York, 

 that " the universal praise which Dr. Mitchill enjoyed in almost 

 every part of the globe where science is cultivated, during a 

 long life, is demonstrative that his merits were of a high order. 

 . . . His knowledge was diversified and extensive, if not pro- 

 found. His first scientific paper was an essay on Evaporation. 

 His mineralogical survey of New York, in 1797, gave Volney 

 many hints ; his analysis of the Saratoga waters enhanced the 

 importance of those mineral springs. . . . His ingenious theory 

 of the doctrine of septon and septic acid gave origin to many 

 papers and impulse to Sir Humphry Davy's vast discoveries; 

 his doctrines on pestilence awakened inquiry from every class 



