86 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



issuing an opening part in 1798, a second part in 1804, and an 

 edition of the two combined in 1810. His most important 

 publication was his Elements of Botany, a work of 508 pages, 

 octavo, illustrated with thirty plates, which first appeared in 

 two volumes in 1803. A second edition of the first volume was 

 issued in 1812, and of the second volume in 1814, with forty 

 plates. After the author's death, Dr. William P. C. Barton pub- 

 lished, in 1836, a revised edition in one volume, condensed by 

 omitting the quotations from Latin and English poets, certain 

 tabular views that had become antiquated, and the index. To 

 this edition is prefixed a biographical sketch, prepared by Dr. 

 W. P. C. Barton at the request of the Philadelphia Medical Soci- 

 ety, of which Dr. B. S. Barton had been president from Febru- 

 ary, 1809, till he died, and read before that society February 

 24, 1816. The Elements of Botany was republished in London, 

 and was translated into Russian. 



Another considerable work was his New Views of the Origin 

 of the Tribes and Nations of America, which appeared in 1798. 

 Other subjects on which he published more or less fully were 

 the natural history of Pennsylvania, the disease of goitre, the 

 generation of the opossum, the principal desiderata in natural 

 history (read before the Philadelphia Linnsean Society), Siren 

 lacertina, the hellbender, the bite of the rattlesnake, the honey- 

 bee, the jerboa, and the stimulant effects of camphor upon 

 vegetables. He issued also the first part, sixty-four pages, of a 

 work on paleontology, entitled Archczologia Americana Telluris 

 Collectanea et Specimina. In the preface to this fragment he 

 says, " I at one time, indeed for some years together, flattered 

 myself that I should have found leisure to have devoted a 

 considerable portion of my life to the study of organic geol- 

 ogy," but adds that his recent succession to the chair of Dr. 

 Rush would prevent any extensive or systematic attention to 

 this subject. An ardent thirst for literary fame, which was 

 present in Prof. Barton throughout his life, made him an inde- 

 fatigable student and writer. Several ambitious undertakings 

 were left unfinished by him. The following three papers that 

 he had read before the American Philosophical Society re- 

 mained unpublished at his death : a eulogy on Dr. Priestley, 

 with whom Dr. Barton had been acquainted ; a geographical 

 view of the trees and shrubs of North America ; and a mem- 

 oir (which gained the Magellanic premium), concerning a con- 



