I0 6 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



as to its real nature, for if the fears of his fellow-citizens 

 were groundless his statement would be sure to allay them. 



Of Dr. Hosack in the professorial chair, Dr. Minturn Post, 

 one of his pupils, has said : " In no respect was Dr. Hosack 

 more remarkable than as a lecturer ; gifted with a command- 

 ing person and a piercing eye, of an ardent temperament and 

 of strong convictions, his manner of treating the various sub- 

 jects connected with his professorship was at once bold, im- 

 pressive, and eloquent. . . . His great object was to direct the 

 student to the importance of the subject under examination, 

 to lead him by his eloquence, and to rivet his attention by his 

 earnestness, and no man ever succeeded better as a public lec- 

 turer in attaining these results. . . . Dr. Hosack was gifted 

 with a fine, sonorous voice, great play of expression, and a 

 remarkable vivacity of manner qualities which, being as it 

 were contagious, begat in his youthful auditory a kindred sym- 

 pathy." In closing his account above quoted Dr. Post re- 

 marks : " He lived in memorable times, before the great men 

 of the Revolution had passed away ; had seen and conversed 

 with the most eminent of the age ; had listened to the inspired 

 song of Burns, tuned to sweet cadence, from his own lips; 

 was intimate with Rush, and Gregory, and Sir Joseph Banks, 

 and was the friend of Clinton and Hamilton." The friendship 

 of Hamilton was probably won for the most part by his suc- 

 cess in saving the life of a son of the general sick with scar- 

 let fever, whose case for a time was deemed hopeless. This 

 friendship was conspicuous on every occasion, and was termi- 

 nated only on that day when Dr. Hosack accompanied Hamil- 

 ton across the Hudson River to his fatal duel with Colonel 

 Burr. 



Dr. Hosack is often mentioned as one of the leading pro- 

 moters of science of his time. " His love of botanical science," 

 says his son, "induced him to found the Elgin* Botanic Gar- 

 den, which he did at his own individual expense, as early as 

 1801. It was situated about three and a half miles from the 

 city of New York. It consisted of about twenty acres of land 

 on the middle road.f It was selected from its varied soil as 



* So named after the village in Scotland where his father was born. 



f The location is given in Mrs. Lamb's History of New York as lying be- 

 tween Fifth and Sixth Avenues and stretching from Forty-seventh to Fifty- 

 first Streets. 



