DAVID HOSACK. lO j 



peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of the different vegetable 

 productions. The grounds were skilfully laid out and planted 

 with some of the most rare and beautiful of our forest trees. 

 An extensive and ornamental conservatory was erected for the 

 cultivation of tropical and greenhouse plants, as well as those 

 devoted to medical purposes, more especially those of our own 

 country. 



" At this time there were under cultivation nearly fifteen 

 hundred species of American plants, besides a considerable 

 number of rare and valuable exotics. To this collection addi- 

 tions were made from time to time from various parts of Europe 

 as well as from the East and West Indies. It was the intention 

 of the founder of this beautiful garden, had his means been 

 more ample, to devote it to the sciences generally, more espe- 

 cially those of zoology and mineralogy. This, however, he 

 was compelled from want of fortune to relinquish, hoping that 

 the State of New York would at some future day be induced 

 to carry out the plan as suggested by him similar in all respects 

 to that of the Garden of Plants in Paris ; but in this he was 

 disappointed. The State purchased the garden from him, but, 

 like many other public works unconnected with politics, it was 

 suffered to go to ruin. While it was in his possession it af- 

 forded him many a pleasant hour of recreation, and served to 

 abstract him from the cares and anxieties of an arduous pro- 

 fession." Frederick Pursh, author of the Flora Septentriona- 

 lis, was for several years curator of this garden. 



A jail society, which had existed in New York to supply 

 provisions to prisoners for debt, was developed by Hosack into 

 the Humane Society, with broader aims and means. The City 

 Dispensary received no less his care and attention. He vigor- 

 ously advocated a separate hospital building for contagious 

 diseases, the strict enforcement of quarantine regulations, the 

 substitution of stone piers for wooden ones, and urged that 

 the city's sewers should discharge at the outer ends of the 

 piers instead of at the bulkhead line. 



His friends often wondered that Dr. Hosack found time to 

 contribute so much as he did to the literature of his profession. 

 At an early period he began the publication of the Medical 

 and Philosophical Register, a quarterly journal, in which Dr, 

 John W. Francis was associated with him. He afterward pub- 

 lished three volumes of his Medical Essays, containing occa- 



