DAVID HOSACK. IO g 



of which there are some thirty, are herbs and shrubs growing 

 in the Southern and Southwestern States and in Mexico. 



His second wife having died, Dr. Hosack married Mrs. 

 Magdalena Coster, widow of the Holland merchant, Henry A. 

 Coster. Some time after this event he retired from his pro- 

 fession and spent the rest of his life, except the winter months, 

 on the beautiful estate at Hyde Park, on the banks of the Hud- 

 son, which he had owned for a number of years. Here he de- 

 voted himself to agriculture and to growing plants of botan- 

 ical interest. "He carried with him," his son remarks, " the 

 same ardour and zeal which had been so characteristic of him 

 in his professional career. He introduced into the country 

 many of the finest breeds of cattle, sheep, and swine, which he 

 imported at great expense from abroad. The grounds were 

 cultivated in the best possible manner, and the most esteemed 

 fruits and vegetable productions of the country were made to 

 thrive in the greatest luxury possible." 



In the autumn of 1835 Dr. Hosack removed as usual to his 

 city residence, and a few weeks after was seized with apoplexy 

 which terminated his existence. One morning in December he 

 went out and did some business errands, and on his return 

 home found he was paralyzed in his right arm. His speech 

 was also affected. He received immediate attention from his 

 son, Dr. A. E. Hosack, and later from several of his profes- 

 sional friends. But their efforts were of no avail. His symp- 

 toms became worse, and four days after the attack, on De- 

 cember 22d, he passed away. His body was placed in the 

 family vault in the marble cemetery in Second Street. 



One of the surest ways in which an eminent man can cause 

 his influence to live after him is in training up younger men to 

 lives of usefulness. This Dr. Hosack was constantly doing. 

 " I can scarcely recollect the time," says his son, " when he 

 was without some such protege." At one time it was the son 

 of a New York carpenter, who, unfortunately, fell a victim to 

 his devotion to yellow-fever patients in the epidemic of 1798. 

 At another it was a young Frenchman, who, without means, 

 had come to America to study its flora, his family having been 

 forced to leave France on account of the Revolution there. 

 Dr. Hosack took him into his family and educated him as a 

 physician. He returned to France and became eminent as a 

 botanist. This was Prof. Delile, who accompanied Napoleon 



