Asa Gray: His Life and Work. 367 



comes about that I am able to speak to you from personal experi- 

 ence and observations of the state of scientific knowledge as 

 taught in the days before the coming of the flood of light which 

 we are now enjoying, and also of one of the early teachers of 

 Professor Gray, his life and methods. 



In May, 1810, at Catskill, N. Y., Professor Amos Eaton, a 

 graduate of Williams College of 1799, made, it is believed, the 

 first attempt in this country to deliver a popular course of lectures 

 on botany, compiling a small elementaiy treatise for the use of his 

 class, in what he called "The Botanical Institution," the first 

 botanical text-book in English published in this country; those 

 previously used being in the Latin language. In 1817 he delivered 

 lectures on botany, mineralogy and geology to volunteer classes of 

 the students of Williams College, at Williamstown, Mass. The 

 first edition of his Manual of Botany was published by graduates 

 of Williams College in 1817, and gave a great impulse to the study 

 of botany in New England and New York. The eighth and last 

 edition of this work was published in 1840, under the title of 

 " North American Botany," a large octavo volume of 625 pages, 

 and containing descriptions of 5207 species of plants. 



Between 1817 and 18^34, Professor Eaton also delivered courses 

 of lectures on branches of natural history, but particularly on 

 botany, before the Members of the Legislature at Albany, on the 

 special invitation of Governor De Witt Clinton ; in the Lenox 

 Academy, Mass. ; at Noi'thampton under the patronage of Gov- 

 ernor Strong of Massachusetts ; in the Medical College at Castleton, 

 Vermont, in which he was appointed Professor of Natural History 

 in 1820; in the City of Troy, N. Y., and in many other places.. 

 His lectures in Albany resulted in the initiation of that great work, 

 "The Natural History of New York," the naturalists engaged in 

 which were largely his pupils among them James Hall and 

 Ebenezer Emmons. That work has not only been the pattern for 

 the scientific surveys of other States, but men who studied under 

 him have been engaged in such surveys in many of the States. In 

 1818 he first published his "Index to the Geology of the Northern 

 States," which was the first attempt at a general arrangement of 

 the geological strata of North America. In 1818-19 the City of 

 Troy then little more than a village, but settled by the advance 

 guard of that New England emigration which has since covered 

 the Western States had a Lyceum of Natural History and the 

 most extensive collection of American geological specimens to be 

 found in this country. With Albany, it contained a notable 

 number of leaders in science. Among them were Professor 

 Henry, the Becks, and many more, but in the early days Professor 

 Eaton Avas easily the leader in all branches. 



In 1824 Professor Eaton, by the aid of the Pati'oon, Stephen Van 

 Rensselaer, of Albany a man of broad views and public spirit 

 established in the City of Troy a School of Science then called 

 the Rensselaer School, whicli eventually became a school of all 

 branches of engineering, is now known as the Rensselaer Poly- 

 technic Institute, was the model at some remove of the Brooklyn 

 Polytechnic Institute, and has turned out, as its biographical 

 record shows, a larger number of the successful working sci- 

 entific men and engineers of our day and generation engaged 

 in applying science in the work of the world than any other 

 institution in the country, possibly more than all the literary 



