838 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Among the early printed works of Dr. Barton was a Memoir 

 concerning the Fascinating Faculty which has been ascribed to 

 the Rattlesnake and other North American Serpents, published in 

 1796. He issued a supplement to this memoir four years later, and 

 a new edition in 1814. The original paper had been read before 

 the American Philosophical Society. He also undertook a work 

 on the materia medica of the United States, issuing an opening 

 part in 1798, a second part in 1804, and an edition of the two com- 

 bined 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 published, 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 Philadel- 

 phia Medical Society, of which Dr. B. S. Barton had been presi- 

 dent from February, 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 goiter, the genera- 

 tion 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 honeybee, the jer- 

 boa, and the stimulant effects of camphor upon vegetables. He 

 issued also the first part, sixty-four pages, of a work on paleontol- 

 ogy, entitled Archczologice, Americans Telluris Collectanea et Sped- 

 mina. 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 geology/' but adds that his recent suc- 

 cession 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 indefatigable student and writer. Several ambitious un- 

 dertakings were left unfinished by him. The following three 

 papers that he had read before the American Philosophical Soci- 

 ety remained 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 memoir (which 

 gained the Magellanic premium) concerning a considerable num- 



