Literary and Scientijic Associations. 261 



and the late Rev. Dr. Belknap, the honourable 

 Judge Tudor, and the Rev. Dr. Eliot, are more 

 entitled to the honour of being called its founders 

 than any other individuals/ The design of this 

 association is to collect and preserve all documents, 

 either manuscript or printed, which have a ten- 

 dency to throw light on the natural, civil, ecclesi- 

 astical, or literary history of America. It has al- 

 ready made very large and valuable collections, an 

 important portion of which has been laid before 

 the public/ and it bids fair to be one of the most 

 useful institutions in our country/ 



3. Medical Societies. Prior to the revolution, 

 which made the United States free and indepen- 

 dent, the physicians of our country afforded little 

 instruction or aid to each other. Scattered over 

 an immense territory; seldom called to confer toge- 

 ther and compare opinions, and little habituated 

 to the task of committing their observations to 

 writing, each was compelled to proceed almost 



p Dr. Belknap, whose taste for historical researches is well known, 

 and who has rendered such important service to the interests of American 

 history, first urged the adoption of some plan for collecting and preserving 

 the numerous historical documents, relating to our country, and especially 

 tp New-England, which were widely scattered, and rapidly failing a prey 

 to the destroying hand of time. He was zealously seconded by Judge 

 Tudor, who first proposed the formation of a society for this purpose, and 

 by the Rev. Dr. Eliot, who engaged with ardour in the plan, and has 

 been since one of the most active and useful members of the institution. 

 These gentlemen were soon joined, and ably assisted by the Rev. Drs. 

 Thatcher and Freeman, by the honourable Judges Sullivan and 

 Minot, Mr. Winthrop, and several others, who were members of the 

 association when first organized. 



r The historical documents published by the Society amount to seven 

 octavo volumes. 



s By far the greater part of the publications made by this Society relate 

 to the history of New-England. This has arisen, not from any blanieable 

 partiality of the resident members to the history of their own country ; but 

 from the negligence of the corresponding members to make communications 

 respecting the several States to which they belong. It is earnestly to be 

 wished, either that gentlemen of a literary character in different parts of 

 the United States would consider the Society in Boston as a national one, 

 and exert themselves to render it more extensively useful; or, without de- 

 lay, form independent societies for the same purpose, to act in co-operation 

 with the parent society. 



