32 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



Philadelphia, ten years before, was productive of great good. It 

 was, moreover, laden with the results of original and important 

 observations in all departments of natural history. Another im- 

 portant paper was his " Memoirs on the Antiquities of Western 

 New York " printed in 1818. 



Clinton's attention was devoted chiefly to public affairs, and 

 especially to the organization of the admirable school system of 

 New York and other internal improvements. He did enough in 

 science, however, to place him in the highest ranks of our early 

 naturalists.* 



Hosack has been referred to elsewhere as a pioneer in miner- 

 alogy and the founder of the first botanic garden. He was long 

 president of the Historical Society, and exercised a commanding 

 influence in every direction. His researches were, however, 

 chiefly medical. 



Samuel Akerly [b. 1785, d. 1845], the brother-in-law of 

 Mitchill, a graduate of Columbia College, 1807, was an in- 

 dustrious worker in zoology and botany and the author of the 

 " Geology of the Hudson River." John Griscom [b. 1774, d. 

 1852], one of the earliest teachers of chemistry, began in 1806 a 

 career of great usefulness. " For thirty years," wrote Francis, 

 44 he was the acknowledged head of all other teachers of chem- 

 istry among us (in New York), and he kept pace with the flood 

 of light which Davy, Murray, Gaylussac, and Thenard, and 

 others shed on the progress of chemical philosophy at that day." 

 About 1820 he went abroad to study scientific institutions, and his 

 charming book, 'A Year in Europe,' supplemented by his regu- 

 lar contributions to Sillimart's Journal, commenting on scientific 

 affairs in other countries, did much to stimulate the growth of 

 scientific and educational institutions in America. 



* HOSACK : Memoirs of DeWitt Clinton. New York, 1829. RENWICK : 

 Life of DeWitt Clinton. New York, 1840. CAMPBELL : Life and Writings 

 of DeWitt Clinton. New York, 1849. 



