284 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME.  [1842, 
information on the subject, saying.that, if freed from 
other engagements, I would like the botanical part of 
the professorship, but not the zodlogy: and that the 
former, with the charge and the renovation of the 
Botanic Garden, would be quite enough for one. 
In January I made a flying visit to Boston, where I 
had never been, and knew no one personally but 
Greene, to whom, and to Professor Bigelow,! I ex- 
pressed my views; but we none of us expected that 
anything would be done at present. I incidentally 
learned, however, not long since, that the men of sci- 
ence would generally be well pleased to have me at 
Boston, and that some with whom I had almost no 
acquaintance were using their influence to that end. 
I was never more surprised, however, than this very 
evening, when I received from President Quincy an 
official letter, offering me the professorship provi- 
sionally, with a small salary, to be sure, for the present, 
but with only the duties of the botanical portion. 
The president states that the endowment is $30,000, 
yielding an income of $1,500, which, however, not 
being adequate to constitute a full professor’s salary 
on a permanent foundation, the corporation deem it 
both their duty and the interest of the professorship 
to continue for a few years, in a modified form, the 
policy they have hitherto pursued, and by applying 
one third of the income annually to the augmentation 
of the capital, enable themselves to place the profes- 
sor of natural history, at no distant period, on an 
equal footing with the other professors of the univer- 
sity. “To this end they propose to limit your duties, 
in case you are willing to accept the professorship, to 
1 Jacob Bigelow, M. D., 1787-1879; an eminent Boston physician; 
author of the Florula Losiaibinats, 1814. 
