Miscellanies. 215 



lege, conferred on his country a very important benefit. From 1810, 

 11 and 12, during which years it was opened and arranged, to 1825, 

 he liberally gave the use of it to the institution and the public, re- 

 ceiving, as his only compensation, the satisfaction of observing the 

 great amount of good which was thus effected. In 1825, this cabi- 

 net was purchased for Yale College, .for twenty thousand dollars : 

 half of this sum w^as contributed by citizens of New Haven, inclu- 

 ding one thousand five hundred dollars given by the permanent offi- 

 cers of the College ; about three thousand dollars were pledged in 

 New York, seven hundred in South Carolina,* five hundred, each, 

 by two individuals in Connecticut,! and a few hundreds more in 

 other places. 



The writer of this notice had extensive opportunities of witness- 

 ing the liberal spirit with which Col. Gibbs promoted the interests of 

 science. While he was conferring important benefits, his manners 

 were mild, amiable and unassuming. 



It is not improper to mention, that Col. Gibbs was the person 

 who first suggested to the Editor the project of this Journal, and he 

 urged the topic with so much zeal and with such cogent arguments, 

 as prevailed to .induce the effort in a case then viewed as of very 

 dubious success.J The subject was thus started in November, 1817; 

 proposals for the Journal were issued in January, 1818, and the first 

 No. appeared in July of that year. 



For many years previous to his death. Col. Gibbs, occupied with 

 rural cares, retired into the bosom of his family, in his beautiful 

 abode at Hurlgate Ferry. The few papers which he published in 

 Dr. Bruce's Journal, and in the American Journal, only cause us to 

 regret that he did not publish more. 



His talents were decidedly of a superior order ; his knowledge 

 was extensive and various ; his style of writing was simple, concise 

 and comprehensive, and his original observations were judicious and 

 exact. 



2. Dr. William Meade died at Newburgh, in the state of New 

 York, on the 29th of August. This gentleman, a native of Ireland, 



* Thrqugh the exertions of Thomas S. Grimk6, Esq. 



t One of whom was the late Hon. James Hillhouse. 



t It was on an accidental meeting on board the Fulton steam-boat, in Long Island 

 Sound, that Col. Gibbs suggested this effort. Dr. Bruce's Journal of Mineralogy 

 had been for some years suspended, and the alarming state of his health forbade the 

 hope that the work would be revived. 



