216 Miscellanies. 



the great western Canal, and the result was published in 1824, in a 

 report of 160 pages 8vo., addressed to his patron, with a profile section 

 of the rock formations, from the Atlantic Ocean across the States of 

 Massachusetts and New York, to Lake Erie. Prof. E. was also engag- 

 ed in other more limited geological surveys, until by the munificence of 

 Mr. Van Rensselaer, the school was established at Troy, and Mr. Eaton 

 was solicited to be its senior Professor and director of its literary course 

 in the year last mentioned. The Rensselaer School enabled Prof. 

 Eaton to prosecute his favorite plan of teaching his classes, by making 

 them experimenters and lecturers to each other. All amusements were 

 excluded, by leading the students to take their exercise and relaxation, 

 in the practical applications of botany, geology, and the use of instru- 

 ments for mensuration, surveying, levelling, &c. Some hundreds from 

 various States, have thus been educated under him. 



While lecturing at Williams College, Prof. Eaton prepared and pub- 

 lished, the Genera of Plants of the Northern States, the embryo of that 

 " Manual of Botany," which first gave to students the botany of the 

 various species of our plants, and which improved by repeated additions, 

 became in the eighth edition, the " North American Botany." This 

 work has widely spread the principles and applications of botany, being 

 written in a popular manner, and containing full views of the science, 

 as exhibited in the method of Linnseus. 



His " Index to the Geology of the Northern States," was published in 

 1818, and the second edition in 1820. In 1824, he published his " Phi- 

 losophical Instructor," based on Webster'' s Elements of Natural Philos- 

 ophy. It is unnecessary to mention his other works upon natural 

 history, or to refer to the various papers from' his pen in this Journal. 

 He was for years an active professor of chemistry, &c. in the Vermont 

 Academy of Medicine, at Castleton. In geology, he published many 

 facts of the highest consequence, and Mr. Lyell has just assented to the 

 correctness of the doctrine advanced first by Prof E., that our coal and 

 anthracite belong to one geological formation. Although great modifica- 

 tions are making in our. geology, the names given by Prof. E. to many 

 rocks of New York, have been retained as very useful for reference. 

 He died in peace. Benevolent and kind in his disposition, he warmly 

 attached to himself his pupils and friends ; and he will long be remem- 

 bered, as an active and successful pioneer in the investigation of the 

 natural history of his country. D. 



JVet« Publications. — In the moment of closing this number, we have received the 

 second Bulletin of the National Institute at Washington, pp. 220, with plates— 

 also, a volume of 582 pages, with nearly 300 wood cuts, by Thomas Ewbank, 

 being a history of hydraulic and other machines, and of the Steam Engine. 



