42 SOME AMERICAN MEDICAL BOTANISTS 



ship with Franklin lent keener interest to the 

 electricity, as they corresponded regularly on 

 this subject. Franklin, in describing the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society to a friend, mentions 

 Colden as its originator. 



He left many unpublished papers on mete- 

 orology, on vital movement, the properties of 

 light, the intelligence of animals and the ad- 

 mixture of metals. Colden's son became a dis- 

 tinguished mathematician and natural philoso- 

 pher, and his grandson a senator to the State of 

 New York. Of the learned Miss Jane I find no 

 further details. 



Writing to him on June 26, 1743, Bartram 

 says : ' 

 " Friend Colden: 



" I have lately received order to travel to 

 gather the seeds of the Balm of Gilead and other 

 species of evergreens. The Duke of Norfolk 

 hath subscribed twenty guineas, the Duke of 

 Richmond and two other gentlemen fifteen more. 

 .... I am now providing for a journey up Sus- 

 quehanna with our interpreter, in order to intro- 

 duce a peaceable understanding between the 

 Virginians and the Five Nations." 



But the Indians hindered many a botanical 

 journey, for Colden, on the 27th of January, 1747, 

 tells Bartram: 



' Memorials of Bartram and Marshall. Darlington. 



