TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. 195 



been finding new plants. Where ? In the stomachs and intes- 

 tines of insects — several new genera and species, very curious 

 and beautiful, opening up quite a new field of research. These 

 plants are not indicative of disease, but exist in the healthiest 

 individuals. I afterwards met him at the Academy, and he 

 accompanied me over the museum, the collection of birds in 

 which is said to be the finest in the world. Agassiz and the 

 Prince of Canino, both good authorities, say that there is no such 

 single cabinet in Europe. They have two kinds of Apteryx, one 

 of which, I was told, is unique. There is a specimen of the other 

 in T. C. D. They have 180 kinds of humming-birds, and ostriches 

 in proportion. There is a splendid series of toucans, &c. The 

 fossils are very fine. Here also is the largest collection of 

 human skulls — of all nations, tongues, and peoples — to be found 

 anywhere outside a catacomb. 



To this museum is appended a rich library of natural history, 

 containing most of the beautifully illustrated works on 

 ornithology, besides a very fair set in other branches, amongst 

 which is the Phycologia. The whole of the birds and fossils and 

 a great part of the books are the gift of Dr. Wilson of Phila- 

 delphia, a young man of about five and thirty, who will not even 

 allow himself to be thanked for his donations, much less will he 

 have them called by his name. He has expended (they say) 

 some 25,000Z. sterling for this museum, and is still giving. His 

 object is evidently to place the science of his country on an 

 independent footing, and this is surely a noble one. 



In the evening I went to an ordinary meeting of the 

 Academy, and heard part of a paper read by Dr. M. on skulls, 

 wherein he asserted, as Ms opinion, founded on a most extensive 

 examination of human skulls, that all mankind are not the 

 children of Adam, but that several distinct species of men 

 have been created in different countries, just as divers species 

 of other genera have been formed. What is stranger still, he 

 says that this opinion is not controverted by the Bible, but may 

 even be illustrated and confirmed by it. Whom did Cain marry ? 



The following morning I drove, with Commodore K. and 

 some others, to Girard College. This beautiful building, of 

 white marble, with its noble colonnade of Corinthian pillars, 

 and which cost 2,000,000 dollars, is merely an orphan school, 

 intended for children from six to ten years of age, who are to be 



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