76 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vov. XXXII. 
nature beneath the preacher’s coat. Finally, in 1771, he accepted 
a call to Ipswich Hamlet, on Cape Ann, which was set off in 
1793 as the new town of Hamilton. Here he remained fifty- 
two years, until his death, increasingly loved and respected, and 
the most influential man of the region. In his time the nearest 
place of importance was Salem, then at the height of her pros- 
perity as a great shipping port. Mr. Cutler soon acquired a 
reputation there as a teacher, and received important additions 
to his slender salary for fitting the sons of many distinguished 
families for college, as well as for training in the theory of navi- 
gation many a young man who became a famous shipmaster in 
the East India trade. He never received from his parish more 
than four hundred and fifty dollars a year — then relatively a 
much larger sum than now, it is true. 
During the Revolution the great need of army surgeons at 
the front called away the village doctor from Ipswich Hamlet, 
and the minister took it upon himself to study medicine, that 
his people might not be without help in sickness. At another 
time he served several months as a regimental chaplain in the 
Continental Army. It seems very likely that his medical studies 
first developed his interest in natural science; for we know that 
this branch of knowledge played no important part in eollege 
curricula in his day, and the first evidences of his attention to 
it date from this time. His interest in botany seems always 
to have predominated, and his chief publication was upon this 
subject. Yet he corresponded with many of the most dis- 
tinguished scientific men of his time in both Europe and 
America on a great variety of the subjects then most discussed. 
Among these were the aurora borealis and other meteorological 
matters, physical problems, the habits and migrations of 
animals, as well as the plants of his own and other regions. 
In June, 1780, he records having read Hales’ Vegetable 
Staticks and his wish to follow out some lines of experimenta- 
tion suggested to him by the reading. He evidently caught 
from it the inductive spirit, of which Hales’ work was the first 
fruit in its field of research. The difficulties under which he 
labored may be understood from a letter written at this time to 
his friend, Professor Williams, of Harvard. He says: ‘I have 
