193 
[Goodale. 
18, 1810. His parents were New Englanders, his father from Ver- 
mont, his mother from Longmeadow in this State. He traced his 
descent from Scotch-Irish stock. The school advantages appear 
to have been good for the time and region, and every opportunity 
for reading was eagerly seized by the lad. After a little training 
in a private school, he passed two years in the Clinton Grammar 
School, and was then transferred to Fairfield Academy in Herkimer 
County. At the close of the school year, it was decided that he 
should begin the study of medicine. In the autumn of that year, 
at the age of sixteen, he attended lectures in the Medical College 
of the Western District, at Fairfield. From his sketch, it appears, 
that he had already listened to the courses in chemistry given by 
Professor Hadley, whom he calls his earliest scientific teacher and 
most excellent friend. At this time he was very fond of mineralogy 
and chemistry. The first hint we have of any interest in botany is 
a little later. In 1827, he read the article Botany in Brewster’s Cyclo- 
paedia, and became so much interested in the subject that he pur- 
chased a copy of Eaton’s Manual of Botany, and, as he says, “waited 
impatiently for spring. I was out of reach either of greenhouse or 
potted plants, but on an April day, in 1823, I sallied forth into 
the bare woods, found an early specimen of a plant in flower, peep- 
ing from dry leaves, brought it home, and with Eaton’s Manual, 
without much difficulty, ran it down to its name, Claytonia Virgin - 
ica. I was pleased at my success and went to collecting and ex- 
amining all the plants on which I could lay my hands, and the rides 
over the country with my preceptor in visiting patients gave me 
good opportunities. I began an herbarium of shockingly bad spec- 
imens. In autumn, going back to Fairfield for the annual course 
of medical lectures, I took specimens of those that puzzled me to 
Professor Hadley who had learned some botany of Dr. Ives of New 
Haven, and had made a neat herbarium of the common N. E. and 
N. Y. plants which I studied carefully that winter.” 
He took the degree of M.D. at the close of the session of 1830 — 
31. In his sketch he gives a charming account of a journey which 
he made at this time to New York by way of Albany. At the lat- 
ter place he saw, as he says, “a grave looking man who I was told 
was Professor Henry who had just been making a wonderful elec- 
tro-magnet.” This was the first meeting of two men who were af- 
terwards to sustain such pleasant relations with each other in con- 
PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H. VOL. XXIV 13 JULY, 1889. 
