Dou'/lasfi Houghton. — A. Winr/tclL 131 
this mill. Douglass narrowly escaped total blindness. This 
accident was coincident, naturally, with a new trend in Doug- 
lass Houghton's scientific activity. 
At a youthful age, Douglass entered the Van Rensselaer In- 
stitute at Troy, then under the charge of Prof. Amos Eaton. 
This destination was opportune. It suited the nature of the 
young man, and opened the way to the crowning of his hopes. 
Graduating as Bachelor of Arts in 1828, he waited but a few 
months to receive from Eaton the appointment of assistant 
professor in chemistry and natural history. Such was his 
standing that in 1830, he was selected by Eaton to deliver a 
course of lectures on chemistry, botany and geology in the dis- 
tant and quaint old French town of Detroit. It is worthy of 
note that a course of scientific lectures had been provided for 
by the leading men of Detroit — Gen. Lewis Cass, Governor of 
the territory, Maj. John Biddle, Col. Henry Whiting, E. P 
Hastings, Shubal Conant, Rev. Dr. Berry and others— let their 
names be perpetuated for an example to the leading Detroit 
gentlemen of the ninth decade of the century. Hon. Lucius 
Lyon, a delegate in Congress from the Territory, was to call on 
professor Eaton on this business. Though the youth of the 
the chosen lecturer dismayed the stately delegate, he soon dis- 
cerned adequate maturity of thought, and the course of lectures 
became the resort of the elite of the town. 
This was Houghton's introduction to the State of Michigan. 
It was in 1830, and Houghton had just attained his majority. 
He was destined now to settle in Detroit in the^practice of 
medicine. He had studied under Dr. White at Fredonia, be- 
fore his departure for Troy, and in 1831 he was admitted to 
practice by the Medical Society of Chautauqua county. In 
Detroit, his education, his talents and his afi'ability gained him 
rapidly many friends whose devotion went jwith him during 
life. 
A few months after his arrival in Detroit, he received the ap- 
pointment of surgeon and botanist to the expedition for the 
discovery of the sources of the Mississippi, organized under 
the direction of Henry R. Schoolcraft. His report on the bota- 
ny of the remote and wilderness regions passed over, displayed 
extensive acquaintance with the science, and constituted a per- 
manent contribution to our knowledge of the] flora of the 
