1800.] 
ment he accepted. And, as at that time 
there were no public leétures on botany, 
he volunteered in that icience, and per- 
formed, for feveral years, the duty of bo- 
tanical profefior, in addition to the labours 
of his own department. Of the plan of his 
courfe, the chemical part of which was mo- 
delled upon the new nomenclature, he that 
year publithed a corcile fyllabus. 
The Roya! Society of Edinburgh, in 
1793, elegted him one of their foreign al- 
fociates. 
He made to the Senatus Academicus of 
Columbia College, in 1794, a report on 
the ftate of Jearning there, which was dif- 
tributed about for public information, and 
Is preferved in the fecond volume of the 
Acts of the Agriculiuyal Society. 
He publifhed, in 795, his firlt ideas on 
the fubj.& of Pettilential Fluids,-in a pom- 
phlet on the Gazeous Oxyd-of Azote, and 
en the Alteration in the Nomenclature ; 
wherein he propofed to obliterate * azote,” 
and to fubititute “fepton? He has fince 
given to the public in America many 
pieces on what he terms. eptic acid and 
its gas. To thofe inquiries e was prompr- 
ed by the fevere v fitatiors of the yelow 
fever, or plague, in the Atlantic cities of 
North America. Thefe refearches have 
fince been very much enlarged on by him, 
ina feries of letters addrefled to his corre. 
{pendents. 
Durirg the year of 1796, he took an 
extenfive tour through the State of New 
York, in the vicinity of Hudton’s River, 
purfuant to an appointment of the Agri- 
cultural Society, to examine the mineral 
produ ions of the adjaceft country, parti- 
cularly in refpect to coal; as wood, the 
common fuel of New Yo:k, was become 
.extravagantly dear. His rep’rt on the 
amineralogy of fuch places as he vifited, was 
publifhed after his returo. And during 
this year, his doctrine of fe pt-n or azo'e, 
whieh he had detailed more at large in 
his public academical couife, was made 
the fubjeét of an able and excellent Differ- 
tation by Mr. Saltonfiall; a performance, 
at this day, much prized and tought after, 
About this time, Mr. Mitchil! was ap-" 
pointed a phyfician of the large State-hof- 
pital of New York. 
He attended, in 1797, as one of the de- 
legates to the convention held at Philadeb- 
phia, for devifing means to Jeflen the evils 
of African Slavery. He was this year 
‘too chofen a Fellow of the Academy of 
Arts and Sciences at Bolton. , And about 
the (ame time we obf rve him engaged in 
editing, together with Dr. Edward Miller, 
and 
MontuLy Mac, No. Liu. 
‘“Momoirs of Dr. Mitchill, 
the late much lamented Elihu H. 
981 
Smith, a quarterly periodical work, called 
the MepicaL REPOSITORY, akind of 
philofophical journal, a pubiication now 
grown into bigh reputation. His doétrine 
of fepton was by this time further ens 
Jarged and commented upon by Dr. Bay, 
it his Inaugural Difertation on Dyfentery. 
This year likewife Mr. Mitchill was 
elefted a Memberof the Lesiflative Affem. 
biy of the City of Nex York, and attend- 
ed the feflions at Albany, now the feat of 
government, during the winter 1798. 
And it was during this feffions he :e- 
ccived information of his having been cho» 
fen a Correfponding Member cf the Hilto- 
rical Society of Maffichuletts. Ino th-2 
courfe of 1798, his do&rine of pettilence 
was farther adopted by Dr. Lent, in a 
Diflertation upon the Mode of extinguifhing 
it by Alkalies. And this year it was that 
Mr. Mitchill appears to have devoied as 
much time 2s he coule fpare from other. 
employments, to inveltigate this almoft 
unexplored part of fcience, to collect and 
arrange the faéts, and to render them ca- 
pable cf juft interpretation, by generalizing 
them into a fyfiem. 
To go into the particulars of this exten- 
five inquiry, would be too prolix for this 
place. Many of his letters ard effays on 
thefe, fubjeéts may be feen in the two vo- 
Jumes of the ¢* Medical Repofitory,”’ be. 
fore mentioned, 
Daring the two laft years, Dr. Prieftley 
has from time to time addrefled to hima 
feries of letters in defence of the doctrine 
of Phlogifton, in which all his new experi 
ments made at Northumberland are de- 
tailed. Mr. Mitchill has propofed to ac- 
commodate the contending chemifls, by an 
alreration inthe nomenclature, exchanging 
‘* hydrogene,”’ and fubfituting phlogif- 
ton?” in its place, as publifhed in Feb. 
1798: in Nicholfon’s Journal. © But the 
French philofsphers, for whofe confidera- 
tion they are more particularly intended, 
have as yet made noreply. This is pro- 
bably in part owing to the prefent inter- 
rupted intercourfe between the United 
Stares of France. Dr. Prieftley’s expé- 
riments are contained in the before men- 
tioned work. . 
In the autumn of 1798, he had a touch 
of toe peftilence himleif, but it was not 
very violent. And during the winter of 
1799, we Obferved him bufied with the 
magiftraces, merchants, and health-officers 
in devifing ways and means to guard 
againft fo terrible an afl tion. lt ts faid, 
he is engaged ftill in profecuring his in- 
quiries into the origin, nature, and extin- 
gulinment of peflilence. 
6K Extra&s 
