An^t^Jo^r^Pharm.  j  Memoiv  of  Daniel  B.  Smith.  343 
ings  the  rooms  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  on  Fifth 
street,  below  Chestnut  street;  the  expenses  of  the  society  for  fire  and 
lights  being  Ihnited  to  $50  per  annum.  After  three  years  the  society 
removed  to  the  Athenaeum,  on  Sixth  street,  below  Walnut.  They  now 
occupy  premises  on  Spruce  street,  belonging  to  the  grounds  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Hospital,  from  which  they  will  soon  remove  to  their 
new  building  at  Thirteenth  and  Locust  streets!  From  nineteen  mem- 
bers this  society  has  increased  to  1,000.  Its  library  contains  17,000 
volumes,  a  collection  of  80,000  pamphlets,  and  an  interesting  collection 
of  historical  relics. 
The  strongly  marked  tendency  of  his  mind  for  scientific  and  lite- 
rary pursuits  did  not  prevent  his  active  participation  in  useful  and 
benevolent  movements.  In  1816  there  was  organized  in  Philadelphia 
the  first  society  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States,  having  for  its  object 
the  encouragement  of  laboring  persons  to  lay  up  savings  from  their 
wages.  Commencing  in  the  store  of  one  of  the  projectors  of  the 
charity  on  Sixth  street,  near  Minor  street,  the  society  was  incorporated 
in  1819  as  the  Philadelphia  Savings  Fund.  D.  B.  Smith  was  one  of 
the  corporators,  and  served  as  a  manager  from  1819  to  1835. 
After  moving  first  to  Decatur  street,  then  to  the  southeast  corner  of 
Walnut  and  Third  streets,  the  Philadelphia  Savings  Fund  erected  the 
commodious  granite  building  now  occupied  by  them  at  the  southwest 
corner  of  Walnut  street  and  Washington  Square.  The  benefit  to  the 
class  for  whom  this  institution  was  intended  may  be  judged  of  from 
the  fact  that  the  deposits  have  amounted  to  over  ninety-three  millions 
of  dollars,  and  the  interest  paid  to  depositors  to  over  eleven  millions 
of  dollars. 
In  1828  we  find  the  name  of  D.  B.  Smith  as  one  of  the  corporators 
of  an  institution  which  has  been  of  lasting  benefit  to  society — "The 
House  of  Pefuge.^^  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  institution  fol- 
lowed the  establishment  of  one  for  a  similar  purpose  in  the  city  of 
New  York — the  result  of  the  labors  of  his  old  instructor,  John  Gris- 
com.  "In  the  private  parlor  of  the  quiet  tenement  occupied  by  John 
Griscom,  in  William  street,  was  germinated  in  1817  the  Society  for 
the  Prevention  of  Pauperism,  which,  though  destined  itself  to  be  a  brief 
existence,  proved  to  be  the  mother  of  one  of  the  noblest,  as  it  has 
grown  to  be  one  of  the  most  important,  and  essentially  one  of  the  phi- 
lanthropic institutions  of  modern  times.  John  Griscom,  the  founder 
of  the  society  in  1817,  the  author  of  its  first  paper  and  of  several  of 
