Page:A Biographical Sketch (of B. S. Barton) - William P. C. Barton.djvu/23

Rh, flattered myself that I should have found leisure to have devoted a considerable portion of my life to the study of organic geology. But my recent removal, in consequence of the death of Dr. Benjamin Rush, to a more practical chair in the university of Pennsylvania, and a determination to devote a principal portion of the remainder of my days to the cultivation of practical medicine, now teach me that it is too late to attempt any very extensive, and especially very systematic views of these among the most difficult portions of natural history."

These declarations were an earnest of that assiduous application to the duties of his new chair which he certainly paid with, to him, a fatal degree of faithfulness and labour. His constitution had been worn down by reiterated fits of irregular gout; and a recent as well as severe attack of haemoptisis, had left him even but a remnant of that trembling and precarious health which for years before had been his companion. As no sickness could tame the vivid flashes of his mind, ever active, restless, and engaged, his hours of pain were continually aggravated by an attention to his studies and the duties of his chair. Nature was not equal to the task imposed on her. And as she ever, returns in sickness and in disease the hours which are purloined by active minds, from her customary and necessary rest, Dr. Barton soon perceived the pernicious consequences of his midnight and injudicious toils. That his efforts to support the reputation of the university curtailed his existence I firmly believe. He had delivered but two courses of lectures in the practical chair, when his increasing ill health forced him to have recourse to the last resort to renovate his constitution: I mean a sea voyage. He accordingly embarked for France in the month of April 1815, and returned by the way of England in November following, not benefitted by his too hasty travel and return.

In the month of February, 1809, Dr. Barton was elected president of this society, Dr. Rush having resigned that station some short time before. This circumstance was a subject of gratification to our deceased associate, as it evidenced the highest respect for his professional standing that it was in your power to bestow. He felt the interest of this society much at heart; and if he did not give demonstrations of this by his frequent attendance, that circumstance should be attributed to his precarious health, his