Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/124

 without practical results, Mr. William Bartram was elected Professor of Botany in 1782. Although Dr. Barton was not the first Professor of Botany, he was the first of Natural History, and, so far as can be discovered, the “first teacher of Natural Science in this Cis-Atlantic World.” During Dr. Barton’s pupilage, however, it would appear that no instruction in Natural History, not even in Botany, was given. He was essentially self-taught, as he expressly declares in a preface to a “Discourse on some of the Principal Desiderata in Natural History, &c.” “I have never attended any lectures, however imperfect, on Natural Science or Botany.” It is inferred from this that Dr. Kuhn, at the time of Dr. Barton’s pupilage, must have discontinued his lectures on Botany.

Preparation in the natural sciences did not constitute a requisite for graduation, and was therefore voluntary on the part of the student, and yet no complaint has been handed down, or recorded, of want of encouragement; indeed, the zeal and enthusiasm of the incumbent of the chair, with his skill in making attractive his then novel and curious subjects of information, were sufficient to awaken attention and secure satisfactory patronage. He, in fact, created a taste for these pursuits, that has never been lost in this community, and which has ultimately developed itself in permanent establishments for the cultivation of the natural sciences.

Dr. Barton was eminently a pioneer in exploring the treasures of the Western Continent. He employed competent persons to collect the botanical productions of various sections of the country, who, while thus engaged in the service of a patron, laid the foundation of their own reputation. The researches of Pursh were encouraged by him. In the preface to the “Flora Americana Septentrionalis, by Frederick Pursh,” who was curator of the garden of William Hamilton, Esq. (Woodlands), he states that at this period, between the years 1802 and 1805, he “had also formed a connection with Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, Professor of Botany in the University of Pennsylvania, whose industrious researches in all the branches of Natural History are so well known to the literary world. He likewise, for some time previously, had been collecting materials for an American