Page:Biographical Memoir of Samuel George Morton - George Bacon Wood.djvu/13

 into full professional action, finds all his time and powers occupied in the application of the knowledge already attained, and seldom widens materially the circle of science, or attains higher credit than that of a good, or a successful practitioner. It was undoubtedly fortunate for Dr. Morton's reputation, that his time was not, at the outset, crowded with merely professional avocations, He had thus the opportunity of going out into the various fields of natural science; and, while he neglected none of the means requisite to the honorable advancement of his business as a physician, he pushed his researches and labors in those fields to the most happy results.

As an aid and stimulus to his researches in this direction, he entered at once into hearty co-operation with his fellow members of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and took an active part in the affairs of that Institution. He was almost immediately made one of the auditors; in December, 1825, was appointed to the office of Recording Secretary, which he held for four years; served actively for a long time on the Committee of Publication; aided materially in increasing and arranging the collections: delivered before the Academy lectures on Mineralogy and Geology during the years 1825 and 1826; drew up a report of its transactions for these two years; and began a series of original papers upon various subjects of natural science, which have contributed greatly to his own credit, and that of the Institution.

His first medical essay was on the use of cornine in intermittent fever, and was published in the Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences (XI. 195, A. D. 1825). Under the name of cornine, a material had been given to him, purporting to be an alkaline principle extracted from common dogwood bark, and, having been used by him in several cases of intermittent fever, proved to be an efficacious remedy. Dr. Morton was responsible only for the correctness of his own statements as to the effects of the substance given to him, and not for its chemical character, which must be admitted to be at best doubtful. Positive proof is still wanting of the existence of any such active alkaline principle.

His first strictly scientific papers were two in number, both read on the 1st of May, 1827, before the Academy of Natural Sciences, and afterwards printed in the Journal of the Academy. They were entitled respectively, "Analysis of Tabular Spar, from Bucks