Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/857

Rh matter, "Dr. Hosack proceeds to point out what lie deems the proper method of cultivating the science of medicine. He recommends the inductive system of philosophizing as the only sure means of acquiring correct methods in science, and enforces the same by the celebrated examples of Bacon, Boyle, and Newton in physics, of Reid, Bentley, and Stewart in metaphysics, and of Hippocrates, Sydenham, and Boerhaave in medicine."

Meanwhile Dr. Hosack had become prominently known for his success in the treatment of yellow fever, which had visited New York in four successive summers, beginning with 1795, and afterward in 1803, 1805, 1819, and 1822. On many occasions, when disease suspected to be yellow fever broke out, he was called upon by the Board of Health of New York for a report as to its real nature, for if the fears of his fellow-citizens were groundless his statement would be sure to allay them.

Of Dr. Hosack in the professorial chair, Dr. Minturn Post, one of his pupils, has said: "In no respect was Dr. Hosack more remarkable than as a lecturer; gifted with a commanding person and a piercing eye, of an ardent temperament and of strong convictions, his manner of treating the various subjects connected with his professorship was at once bold, impressive, and eloquent. . . . His great object was to direct the student to the importance of the subject under examination, to lead him by his eloquence, and to rivet his attention by his earnestness, and no man ever succeeded better as a publio lecturer in attaining these results. . . . Dr. Hosack was gifted with a fine, sonorous voice, great play of expression, and a remarkable vivacity of manner—qualities which, being as it were contagious, begat in his youthful auditory a kindred sympathy." In closing his account above quoted Dr. Post remarks: "He lived in memorable times, before the great men of the Revolution had passed away; had seen and conversed with the most eminent of the age; had listened to the inspired song of Burns, tuned to sweet cadence, from his own lips; was intimate with Rush, and Gregory, and Sir Joseph Banks, and was the friend of Clinton and Hamilton." The friendship of Hamilton was probably won for the most part by his success in saving the life of a son of the general sick with scarlet fever, whose case for a time was deemed hopeless. This friendship was conspicuous on every occasion, and was terminated only on that day when Dr. Hosack accompanied Hamilton across the Hudson River to his fatal duel with Colonel Burr.

Dr. Hosack is often mentioned as one of the leading promoters of science of his time. "His love of botanical science," says his son, "induced him to found the Elgin Botanic Garden, which