Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/113

Rh In connexion with the subject of natural science, it may be proper to mention, that by act of assembly, in the year 1807, a grant of three thousand dollars was made to the trustees of the university, out of the money due by them to the state, "for the purpose of enabling them to establish a garden for the improvement of the science of botany, and for instituting a series of experiments to ascertain the cheapest and best food for plants, and their medical properties and virtues." A lot of ground suitable for such a purpose has been purchased, the care of which, and of the means necessary for its improvement has been entrusted to a standing committee of the board. But the appropriation of the legislature was too small to be efficiently applied without the addition of a much larger sum; and, as the income of the university, absorbed in the support of its existing establishment, will admit of no further expenditure, the enterprise, though not altogether abandoned, is necessarily suffered to languish. At present, the public resources are so deeply involved in the prosecution of measures vast in their extent, and rich in their promise of future prosperity to the state, that objects of less importance are perhaps wisely overlooked. But when the promise of these measures shall have been fulfilled, we may reasonably hope that the overflowings of the public treasury will be largely directed into the fields of science, and that the botanic garden of the university will be among the first to feel their reviving and invigorating influence.

3 and 4. and the, are at present altogether nominal. Each of them contains a single professorship: but that of law is vacant by the recent death of Charles W. Hare; and that of general literature, though occupied by a gentleman whose qualifications for the office might safely challenge a