[This Circular has been printed only to the extent of a sufficient number
of copies to supply the Trustees. It will therefore be considered, not as a
printed document before the public, but a mere multiplication of copies to
a necessary extent to answer the purpose of placing the facts and informa-
tion it contains before those interested in knowing them—a multiplication
which, from the length of the document, would obviously requke^too much
labour and expense, to be made by writing.]
■V.
f^0.
    £*., T,v  ; CIRCULAR.

To /&t3y& t>$?s               one of the Trustees of

       ° 'lt"   the University of Pennsylvania.
Sir,
  One of  the gentlemen  of the board  of Trustees,  obligingly
shewed me a  communication from the  medical faculty of your
University, relative to the object presented to your notice in  my
"address" to you of the 2d of January last. He stated to me that
he did so, for the purpose of soliciting that information  on  the
subject, of which he stood  in need, in order to  be fully prepared
on all the merits and bearings of the case now pending before your
board.  Supposing it not unlikely that other members of your body
might likewise be glad to receive further information on the points
embraced in the communication of the Faculty, I have thought it
expedient  and useful  to comprise  all the facts  and  arguments
which it is in  my power to present, in the form of a circular to
each gentleman of the  board.
  The communication from the Faculty  to the former committee,
in 1820, to which  they refer in the one now  before the Trustees,
1 have not yet seen; but they state that the present document con-
tains a repetition of  all the arguments and reasons urged by them
in the former paper, (of 1820)  against introducing the professor-
ship of Botany into  the Medical Faculty. This being the case, I
presume any facts I  may have it in my power to state, invalidating
the grounds on which their opposition is assumed  in the  present
document, will be considered as bearing with equal weight on the
first communication; in other words, on all they have to advance
against the views I have presented for adoption to the Trustees.
I will proceed to consider the arguments of the  Faculty in the
order ot  their replies to the queries of the committee.
  1st,__They state,  that "Botany is not of material importance
in a thorough medical education,  because in  the limits within
which it must necessarily be taught, it  has no greater connexion
with the science of medicine than mineralogy and zoology, neither
of  which has ever been deemed essential to the physician, &c.
&c."  In answer to this opinion, I need only observe, that I have
laid before you in my printed memorial of 1820, the letters of forty-
two medical men of this city, New York and Boston; all of whom
state  positively and unqualifiedly, that  it is not only  useful and
                                                      B 
2
important, but absolutely necessary to  an elementary medical
education. Among these gentlemen you  will find the names of
Hosack, Samuel L. Mitchell, Bigelow, Channing,  (professors in
New York and Boston;)  Hewson,  Hartshorn, Saml. P. Griffiths,
Otto, Rush, Parrish, Colhoun, Moore, Shoemaker, &c.  &c. of this
city. The opinion of six,* therefore, is opposed  to that of forty-
two physicians of the highest respectability in  this country—to
which I add also the fact, that the physicians of Charleston, S. C.
who  have lately  established  a Medical  School,  evince by their
making a Chair of Botany in  their Faculty, and  two courses ne-
cessary to a  medical  degree,t that  the  medical opinion of that
section of the United States, is likewise to be opposed to  that of
the Medical Faculty of this University.
  2d,—They state that " Botany,  in the manner in which it must
necessarily be taught, is merely  a  science by which one who pur-
sues it can distinguish the name and botanical characters of plants,
and thereby locate them in  any system  he may choose to adopt,
&c. &c." To this I reply: that the fact is not so; and this remark
could not have been  made by any person or persons  acquainted
with the principles and objects of  the science of Botany; while it
is, perhaps, excusable in those professing a belief in the inutility
of the  science, and a total unacquaintance with it, as  is the case
with the gentlemen from whom  the remark emanates. The very
definition of  Botany,  is, that it is  the science which treats of the
natural history, systematic arrangement, the medicinal  virtues
and  economical uses of plants;—As a teacher of the  science  for
nine years, I must be presumed  to be acquainted with its objects,
and I refer to my own syllabus,  and that of Dr. Hosack, formerly
professor of Botany in the New York school, to shew, that Botany
is not restricted to any such narrow limits. The idea that it is so, is
entirely novel, and peculiar to the gentlemen who have advanced
it. Withering's English Botany, is a systematic work  of the high-
est character, and in it, the medicinal virtues and economical uses
are dwelt on. The properties of plants are also detailed in Curtis's
Flora Londonensis, the Flora Batava, and numerous other works
of a similar kind. While Woodvilles* Botany, consisting of four
quarto volumes, is dedicated  wholly to the description and medi-
cinal properties of the plants  it embraces, and the Flore Medicale
of Chaumeton and Chamberet,  consisting of ninety fascicculi, is
devoted to the same purpose.
   3d,—They state that " Botany gives not the smallest insight into
  *  See their printed advertisement in my address of the 2d of January,
and their late catalogue, to be laid before the Trustees on the 5th of April
next.

  11 am authorized by the professor of Midwifery to state, that he always
has considered, and ever will consider, a Medical education incomplete with-
out a knowledge of Botany; and that his individual opinion in favour of ren-
dering it requisite for a degree, in the laculty as a body,  was of course
over-ruled by the majority. 
3
the medicinal properties of plants—this must be the result of ex-
periments, cautiously and repeatedly made." If this be true, how
does it happen, that for all that is known at the present day, of
the Materia Medica of North America, we are  wholly indebted
to Botanists alone?—yet this is the fact, and I challenge a denial
of it. Shoepf, Barton, Cutler, Bigelow, M'Bride,  Mitchell, &c.
&c. are the writers who have  made us acquainted with our own
medicines; and  they are all  Botanists.   It is emphatically re-
marked, even by Dr. Chapman, in the preface  of his Elements of
Therapeutics, that the American Materia Medica was first brought
to light by our Botanists; among  whom he  truly states,  the late
professor Barton and his pupils, were distinguished for the value
of their accessions.  The present professor of Materia  Medica
likewise tacitly  acknowledges this fact in  his Dispensatory, by
quoting our Botanists as authority for all that has been done on
the American Materia Medica, and by embodying in  that work
Mr. Nuttall's and  my own account of the Jalap. Do not these facts
show undeniably,  that  Botany not ordy does  lead to  ascertain-
ing the medicinal properties  of plants; and that their botanical
history is a necessary appendage to the account of their medicinal
properties—but  that no certain information, nor any sure  depen-
dance can be had without it. A  single fact may be sufficient to
bring this point  familiarly before you. The leaves of the common
parsley and those of the hemlock, (one of the deadliest  poisons of
of the vegetable  materia medica) so much resemble each other, that
none but one  acquainted with their botanical characters,  can safely
pronounce  on their difference, when circumstances have thrown
them together. I can further assure you  of a fact which I have pub-
lished,  and constantly mentioned in my lectures; that there are
two species of goosefoot so closely resembling each other, (one of
which has  no medicinal properties, and the  other yields a power-
ful and well  known medicine, the famous worm-seed oil) that in
this and other cities, the spurious one has been ignorantly substi-
tuted and  used, for the real  medicine acknowledged  to be very
valuable.  Even  now, the roots of a spurious calumba  are mixed
with  and adulterate the real calumba of medicine: and it requires
botanical knowledge of the  characters of  the two roots, to avoid
the imposition. Numerous and daily instances occur of a like kind,
but these are mentioned by way of example.
   It  is stated, that many of the  articles  of the Materia Medica,
have  been  handed  down from the  time of Hippocrates, long before
Botany existed  as a  science. This is  the first time I  have ever
heard such an idea advanced. So  far from this being the case, the
articles handed  down, are,  compared  to  those embraced by the
present improved  state of the Materia Medica,  as  one to thirty,
  Eerhaps as one to  fifty; and  even in regard to the  few that have
  een  transmitted,  there is great obscurity  and  uncertainty in con-
sequence of a want, in that age, of the science of Botany.
   This I may show  by a single example to be the  case, in rela-
tion to  an article  of the Materia Medica, which has elicited the
researches of the  gentleman who now teaches Materia Medica in 
                              4

this University, in his efforts to ascertain whether the colchicum
autumnale which now-a-days cures gout, is the Hermadactyls ot
the ancients.  His labour is all vain, and  the  labour of all men
will be vain, to identifv this,  or any other vegetable article ot
Materia Medica with the medicines of that day,  simply for  the
want of the accuracy of description and discrimination which does
not exist  in  relation to the medicines of  the  ancients, because
Botany did not then exist.
  As to the encroachment of the  chair of Botany, in the event
of the  teacher extending its  subjects beyond mere classification
of plants, interfering with Materia Medica, Pharmacy, and the
practice of Physick, I would observe: that the teacher of Materia
Medica never did monopolize,  nor  in any school was he ever  ex-
pected to monopolize the collateral branches of medical science,
which  furnish him with his materials. Was it admitted to be right
that he should do so, the chemical chair would be obnoxious to
the same objection the Faculty has  advanced to the chair of Bot-
any. As well might it be urged, when the professor of Chemistry
should teach  the natural history  of quicksilver, and  show  the
means of obtaining calomel, corrosive sublimate, red precipitate,
and the other preparations from this metal, that he encroached on
the chair of Materia Medica, from which the student is to learn the
properties, uses, and doses, of  these preparations; or on the chair
of the practice whence he is to learn the diseases to which they are
applicable, as to say that the professor of Botany would encroach
on those chairs, when he should descant on the natural  history of
the Peruvian Barks, shew the different characters of the numerous
trees which yield them, point out the means of detecting  imposi-
tions and adulterations by the  botanical characters of the cuticle
and cortex—or when he shewed the different plants which yield the
ipecacuanha, detailed their natural history, pointed out the charac-
ters of these plants, their roots, &c. and the means also in this in-
stance of detecting impositions and adulterations. When he should
instil this obviously useful instruction into the mind of the student,
he would no more exceed the legitimate bounds of his chair, nor en-
croach on the chairs of Materia Medica or the practice of Physick,
than would the professor of Chemistry in the instance above cited.
Indeed I am sure no medical man ever before heard of  the possi-
bility of the Proff. of Botany coming in contact with that of the
practice of physick. He  might as well be said to encroach on the
chair of Anatomy when he lectured on the anatomy of plants—or
on the chair of Midwifery, when he should treat of vegetable im-
pregnation and semination. The course I have hinted at, as pertain-
ing properly to the  chair of  Botany, is that which is accredited in
that chair, in all the eminent medical schools of Europe.  Finally,
it would be  quite as proper to speak of the interference of the
carpenter, the mason,  and the plaisterer, in erecting a building,
as to suggest, as objectionable to the aid  of a particular branch.
of medicine, its interference with any other branch. The science
of  medicine is a whole, of  which the divisions into separate 
5
branches constitute its parts;  each department ha9 its  separate
and distinct object in accomplishing the education of a physician,
as the carpenter, the  mason, and the plaisterer have, in  erecting
an edifice; each teacher, however, must occasionally come in con-
tact with his colleague, and even depend often on his assistance,
just as  the artificers  before-mentioned sometimes work together
and assist each other, for the ultimate object in view.
  I take the liberty here to mention two facts recently stated to
me with laudable candour, by the professor of Materia Medica
of this Un. to show how necessary Botany is to the right under-
standing of that branch.  He informed me that he had descanted
(and I think he said lectured)  on a  root as the  squill, having
bought it as  such, which he subsequently planted, and when it
grew up and  flowered, he had  to learn from  Mr. Nuttall that it
was not squill at all, but the  root of an entirely distinct plant,
and possessing no medicinal virtues whatever. Had the professor
shewn  that root  previously to treating on it, to a botanist, he
could in an instant have been told  that it was not the squill,  be-
cause it wanted the botanical characters  identifying that  root.  He
further stated to me, that he had procured the colchicum for his
lectures, and this turned out when it grew in his garden, to be
the Heuchera Americana or Alum root, of the Materia Medica of
the United States: a plant having no resemblance whatever, either
in its root, foliage, flower or properties to the colchicum.
   1 shall dismiss  this part of the subject by  the simple  remark,
that the therapeutics  and other legitimate objects of the chair of
Materia Medica and Pharmacy, afford ample scope for its professor,
without his apprehending encroachment from Botany if the Trustees
decide to introduce it.
   4th,—The faculty state that " mineralogy and zoology, contri-
bute most important articles to the Materia Medica, the former in
great abundance: and that the same arguments which apply to  the
incorporation of Botany with the medical faculty, will therefore
apply to them; but that such an union has no where been  attempt-
ed."   To this objection I reply, that all the medicinal subjects of
mineralogy are the legitimate  objects of the chair of chemistry.
The professor of that branch who should lecture only on the power
of steam, the  power and influence of galvanism, the composition of
the atmosphere, &c. &c. and who  should neglect to instruct his
class in the history of mercury and the manner in which its nume-
rous preparations are chemically produced; the medicinal prepa-
rations  of nitre, sulphur, aresnic, zinc, copper, silver, gold, &c. &c.
would reprehensibly neglect his duty and  the medical objects of
his chair. Mineralogy is therefore, in this medical school, as in all
others of the world, provided for; and hence it is, that as medical
chemistry constitutes an essential  branch in all medical schools,
and has been shown to embrace the mineralogical part of Materia
Medica, a chair of mineralogy incorporated with the medical  fa-
culty, would be like a fifth wheel to a  carriage, useless and in  the
way.  Before  I prove that the  zoological objects of Materia Me-
dica, do not claim to be incorporated as  a separate professorship 
6
with equal force as Botany, I will show in detail, the relative por-
portion  of the articles of Materia Medica from  the  vegetable,
mineral  and animal kingdoms.
  The Pharmacopia of the United States contains in its two lists
292 simple medicinal articles—of these
  236 are Vegetable.—Botany.
   44 —  Mineral.—Mineralogy.
    5 —  Animal.                 "1
    2 —  From the sea.            V Zoology.
    5 —  Insect tribe—Entomology. J
  The Materia Medica of Cullen (a standard work) contains un-
der different heads or classes, 480 articles and com pounds—of these
  310 are Vegetable—Botany.
   79 —  Mineral.—Mineralogy.
   89 —  Animal                    ?  Zoology
    2 —  Insect tribe.—Entomology.  $       °"'
  Dyckman's edition of the Edinburg Dispensatory contains under
its various heads, 2088 articles and compounds—of these
 1372 are Vegetable.—Botany.
  619 — Mineral.—Mineralogy.
   41 —  Animal.                 ~\
   17 — From the sea.              > Zoology.
   39 —  Insect tribe.—Entomology. J
  Thatcher's Dispensatory, contains 1037 articles and compounds
under its various heads—of these
  668 are Vegetable.—Botany.
  332 — Mineral.—Mineralogy.
    15 — Animal                  ")
     8 — From the sea              > Zoology.
    14 — Insect tribe—Entomology. J
  Eberles' Elements of Materia Medica, and Therapeutics, con-
tains under its various heads, 342 articles and compounds—of these
  211 are Vegetable.—Botany.
  120 — Mineral.—Mineralogy.
     6 — Animal.                   > „ ,
     5 — Insect tribe.—Entomology. $ ^^SV-
  Chapman's Elements  of  Materia Medica, and Therapeutics
contains under its different heads, 198 articles and compounds—
of these
   108 are Vegetable.—Botany.
    81 — Mineral.—Mineralogy.
     3 — Animal.                  } „  ,
     6 — Insect tribe.—Entomology. $ *00l0Sli'
  From these statements it is evident, that the medicinal  objects
of zoology, bear not the slightest comparison  in numbers with
those of the  vegetable kingdom, and in fact are so few, that all
that it is necessary to say of them, can be told by the Professor of
Materia Medica. To which is to be added this fact, that the articles
themselves received into the Materia Medica, have no connexion
with the subjects from which they are  obtained.  For example:
to use hogs-lard, suet, bees wax, isinglass, musk castor, ammonia, 
i
or spermaceti, it is of no real importance iu practice", to know the
history of the Hog, the Sheep, the Bee, the particular species of
Sturgeon, the Musk-Deer, the Beaver, the Stag and the Whale; be-
cause, not only are these subjects from zoology, (which are used in
medicine) themselves, the mere secretions of the animals, and parts
of their  horns, &c. but neither the  animals themselves, nor their
products could, if the case was otherwise, ever be mistaken for, or
confounded with each other, even by the most ignorant. Neither is
it necessary in order to use Spanish  flies,  honey, potatoe flies, or
leeches, to be acquainted with the natural history and classifica-
tion of the insects and animal in question, since they cannot be
confounded with each other; nor can any mistake in  practice pos-
sibly arise from the want of this knowledge. But the  case is wide-
ly different  in the vegetable  kingdom. Here it is absolutely ne-
cessary in order to identify the mass  of vegetable medecines that
the physician shall be able  to avoid mistakes and confusion and
the dangerous substitution of one article for another, by possess-
ing a knowledge of the botanical discriminative characters; as in
the instances already  adduced of the squill and colchicum and
black alder as well as numerous others which might be mentioned.
In truth the practice of every physician who will be candid enough
to acknowledge the fact, affords him too frequent opportunities to
regret his waut  of Botanical knowledge; without it  no physician
can safely permit, or prescribe the use of, the numerous ptisans
and infusions which from time immemorial to the present day, have
been, and always will be used by the sick, as grateful and adven-
titious means of cure in  many diseases. How awkard must that
physician feel, who, through the solicitation of his patient or of his
spontaneous direction, permits the use (as is daily done) of hore-
hound,balm, catnip or boneset tea, and when the article is shown
by the nurse, cannot discriminate one from the other with certainty,
not possessing the Botanical knowledge to enable him to do so. Or,
who being* called to a child who has eaten what has been supposed
to have poisoned it, does not know either the plant it has eaten
when shown to him,  or consequently, any thing  about its delete-
rious, or innocent properties. Destitute of  this knowledge he is at
a loss what to do, or how to answer the anxious enquiries of friends;
yet this  is a case which frequently happens, particularly  in the
country. Even these little things, which are purposely instanced
to bring the bearings of the  subject before you, by the very fa-
miliar nature of the occurrences in sick-rooms, show forcibly, how
much the consequence and usefulness of a physician must be un-
dervalued by his patients, from such ignorance and exposure. But
a more dangerous result must often attend his destitution of that
knowledge which he ought to possess to be truly useful, when the
objects eliciting his knowledge, are more important;  an inference
which  cannot be denied to be within justification, from the pre-
mises. What would you, or any other reflecting man think of a
practitioner, who would prescribe for your  ailments,  a remedy he
had never seen, did not know when he did  see, nor the systematic
name by  which it was known in the books;  who had prescribed it, 
s
 with high commendation, by its vulgar name, and that vulgar name
 applied also to two or three other plants.  To say the least of it,
 would you think he knew all he ought to know, and  all  which the
 adventitious medical sciences could usefully impart. But for an ex-
 ample, out of a thousand: I am acquainted with a physician who
 prescribed in  the morning, in one of the first families of this city,
 a medicinal plant, the Prinos verticillatus or black alder, with high
 encomiums on its  virtues and power as a remedy. Tn the eve-
 ning of the same day he visited my house where I had on the table,
 a painting and large quantities of the  plant itself in flower, to-
 gether with the bark in chips of which he had prescribed  the  de-
 coction.  He  enquired what they were; was utterly ignorant of
 either, and even of the scientific name by which the plant stood in
 Coxe's Dispen. I told him it was the medicine which  accident had
 acquainted  me with his having that morning prescribed, and of
 which  he himself had published an account! Does this need much
 comment?  Might not a deleterious plant have been, from its re-
 semblance, substituted for this in mistake; or would this  physician
 if the real  one had  been shown him, with a spurious one,  have been
 able to point out his own medicine? Yet this gentleman  advocates
 conspicuously the inutility of Botany to the physician.'.'.'
  I trust I have satisfactorily shown, that the  mineralogy of Ma-
 teria Medica  is already provided for in the medical  education of
 this  University; and that  zoology  yields not  only a very small
 comparative number with mineralogy, and  still less with  Botany,
 but, from the very nature of the articles from that branch of natural
 history, it is not requisite that much need be said on the subject; and
 that it is the province as well as the duty of the Professor of Materia
 Medica, to teach what little is necessary. But that Botany, yield-
ing so large a  proportion (the Faculty admits 500) of the  articles
of the  Materia Medica, does  give ample  scope, from the very
 necessity there exists in the subjects of the vegetable  kingdom,
 for  discrimination  by definite characters,* to a  chair^of Botany
incorporated  with  the Medical Faculty, must be obvious. That
 without the knowledge this subject communicates, graduated phy-
 sicians are turned out on the country, destitute of that  necessary
information which will enable them to be useful, safe and intelli-
gent physicians,f particularly in the United States, where  so large
  * " So sensible are the persons engaged in the formation of the national
Pharmacopia, that ordinary language cannot convey an adequate descrip-
tion of the articles employed in medicine; that prefixed to each article drawn
from the vegetable kingdom, they have given the Botanical appellation, to-
gether with  a  reference to some system of approved  authority." Tho: T.
Hewson, M. D. of Philadelphia, see his letter, the sentiments of which are
approved by eight other physicians of this city, in my memorial, page 14.
  N. B. The persons engaged in the formation of the Pharmacopia alluded
to by Dr. Hewson, were physicians delegated from the medical colleges and
societies of the whole United  States.
  ■f Such are truly " Doctors  tine  doctrina," Hosack; see his letter in my
memorial, page U. 
                               9

 a proportion of them practice in the country, is equally evident.
 I have also shown, that Botany is not restricted to 4* living plants
 and their functions, and to mere classification," as is asserted  by
 the Faculty; but extends properly to teaching the  discrimination
 with accuracy of the dead roots and other parts of plants with which
 the Materia Medica  abounds.  A single fact as an example, may
 here  properly  be mentioned, by way of bringing the subject  fa-
 miliarly before you. It will show that even the mere classification of
 plants, much as it may be undervalued,  does lead to a knowledge
 of their properties. All vegetables of the 13th class of the Linneen
 system, are esculent without exception, so that a Botanist who finds
 a fruit unknown to him,  produced by a  plant of this class, which
 he can  readily ascertain, might eat it  instantly with impunity;
 while all umbelliferous plants, a section of those of the 5th class are
 deleterious.  It has also been ascertained by Decandolle, that all
 plants of the same natural  family, are possessed of the same, or
 similar  medicinal properties; a fact which  has led to the enrich-
 ment of the Materia Medica,  with numerous valuable medicines.
 A host  of other instances  of the elucidation  of the interests of
 medicine by means of Botanical knowledge and classification might
 be adduced, but these are deemed, in this place, sufficient for the
 purpose.
   5th,—It is stated by the Faculty that the Materia Medica em-
 braces only 500  articles  from the vegetable kingdom.  This esti-
 mate falls  short indeed of the number of vegetables and their pro-
 ducts, which the improved state of  the Materia Medica of  the
 present day comprises; the number  is over 800, and indeed, in-.
 eluding  dietetics (which are included in the Materia Medica of
 Cullen, a work universally acknowledged to be the most celebrat-
 ed on this  subject) the number far exceeds 1300.  1 have already
 shown that the simple and compounded vegetable medicines detail-
 ed in the Edinburgh Dispensatory are  1372: in Thatcher's Dispen-
 satory  1037; in  the Pharmacopia of the United  States, 292; in
 Eberle's Elements of Materia Medica, 211; in  Chapman's Ma-
 teria Medica, 198; in the Flore Medicale, edited by Chaumeton and
 Chamberet, and which consists (though yet unfinished) of 90 Liv-
 raisons, each describing four medical plants,  there are contained
 in the whole 360; in Stokes' Botanical Materia Medica, consisting
 of 2626 articles, with dietetics, there are described 1300 uncom-
 pounded vegetable medicines. That the subjects, therefore, of the
 vegetable kingdom interesting to physicians do not furnish " a num-
 ber obviously too small on which to found a distinct Professorship
 in medicine," as the Faculty state, must not only be sufficiently evi-
 dent from the facts embodied in this communication; but on the con-
 trary, that such a professorship should be established, and is demand-
 ed by the public interests as well as the reputation of the school, is
 evident from the fact: that such  a distinct professorship exists in all
eminent medical schools of Europe; and from the fact that a know-
         B 
10
ledge of Botany is required in Britain, by an act of Parliament*
passed but a few years ago, of all who intend to practice tire heal-
ing art, previously to their  entering on its  duties. A late esta-
blished Medical school in the United States, that of Charleston,
S. C. has incorporated it in union with Natural History, with the
other branches of medicine, and rendered two courses necessary
to a medical degree.  Their printed  document is before you in my
address. That this is  not an  unpopular arrangement is evident
from the printed catalogue of the professors and  students of that
college, dated 1825, to be laid on your table on  the 5th of April
next. This shows, that though the past winter was  the first of its
operations, it has called together fifty students, all of whom, ex-
cept four, have matriculated. That college has not felt disposed to
" satisfy students" by allowing it to be " optional" to attend on Bo-
tany and they have not, by their imperative regulation in relation
to that chair, had any reason, from their great success, to repent
the measure.
   6th,—Is or is not Botany generally taught in  medical  colleges
of established reputation? To this enquiry the Faculty reply: that
"  in Edinburg the  attendance on a course of Botany is necessary
to a degree in medicine; but, as an actual  acquirement, its impor-
tance is only nominal, as very slender information in it, is quite
sufficient to satisfy the Board of Examiners there." This statement
should not mislead, merely because it is assertive. It is not only in-
correct, but wholly gratuitous. Will it  for one moment be suppos-
ed probable, that a chair which has existed for more than 34 years
in the school of medicine of so celebrated a  University as that of
Edinburg, which was vacated in 1820 by the death of the incum-
bent, Dr. Rutherford, and immediately refilled by  the election of
Dr. Graham, the professor of Botany in Glasgow  University, who
now occupies it, would have been thus long continued, and thus re-
cently supplied at a period when the death of the incumbent afford-
ed so good an opportunity of abolishing the  Professorship,  had it
been deemed by the Senatu.s Academicus, merely nominal,  and
if the subject were held  in such slight estimation,  as is asserted?
The simple fact, that the Senatus and Patrons (the Town Council)
of the Edinburgh school, sent to Glasgow for a  professor to sup-
ply the vacancy which the death of Dr. Rutherford occasioned, at
the period mentioned, is conclusive to prove that it is not a mere
nominal chair, and that " very slender information on the subject"
is not "quite sufficient to satisfy the Board  of Examiners there."
This inference is irresistible. The fact alluded to  further proves,
that the existence of that chair as necessary to a degree in medi-
cine, in that school,  which the Faculty  so  reluctanty find them
selves obliged to admit to be the case, is not owing only to "apo-
  * "It has now been made essentially necessary by an Act of Parliament,
that every student in medicine should be well versed in this science; and
that before he can practice, he must go through an examination respecting
his profficiency in theknowledge of Plants." British Plants, by T. Purton,
Surgeon, 1817—Vol. 1, p. 7. 
11
sition which  is maintained probably by ancient usage principally,
and perhaps by some anomalies in the distribution of the branches
of medical instruction,** as the  Faculty insinuate. Had  this an-
cient usage alone  placed the chair in the conspicuous and impor-
tant position it maintains, the moment surely of the death of Dr.
Rutherford would  eargerly have been  seized on, by the Senatus,
to abolish  the  obnoxious professorship;  or, at  least, a new pro-
fessor would certainly not have been  called  from a distant Univer-
sity and appointed to fill a " nominal," and  useless chair, in which
nothing  was  taught, and from the  attendants on  which, "very
slender information was required." An act  tending so strongly to
the serious injury and  unpopularity of the  school,  cannot be sup-
posed to have emanated from the Senatus.
   If  any thing further were necessary to disprove the gratuituos
position  of the Faculty on this point, it  will be found in  the fact,
that the  Magnates (Senatus Academicus, and  Patrons the Town
Council) of the University of Edinburg, have, at the suggestion of
the medical Faculty of that school, conveyed in propositions from
that Faculty, bearing date July, 1824. lately (Dec. 1824) entered
into a full and critical  examination  of the  courses  of study and
requisites for a medical degree, which results  in leaving all the
professorships now stand as they previously stood, Botany among
the rest, and in the propositions  to  make only  the following new
regulations: viz.
   "  1. The writing of a Thesis is made optional.
   " 2. The period of study is extended from 3 to 4 years.
   " 3. The indulgence granted for study in a foreign  university
      is restricted to one year.
   " 4. Study in London is allowed  to  count for one year.
   " 5. A six-months'  course of Midwifery is added to the estab-
      lished routine of study, the " curriculum" as it is technical-
      ly  called.
   "6. A three-months' course of Chemical  instruction is added to
      the six-months previously required.
   " 7. Attendance on  an Hospital for six months in two separate
      years, is now proposed; or in lieu of this,  attendance for six
      months as an Hospital Clerk, or pupil, for nine months at a
      Dispensary,  or service in his majesty's army or navy.
   " 8. The examinations, instead of being  altogether in Latin, as
      heretofore, are modelled after the usage of the Apothecaries'
      Company in London; that is to say,  the student is examin-
      ed first as to his proficiency  in  medical  Latin, and  in the
      prescribing of medicines; and afterwards in  English, in the
      different  branches of medical science."
   This code of new regulations is taken from the London Medi-
cal and Physical Journal for Oct. 1824,  page 353. And the docu-
ment containing it has been received  by the editor, directly and
authentically from the University. Permit me to ask whether, if the
observations of your medical  Faculty in relation to the chair of
Botany in that school, which accounts for its existence by ancient 
12
usage, and which declares it nominal, inefficient, and unesteemed
be correct; whether in all  this recent revision of the courses of in-
struction, undertaken, with an avowed view to amend and reform—
the chair of Botany  would have remained untouched? It is not rea-
sonable to suppose that it  would.  That any delicacy has arisen on
this subject from the circumstance of that chair having an incumbent
(Dr. Graham) cannot be believed. Since some of the points of the
new regulations relative to the necessary attendance of the students
on the chair of Midwifery* who " had then" (at the time of these
regulations) "matriculated, or  who  should matriculate prior to
the first of January, 1825," affected the incumbent (Dr. Hamilton)
so severely that he made an appeal to the patrons for redress.f But
I have already shown that only five  years  ago the  chair existed
without an imcumbent: and that period was not seized on to abol-
ish it.  This is not all.  So far is the Medical Faculty of Edinburg
University  from deeming  Botany an useless or inefficient chair,
that  in propositions (subsequently made to  those of July, 1824)
to the Senatus,  ' they propose that Natural  History  should be ad-
ded  to the course of medical instruction."! Does this look like
hostility to the  collateral branches  of Materia Medica, or slight
estimation of their importance?
  7th,—The  Faculty further account for the  existence of  the
chair of Botany  in Edinburg, by another gratuitous  insinuation;
it is  " perhaps by some anomalies in the distribution of the branches
of medical instruction," and give as an example  " that Botany is
a distinct branch and essential to a degree, while Surgery and Mid-
wifery are huddled up with i.ther branches,  and of course imper-
fectly taught."  There  are no anomalies in that school. So far is
this from being the case in  relation to Surgery and Midwifery; that
there are three professors  of Surgery, viz. Dr.  Ballingale on Mi-
litary Surgery who lectures  at 2 o'clock P. M., and Mr. Russel
and  Mr. Allison, who conjointly lecture  on Clinical  Surgery; the
hour of lecturing being 5 o'clock of the same day. While Dr. Ham-
ilton is professor of Midwifery and  the  diseases of women  and
children, who lectures at  3  o'clock. These  facts are  taken  from
the authentic advertisement published by the professors themselves,
and  have been shown to Mr. Chauncey, Chairman of your Comit-
tee,  in the European journals of  October last.  In addition to this
let me call  your attention  to the fact that the 5th regulation  of the
new code in that University, which 1 have quoted above, provides
" a six-months' course of Midwifery, in addition to the established
routine of  study."   Do these facts  show that Surgery and  Mid-
  * See Medical and Physical Journal for January, 1825 p. 80.
  | " Dr. Hamilton was, naturally enough, very wroth at a regulation which
at once deprived him of perhaps 500 pounds, independent of the public loss
thereby sustained; and in that mood wrote an angry letter to the Principal,
in which he declared his intention of appealing to the Town Council: the
patrons of the college." Ibid. p. 80.
  4 Ibid. p. 81. 
Id
wifery are anomalously united with other branches, and " of course
imperfectly taught" in that school? Midwifery is naturally incor-
porated with the diseases of women and children; and let me fur-
ther observe that the same union  with  Midwifery which  extends
only to the diseases peculiar to women and infants, exists in New
York,  Baltimore and Charleston schools; in Leyden,  Gottingen,
and various other colleges. This union is therefore, neither acade-
mically nor physically, an anomaly; while Surgery is not only not
united with any other branch, but is in fact, in an University, edu-
cating so many naval and military surgeons, most correctly divid-
ed, into "military  and  clinical surgery;" and is honoured by hav-
ing three professors to teach  it. That these branches are not there-
fore " imperfectly  taught" must be evident.  Neither  is  this  the
case in Glasgow, where the professorships are precisely  the same
as in this school, with  the exception  of a seventh chair, that of
Botany, there  likewise  necessary to a degree. A foreign writer,
speaking of the instruction of these schools observes:  "That the
medical education  of Edinburg and  Glasgow Universities accom-
plish every  thing that elementary instruction can supply, is a truth
too obvious, too well established,  too universally allowed,  to be
disputed.*
   8th,—The Faculty admit that Botany is necessary to  a degree
in Paris, and state  as a  chief reason for it, that there medical edu-
cation is full and  enlightened.  Is this a sufficient reason why it
should not be necessary to a  degree in this school?  Shall  the trus-
tees of this  University not  insist, that in its  Medical School,
claiming to be the  first in the United States, the education of so
important a man to the community as a well instructed physician
or surgeon,  shall here receive a liberal and enlightened education,
as he does in the scientific countries of France and Britain, and
the learned empire of Germany?  Is there a more dangerous man
in a community, than an ignorant practitioner of medicine? Are
not the lives of Americans as valuable as those of the inhabitants
of France, or of any other country, in which the education of a
physician is solid and enlightened? The Faculty  further admit that
"it will be probably found that a knowledge of Botany is required
in several other ancient schools of Europe, but the fact may ge-
nerally be accounted for, in the same way."  T have,  I think,
proved, that their manner of accounting  for the existence of this
Branch as an under-graduate course of instruction, in Edinburg,
is far from being justified by the circumstances of the casein that
instance.  And  perhaps  their suggestion as to the rationale of the
"fact" in " other ancient schools of Europe," will not be deemed
more tenable. Is it  not more  consonant with reasonable deduction
from the premises to infer: that, as Botany is found to be necessary
(the faculty admit this)  in many other ancient schools of Europe
besides those of Edinburg and Paris, (in truth in all eminent me-
  • Edinburg Medical and Surgical Journal for 1820, p. 499; article " Pro«
fes9ion of Physic in England." 
14
dical schools of Europe without exception) it must be universally
considered by the medical men, and directors of medical schools
of the  transatlantic world, to be essential to the education of a
physician? The  facts are indubitable—they are  admitted by the
Medical Faculty—the inference, irresistible. They are, moreover,
conclusive, that I have taken grounds in my memorial and address
to you, and in this circular,  which are untangible by just opposi-
tion: which justify my appeal  in  favour of  the science you  have
appointed me to teach;  and, that the arguments  in this and my
other communications on the subject, being the fair and  rational
inferences from acknowledged and well established facts, are irre-
fragable.
   Permit  me here, before I dismiss this part of the Faculty's com-
munication, to ask,  why they do not more particularly designate
the " many other ancient Medical Schools of Europe, in which it
is probable Botany is required for a degree?"—Wrhy is Glasgow
University, standing in  Britain only second to Edinburg, passed
over? why are Aberdeen, Oxford, Cambridge, Leyden, Gottingen,
Kiehl,  Upsal, and Florence  Universities, passed  by?  Why  does
the Faculty use the qualifying and dubious word  "probably," in
relation to the  many ancient  Medical Schools  of Europe?—The
essential elementary branches of all these colleges are known;—■
are matters of record and history.  The  Faculty enjoy the same
means  of information which  I  possess; and I have informed you,
Drs. Hosack, Hewson, Emlen, Nancrede, and others in my memo-
rial have informed you, that in all of their Medical Schools, Botany
constitutes an essential elementary branch  for a medical degree.
It rested with the Faculty to give a negative to my statement, and
that of the physicians mentioned,  on the broad  basis of fact.
They have not done so.  Why do they not mention the University
of Dublin, a school which stands very high in Britain?  It was
within  the knowledge of the Faculty I presume, that in that school
also, Botany held a conspicuous rank. Permit me 'for your infor-
mation to supply their omission, in this instance, by the following
record, taken from a foreign work of high repute.

•• Jccount of the complete School  of Physic in Ireland, instituted
    by Parliament, for the Instruction of Students in Medi-
                cine, Surgery, and Pharmacy."
   " The students in Physic  are matriculated in  the University,
for which they pay five shillings.  There are six professorships—
those of Anatomy and Surgery, of Chemistry, and of Botany, are
on the foundation of  Trinity College, and  are  called University
Professorships; those  of the Institutes of Medicine, of the Prac-
tice of Medicine, and of Materia Medica and Pharmacy, are on
Sir Patrick Dunn's foundation, and are named  King's Professor-
ships.  (By Act of Parliament 21st, George II.)  Provision is also
made for  the addition of a King's Professorship of Midwifery, as
soon as Sir Patrick Dunn's funds permit.
   Lectures on the following subjects  are delivered from the first 
15
 Monday in November, until the end of the succeeding April, (six
 months) viz. on Anatomy, Physiology, Surgery, and Chemistry,
 in Trinity College. On the  Institutes of Medicine, on the Practice
 of Medicine, and on  Materia Medica, and Pharmacy, in Sir  P.
 Dunn's Hospital.  The Lectures  on Botany commence on the
 first Monday in May, in Trinity College,  and continue until the
 end of July.  Terms for each of these courses, four guineas.
    Clinical Lectures are given on the cases of the patients in the
 hospital, at least two days in each  week of every session.  The
 duty is taken for three  months by the professors alternately,  in
 such order as shall be agreed upon amongst them. Terms of each
 course, three guineas.
   Anatomical Demonstrations are given daily from the beginning
 of the  session until April, by the  Demonstrator of  Anatomy,  iu
 Trinity College. Terms for dissections, subjects, and demonstra-
 tions, six guineas—for the demonstrations alone, four guineas.
   Students in Botany have access  to the Botanic Garden, which
 is in the immediate vicinity of Dublin, and have an opportunity
 of taking frequent excursions with the professor of Botany, and
 his assistant, to the mountains and sea-coast adjacent to the city.
   Botanical Demonstrations are  daily given  by the  professor's
 assistant, in the garden, during the season. Terms of  which, one
 guinea.
   Degrees.  The students  who do  not  graduate  in the Arts, are
 permitted  at the end of three years from the date of their matri-
 culation, to undergo an examination  before the six professors  of
 the school, in their respective departments, on producing to the
 Board of Trinity College certificates of diligent and regular at-
 tendance on Anatomy, Surgery, Chemistry, Viotany, the Institutes
 of Medicine, Practice of Medicine, Materia Medica and Pharma-
 cy, the Clinical Lectures,  and  Practice of St. Dunn's Hospital.
 They likewise write a Thesis in Latin. If found  qualified by the
 examination, publish the Thesis, perform the academical exercises
 for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and  receive a diploma from
 the Board  of Trinity College.
   The students who go through a collegiate course, on producing
 certificates of their strict attendance-on the Lectures of the Pro-
 fessors in the School of Physic, on the Clinical Lectures, and the
 Hospital, are three  years after having graduated as Bachelor  of
 Arts, admitted to an examination  before the Regius Professor  of
 Physic, and the  Professors of Anatomy, Surgery, Chemistry and
 Botany, of Trinity College; on being approved,  and performing
 the usual  academical  exercises, take the degree of Batchelor  of
 Medicine.  Upon sufficient standing, publishing a Thesis,  passing
 a second examination  before the University Professors, and per-
forming the necessary  acts,  the full degree of Doctor in Medicine
is conferred."*
  * Edinburg Medical and Physical Journal for 1818, page 662-~3-t4, and
1820, p. 60?. 
                              16

   Account of the professorships of the school of Edinburg, as late
as October, 1824.* "The lectures commence on  the 28th of Oc-
tober, and terminate on the 1st. of May.
   1.  Anatomy and Physiology.—Dr. Monro.
   2.  Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine.—Dr. Home.
   3.  Institutes of Medicine.—Dr. Duncan, Senr. and Dr. Allison.
   4.  Military Surgery.—Dr. Ballingale.
   5.  Botany.—>Dr. Graham.
   6.  Chemistry and Chemical Pharmacy.—Dr. Hope.
   7.  Dietetics, Materia Medica and Pharmacy.—Dr.  Duncan, Jr.
   8.  Midwifery, and the diseases of women and children.—Dr.
Hamilton.
   Terms for each of the courses, 4 guineas.
   1.  Medical Jurisprudence.—Dr. Christison, the lectures on this
branch not requisite for a degree.
   2.  Clinical Surgery.—Mr. Allison and Mr. Russell, not neces-
sary for a degree, but  fully attended, because that attendance is
required to the extent of at least one year, of candidates  who pre-
sent themselves for examination before the Royal  College of Sur-
geons of London.§
   The foregoing details, together with those I shall presently give
of Leyden,  show plainly,  that there is no difficulty in obtaining
positive and authentic information on the subject of Botany, as an
essential branch  of medical instruction, in the principal Medical
Schools  of Europe. Neither do  these details, admit for  one  mo-
ment, the idea that Botany is thus found to exist in these schools
jmr-hazard,  or by ancient usages only, or  by any uncommon, or
unaccountable  concurrence of circumstancs. That course which
is universally pursued must be deemed, universally, useful and ne-
cessary.  This is most cetainly true in matters of science, affected
by academic details; for these are the results of deliberation and
forethought, respecting present expediencies, predicated on the ex-
perience of other matured and long tried arrangements. Universi-
ties or Medical Schools, are not founded simultaneously.  Had the
most  ancient schools embracing Botany among its essential bran-
ches,  proved  it useless, those of more modern elate  would  have ex-
punged it; this  would have successively been the case until it had
altogether disappeared. The reasoning of your Faculty therefore,
which so strangely accounts  for the  universality of the  usage on
this subject, is  futile and unsound.
  For a full account of the state of  Botanical  instruction on the
continent, I beg leave to refer to Dr. James Edward Smith's work.f
  * Edinburg Medical and Physical Journal,  October, 1824, and other Bri-
tish periodical works on Medicine.
  § See new regulations of this College, in the Ed. Med. and Phys. Jour.
for 1824.

  + Sketch of a tour on the continently James Edward Smith, M. D. F. R. S.
o vols. 8vo. 
17
 The history of the Medical institutions of Europe shows also that Bo-
 tany flourishes in the Medical School of Vienna, and in Pavia, Milan,
 and in the celebrated University of Leyden, that ancient seat of learn-
 ing, so long the theatre of the talents and erudition of Boerhaave.  In
 that University, distinguished by a splendid botanic garden,* " Physic
 and Botany are cultivated with great success."!  But I pass on with-
 out exhibiting their details.
   I subjoin  also, in this place, an account of the botanical lectures
 delivered in the  University of Leipsic, where botany is also requisite
 for a degree.  So important is it esteemed in that school, that there
 are two professors to teach it.  I copy it  from the printed  catalogues,
 in German, of the lectures of that school, in which there are annualfy
 two sessions; one  commencing from  Easter to Michaelmas, called
 summer session, the other from Michaelmas  to Easter, termed winter
 session.   In  both these sessions botany is taught.
   From " the catalogue of the  lectures  delivered in  the  summer of
 1820, in the University of Leipsic, beginning May  8.
   Dr. Schwaegrichen, Professor ordinarius Hist. Nat. et  Rei. Herb.
 one of the Medical Faculty; on botany, with excursions, 7 o'clock,
 4 days a  week.
   Dr. Kunze, Medicinse Professor extraordinarius et  Rei Herb, ana-
 tomy and physiology of plants, 11 o'clock, two days of the week, also
 botanical excursions, coupled with demonstrations.
   Catalogue, &c. in 1820, (winter.)—Dr. S. on cryptogamic  plants,
 according to his syllabus, 8 o'clock, two days of each week.
   Dr. K. on the same,  11 o'clock, 2 days; and on officinal  plants, four
 days.
   Catalogue, &c. in the summer of 1821.—Dr. S. on practical botany,
 5 o'clock in  the afternoon, and general  botany, 7  o'clock, four days.
   Dr. K. natural history of cryptogamic  plants, two days of the week.
 CEconomy and construction, of plants, 8 o'clock, 4 times a week, also
 a course of theoretical botany.
  Catalogue, &c. in 1821, (winter.)—Dr. K. on officinal plants and
 their application, 11 o'clock, four times a week, also on cryptogamic
 vegetation, twice a week.
  Catalogue of 1822, (summer.)—Dr. S. on general botany, 7 o'clock,
 four times a  week, with excursions twice a week.
  Dr. K. on  the alges, 8 o'clock, twice a week, also on officinal plants
 twice a week, and on the philosophy of plants, 11 o'clock, four  days
 of the week."
  Similar records might be exhibited  to you of all the universities,
 but I have thought it sufficient to instance, in detail, one from Ireland,
 one  from Scotland, and one from the  continent, as examples.   The
others are numerous on the same principles of instruction.
  9th. Relative to the diversity of sentiment, which the faculty state to
you, exists in regard to the  utility of botany to the physician, even in
those schools where it  is imperative to  attend, it will  be observed,
 1st. that they refer for  this fact  to the Monthly Review for  1791, M
' British Review, 1819, article Medical School.
f See Dr. Carter on Foreign Hospitals, 8vo. London, 1819.
                              c 
18
 years ago; a period, since which the science of medicine, and senti-
 ments of physicians on the subject of elementary education, have been
 greatly enlightened.   And,  2nd. the article on  which they predicate
 this remark, which contains,  after all, merely the  individual senti-
 ments of its author, has reference principally to the school of Edin-
 burgh, and to the expediency of adopting the Linnaean system.  That
 such "diversity of sentiment" does not now exist in that school, must
 be evident from what I have already quoted of the recent revision of
 its " curriculum" of study.  But in that very article, old as it is, and
 the quaintness of its style bespeaks the era in which its author imbibed
 his sentiments, the connexion of this science  with  medicine is dis-
y^nctly intimated.  Remarking on the era of the adoption  of the Lin-
■fiaean  system  by the College  of Physicians of London,  the  writer
 observes—•' Botany speaks largely to the amusement of mankind, but
 principally to the salutary purposes of the art of healing ; of course, the
 concurrence of  those who preside over the art of healing, gives the
 most authentic countenance to the medicinal modes which are most
 deserving of  attention.',*  Does  it  not seem surprising,  that the
 Faculty, in communicating to you the idea that a diversity of sentiment
 exists on the subject of the utility of botany to the physician, should,
 from the whole compass of their reading and research, have been able
 only to refer to a single articl" published one-third of a  century ago?
 Why have they not evidenced such diversity of sentiment, by proof,
 authority, or public opinion  of the present day, or within  ten years?
 Their omission to do so implies their inability.   The universality  of
 the usage of the universities of Europe, of embracing botany in their
 courses of elementary  medical study, certainly  suggests  no such idea.
 The history of modern medical science exhibits no such documents,
 no such authority, no such opinions.   Had  the  case  been otherwise,
 they would doubtless have been brought to your view of a later date
 than 1791. In truth, the medical courses of instruction of the present
 day, in London,  where  there  is no university, exhibit botany among
 them; as those of the  celebrated London hospitals.  In the medical
 and surgical course of Guys' hospital, the  first in London, botany is
 taught: in " the study for the Apothecaries'  College  of London,"!
botany is taught.  In short,  it is supported in that city  by numerous
 other  courses of lectures.  This  is  what is technically  termed  in
Dubliu, Edinburgh, and Glasgow universities, "study in London"—
and count* for one year in either of those universities, when the can-
didates present themselves for their  honours.
   That a shorter time  than  thirty-four years is  a period long enough
to effect a more liberal and enlightened view of medical instruction,"in
this country,  to  keep  pace  with its strides to national science. mu«t
be obvious by the  records of your own body, which show, that Sur-
gery was first introduced  in  its proper importance in 1805, and Mid-
wifery in 1013.   It remains for you to decide,  whether another step
towards completing such a  medical education as ought to be obtained
in the first medical school  of the  United  State*, shall not now be
taken, by the introduction of Botany with its legitimate  rank.
   10th. In reply to the observations of the Faculty, against the  ex-

  * Monthly Review, 1791, article Pulteney's Sketches of Botany Lr&iirland.
  ■;■ 1 his college confers diplomas. 
19
pediency of introducing  the professorship of botany into the courses
of necessary instruction,  predicated on the necessity they uphold (for
this is the virtual effect of their language) of maintaining high classes,
by rendering the school  popular at the expense of its reputation, and
the usefulness and strength of its elementary education, 1 have not
much further to urge in addition to what I  have  already advanced
on this view of the subject, in  my "Address" of the 2nd of January
last.  There 1 have fully developed the impolicy  of sacrificing the
public interests, by weakening the real  advantages of the  students,
which, in that document, I have endeavoured to prove would be done
by continuing to restrict  their instruction.  The greater the number
of new medical schools in the United States,  the more numerous will
be the opportunities of the students and their parents, guardians and
preceptors, of making comparisons of the relative  advantages of the
whole.   Whatever course, therefore, may  be pursued in  any one,
which will cause  it to  lose  by comparison with another or others,
must  have the effect on  the alumni themselves, of undervaluing the
honours of that particular school, when reflection and maturer years
shall have shown how much they needed a stronger elementary edu-
cation.  The  influence  of these alumni, when in their turn, by be-
coming preceptors, their power of using that influence will extend to
the designation of the school at which they would choose to have  their
pupils educated, will be deeply felt by that college, which, in the
education of themselves, evinced  its inferiority to  any other.   This
sentiment  has reference to all the medical institutions in the United
States; for the  time has now  come, when  no one can maintain  its
supremacy, from the mere fact of the  earlier data of its existence;
but will, by the conflicting claims of different states of the  union  on
the pupils of those states, to resort to their own schools, be altogether
supported, in superiority of numbers, by the  strength and superiority
of its instruction. If any one school, therefore, of the fourteen* respect-
able medical institutions of the United States,  shall adopt, or if already
adopted, shall persist in the  unsound and mistaken idea of gaining
numbers by the popularity of slender instruction,  instead  of calling
them, in despite of distracting  predilections  for their native or con-
tiguous states, by  the full, liberal  and  enlightened course  of its  in-
struction—it requires no spirit of prophecy to predict, that such a one
will fail in its object, while another or others, far from, or near to it,
will, by adopting a contrary system, deserve  and maintain the lead.
   On the question of expediency, the Faculty, in answer to  the  com-
mittee's inquiry, whether " it is or is not, at this time, expedient to
introduce the  professorship of botany into the Faculty of Medicine in
this university," declare  it as their u opinion  that neither now, nor at
any other period, ought botany  to be attached to the Faculty of Medi-
cine."  Without suggesting any  thing  further on this strong denun-
ciation of this science, and the hostility to it avowed in this opinion,
or without making any observations on the fact, that in their reply to
the definite inquiry of the committee, as to the present time, the Faculty

  * Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) 2 ; New York 2 ; Connecticut 2 ;  Massachu-
setts 1 ; Rhode Island 1 ; New Hampshire 1 ; Vermont 1 ; Maryland 1  ; Vir-
ginia 1; Kentucky 1; South Carohna 1.  From several of these  states,  the
sJiool of ttus University has heretofore been chiefly supplied. 
20
have somewhat overweeningly, perhaps, betrayed to the trustees, by
the sweep of the reply so far exceeding  the bounds  of the query,
that from this faculty  they never can expect any acquiescence or co-
operation on this subject; still  a consideration is suggested  out of it.
It is not for me to make any strictures upon this declared opposition
to the interests of the science  1 have to teach, further than 1  have
done so in this circular, by sapping the ground  of that opposition, by
the power and force  of broad  and admitted  facts.   But it  may not,
perhaps, be  amiss to  suggest to your consideration, that this is the
second time, after a lapse of nearly five years, that my efforts for your
succour  to the science of botany, have been opposed from  the  same
source ; and to suggest further, that as no co-operation can either now,
nor at any future time, be expected from the faculty,  whether this
may not be deemed as favourable  a moment as any other  for your
independent decision of the question, if your minds shall  have  been
satisfied  by this time on the basis of its intrinsic  merits.
   1 lth. As regards the necessity of instituting a chair of practical anato-
my,* and one of the institutes of medicine in preference  to that of bo-
tany, something ought to be said.  First, practical anatomy  is, by the
statement of the faculty itself, acknowledged to stand in  no need of
succour; for they state, that even graduated physicians resort to this
city  to  cultivate it.   2nd.  It is not necessary  to coerce students to
attend to this subject, by an additional chair, because they are already
obliged to obtain a knowledge of anatomy, and it is not easy  for them
to obtain that knowledge without actual dissection, which is, in fact,
the study of anatomy. 1 do not hesitate to declare that all the students
do dissect; as  a proof of this,  I need  only mention that Drs. Hew-
son,  Davis,  Mr. Pattison, Drs.  Harlan, M'-Clellan, Godman,! Harris,
and others, have been all engaged, for years past, in giving instruc-
tion in practical anatomy; four  of whom had classes the past winter;

  * A professorship of practical anatomy! There was  never such a chair heard
of.  There does not exist such a chair in any medical  school of the world, and
it cannot exist from the very nature of the subject.  There is " a demonstrator
of anatomy," or a "superintendent of dissections," in all schools, whose duty
and objects are the same as those of the " adjunct professor of anatomy" in
this school.   But dissections are no further enforced in those schools than they
are here.   The subject stands precisely on  the same footing as here.  Its ob-
vious usefulness, in order to be acquainted with anatomy, the knowledge of
which is indispensable every where, is of itself sufficient to make it,  elsewhere
as here, to use the language of the Faculty, " spontaneously much  followed."
Examine the records of schools in this circular—examine the regulations of all
the European and American schools, and this statement will be corroborated.
I would not undervalue the subject.  No medical man has a stronger sense of
the usefulness, the necessity of dissection, to be a good anatomist, a good sur-
geon, an enlightened physician.  I am particular on this point, because I think
it proper to show that I am incapable of undervaluing one branch, to advance
another.  The mere details of the subject, in the aspect presented to you by
the Faculty, I speak of, and I have given the grounds on which my difference
of opinion rests.  The best text book for anatomy is the dead subject.  It will
be bought and examined, like any other text book,  by the student himself,
without further imperative regulation than that which demands his knowledge
of the subject.  Finally, a chair of practical anatomy is no less an absurdity
than a chair of practical midwifery !
  f I am informed by him, that his practical anatomy class of the winter of
1823—4 consisted of 84.  Of. the winter of 1824—5, of 69.  That his spring
classes average 30. 
21
 and a large majority, quite as many as can be accommodated, resort
 to the class of Dr. Horner, in the University.  Thus the students enjoy
 fully the advantages of this subject, and are, as I have already remarked,
 coerced to devote themselves to it, by the law compelling them to be
 acquainted with anatomy.  A professorship  on this branch is, therefore,
 not necessary; indeed it would be exceedingly grievous to the students
 to be compelled to pursue their dissections, to  the number of four or
 five hundred in ©ne class or building: in fact, it would be utterly im-
 possible.   Now they are well accommodated by all the different teach-
 ers of the subject, and the monopoly would be impolitic, unjust, un-
 popular, and ruinous to the interests, comfort and  convenience of the
 students.   But if I have shown that succour is not necessary to uphold
 this branch, by the very statement of the faculty, and the facts I have
 mentioned, I trust I can  as easily prove that it is necessary to uphold
 the science of botany.  For if the Medical Faculty will, to the Trus-
 tees, hold the strong language they use against its importance and use-
 fulness, will it reasonably be expected that they will  be  less strenuous
 in their representations against it, to  the students themselves?
   12th. It  is said, that Dr. Chapman, from the " extended nature of his
 other professional duties, has only an insufficient time to devote to the
 Institutes of Medicine."   On this point, all I have  to observe, is, that
 the course is as long by your law, now, as it was in tbe  time of his
 predecessors  in the same chair.   Yet Dr. Rush  always  found  time
 to deliver as  luminous and perfect lectures on the theory and practice,.
 as Dr. Chapman does, besides the institutes of medicine, devoting two
 hospital  days of every week, to his clinical lectures in the univer-
 sity ;  and this he did from his first appointment to the day of his death.
 While Dr. Chapman, till within the last two years, when his appoint-
 ment to the  Alms  House  enabled him,  for the  first time, to give
 clinical lectures, enjoyed the advantage over Dr. Rush, of havingall
 the  additional time for  the institutes, which  his want of  opportu-
 nity of giving clinical lectures, afforded.   Dr. Chapman's immediate
 predecessor likewise in that chair, the  late Dr. Barton,  found time
 during the very short period he  held it, notwithstanding the wretch-
 ed  state of his health, to deliver  full lectures both on  the theory
 and practice, the institutes, and clinical objects.  Besides, if Dr. Chap-
 man  has not a sufficient time to fulfil the duties of his chair, by  the
 present arrangement as to hours, he might use some of the necessary
 additional hours now devoted to his private classes.
   13th. In the first  objection urged  by  the faculty,  in  relation to
 " what would be the most expedient arrangement  as to time  to be
 allotted to the professor for lecturing on botany," &.c. they urge against
 the winter season, "the complete devotion of time, even  of hours
 usually appropriated to rest by our students," during that season.
 This  is indeed a strong representation; and as it would seem, on  the
 first view, to insinuate, that this entire consumption of time is altogether
 owing to the necessary and established engagements of students with
 the professors of the school, in their public capacity, and by the neces-
 sary study  to keep up with  the public and authorized lectures of the
 university, and consequently required by your  regulations: it is not
 only quite  proper for your information, but quite just  to the object
of this and my other communications, on the subject of botany, to in-
 quire circumspectly into the causes of the  state of things thus repre- 
'>k2
sented.  The regular lectures begin at 9 o'clock in the morning on
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and  terminate  at  2
o'clock.   On  the  same days, they recommence  at half past three,
and terminate at half past four o'clock.  On Wednesdays and Satur-
days they begin at 12, and end at  2 o'clock, to give  the students an
opportunity of attending the  Alms House and Hospital.  On the after-
noons of these two days there are no lectures.  On Mondays, Wednes-
days and Fridays, at 7 P. M. the adjunct professor of anatomy recapitu-
lates the two preceding days' lectures of the professor of anatom}', to
the dissecting class only.*  Except these, there is  not now, and never
has been, any regular pu!  ic lectures delivered  in the university class
rooms, except an occasioi a.  one at 8 o'clock, by the professor of che-
mistry, when he defers his  lecture of the  morning  to the hour of
night,  for the express purpose of performing some few experiments,
which require darkness, on which occasion he shades his lamps.   I am
aware that an interrogatory meeting with a portion of the class, is held
by the adjunct professor of anatomy, on Tuesday at 7  P. M. in those
rooms; but this is on his own private account, as one of the instructers of
the private class of another professor, and has nothing  whatever  to do
with the public  engagements of the students, or the advantages they
receive for their public  fee.   I  am also aware, that  the students do
often pursue their dissections after night, but they can seek their own
hours  for this purpose.  Thus it appears, that from half past 4 o'clock
to 1 l.i- at night, a  period of seven hours of every day of the week,
except the three hours at 7, mentioned for the dissecting class, and
a longer  period of  the  two days of the week  on which there  is no
lecture on midwifery, is  wholly at the disposal of the students, for
study and dissection, allowing them  eight hours sleep, by rising at
7 o'clock, and Sunday as a day of rest for its proper purposes.   How-
then is all this time, even to " hours usually devoted  to rest" consumed ?
I answer, much of it must be employed by those who belong to the
private classes  of several of the  professors, who have established
such classes.  For example,  the aids of the  private class of the pro-
fessor  of the  practice,  are six in  number,  seven including himself.
The professor of surgery has another private class.;  the professor of
chemistry a third.  The private classes, therefore, have engagement*
with nine gentlemen, besides those of the regular lectures.  For this sys-
tem of private instruction,! unknown and unauthorized by your body,

  * Members of the general class could be admitted by paying- an additional
fee of $5.                                       *
  \ These private classes are confined to the professors mentioned. The pro-
fessors of anatomy anil midwifery never have established them, and the professor
of materia medica has abandoned his within a year or two.   They were never
known  in this university till within lute years.   The technical terms by which
the system is known, is, by daily usage, sufficiently familiar to you, and suffi-
ciently expressive.  The late professor YVistar  daily  devoted a portion  of his
public lectures to tliis interrogatory and recapitulatory  purpose, and often an
additional hour in the afternoon.   But this he considered as  part of the public
duty of his public lectures, for the advantages of which the students had paid
their public tee.  He neither required nor received private or extra compensa-
tion.  The same course is pursued by Dr. Physick, by examining the class in
the commencement  of every day's public lecture, on the lecture of the pre-
ceding day.  He, likewise, deems  this course a part of his public duty—nor 
23
the professor? require for themselves and their aids, (in one instance
six in number) private and exiraordinary compensation.  And as it is
well  known in the university that many of the candidates attend  all
of these private classes of the professors, the wonder, in regard to the
consumption of time, ceases, and the state of things is accounted for.
It is this system, and the multiplied  engagements, which in a private
communication with the professors interested in  it, and for private pur-
poses, and not the necessary and established engagements formed by
the students, with the professors in  their public capacity, and  for the
benefits of which they have paid the public fee established by  your
board,  which  mainly creates the difficulty and want of time complain-
ed of.   Doubtless, it may be considered, though very expensive, not
without its peculiar advantages to  the  students.  Be it so.   I  have
nothing further to do with its  merits here, than in so far as its effects
are urged to you in your public capacity, as an irresistible argument,
against succouring the depressed state of a public professorship, which.
in the aggregate of eight years annual courses of lectures, has yielded
a sum falling  far short of the  proceeds of a private class of sixty stu-
dents, to a single, unassociated professor, during four months of the past
winter.*  These facts have found their way into this communication,

has he ever separated it from that duty.  He neither requires nor receives pri-
vate or extra compensation, for exercising the students in their proficiency, by
recapitulatory queries.
   * $600, the fee (private) being $10. For this sum the students were met once
a week during the session, and instructed by the professor alone, by recapitu-
latory interrogatories.  The session consists  of seventeen weeks ; the private
course of this gentleman, therefore, consisted of as many hours.  Consequent-
ly, this professor received upwards  of $35 an hour, over and above the public
proceeds of his lectures, which are not, it  will be conceded, by any means
trifling.
   The  gentlemen employed  by  the professor of the practice, in his private
supernumerary class, are, as I have already stated, six in number.  Their en-
gagements with this  private  class  are  as follow, designating the gentlemen
employed by numbers from 1 to 6.   No. 1, at 7 o'clock, P. M. Tuesday ;  No.
2, at 4£, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays ; No. 3, at 4$, Thursdays ; No. 4,
at 4^, Fridays; No. 5, at 4>\ Saturdays, and 8 P. M. Wednesdays; No. 6,  at 3$,
Saturdays.   7,  The professor himself, Dr. Chapman, another hour in the week,
(hour not  known.)   The professor of surgery's private and supernumerary
class have an engagement with him, at  3 o'clock on  Saturdays.  The private
class of the professor of chemistry  have engagements with him from 9 to 10
o'clock  A. M.  Saturdays, during  the first half of the session, ending a little
after Christmas, and the residue of the session  from 9 to 10 o'clock,  A. M.
Wednesdays.   With all these distracting, supernumerary engagements, tvhirk
have nothing to do with  the school, on their hands, superadded to the regular,
required, and indispensable engagements of the students with the professors,
in their public duties, during the  short period  of four months, can you any
longer wonder at " the complete devotion of time,  even of hours usually ap-
propriated to rest, of our students during the winter ?"  The amazement natu-
rally excited at this representation,  is not at  the consumption of time and  loss
of sleep, but at the existence of the causes tending so largely and pitilessly to
produce so much serious loss of time and health.  Do your regulations impose
this consumption of time, this trespass on quietude and sleep ?  No.  Are the
students benefitted'' can the students be benefitted by this system, in any de-
gree commensurate with the  heavy and inevitable  but unnecessary expenses
it brings with it, and the deprivation of necessary rest it so liberally contributes
to effect ?  Let their purses, their health, and their real interests of education,
after circumstances have severed these interests from the idea they daily express 
24
simply because the interests and merits of a public appeal have been
virtually approached by the effects growing out of a system purely
of private aggrandizement.
  14th. The second objection urged by the Faculty to the winter season,
is, " the impracticability of obtaining living specimens of plants during
the winter."  To this I would remark simply, that,  as a teacher of
Botany, who has delivered two courses  on it in the winter season,
and as one who would not be willing to risk  his reputation by seeking
to lecture at a  season  which  would deprive him of the subjects of
his course, and consequently of the means of sustaining his reputation,
I ought to be presumed to know, whether  I could obtain the neces-
sary living specimens at that season; and  I declare that it is not only
quite possible for a reasonable expense to obtain them from the neigh-
bouring green houses which are supported  by the sale of plants, but
that it is quite easy to do  so.   And further, if you should extend the
patronage to the chair, which I am soliciting, the pecuniary proceeds
of it would enable me to erect and support a green house of my own
for this purpose, which would cost no more than the apparatus and
perpetual purchase of materials  for the chemical  chair—all which is
done at the  private  cost  of the professor  himself.  To  this I may
add, that it is known  to my classes, that I  have constantly been in the
habit of aiding instruction by living plants,  even  in  the summer, by
the use of numerous pictures on  an enlarged scale, to explain what is
obscure in real vegetation.  This method,  and that  by large trans-
parencies, is now adopted universally in Europe, as the most instruc-
tive  and efficient to the students.  No objection therefore does  exist,
either in point of time (setting aside the consumption of it for private
purposes by several of the professors)  nor in point of living subjects
for the lectures, to  the winter season.   I have further declared to
your committee on this subject, my willingness to deliver two courses
in the year, one in the winter, and the other in the spring or summer,
of its propitiatory influence, answer.  But is it quite fair to urge this private
consumption of time, for private purposes and private thrift, to you in your
public capacity, against the expediency of admitting a public professorship,
claimed to be elevated for the public good ?
  The number of these classes must now be noticed.   The private class of the
professor of the practice consisted, during the past winter, of between 80 and
100 students ; his private fee is $30.
  The private class of the professor of surgery consisted of 60 students ; his
private fee is $10.
  The private class of the professor of chemistry consisted the past session of
about 80 ; his private fee is $5.
  A single student who takes all these supernumerary tickets, is thus put to
the expense of $45, for four months, in addition  to the aggregate amount of
all the public tickets ; and I am informed, that about 60  or 70 of the present
class of graduates took all these supernumerary tickets the past session—a state
of things which occurs every year, as is known to the whole medical  profession
of this city.  All this information  1 have received from numbers of the gra-
duates of this session themselves.  Yet a want of funds on the  part of the stu-
dents, is urged by the faculty against introducing botany, as necessary  to a
degree !!! These private classes are recommenced in the spring, and continued
during the summer at much higher fees.  But as their effects have not been
urged to you by the faculty, against the success  of my public appeal, I have
neither inclination nor motive to offer any remarks on the subject. 
25
  to  accommodate all the students.   And it has been 9hown  that m
  Leipsic this is done by the professors of Botany.
    15th. It now only remains for me to notice the objection urged by the
  Faculty to the expediency of the contemplated measure arising from a
  consideration of the number of medical schools rising up in the United
  States, a state of things which they believe renders " the present mo-
  ment unpropitious  in the extreme for augmenting the demands upon
  the students  by making an additional chair of equivocal utility, es-
  sential to a degree."  In the first place, I  refer you to my address of
  January 2d, for my reasons why I think this rivalship is conclusive
  in favour of my views; and I  trust,  that the facts stated in this com-
  munication and  in my memorial and  address, prove satisfactorily that
  the chair is of unequivocal utility.   And, secondly, respecting any de-
  mands, which it may, if rendered necessary to a degree, make on the
  funds of the students, 1 do believe the freedom with which they are
  found, as already mentioned to  give (no matter from what motive)
  large private  fees to the professors, amounting often in one year to an
  individual student to more than two-thirds  the entire amount of a full
  course of the different public lectures, will  be viewed by you as unde-
  niable proof that most of them have funds to spare, a part of which
  might advantageously be devoted to the acquirement of an additional
  important  branch of medicine, although it might prevent some few
  from taking as many private tickets, as, without the arrangement con-
  templated, they would otherwise have it in their power to afford.
   It is stated that  " whilst it  remains  optional with the students to
 attend Botany, they will be satisfied."  I have by  the schedule of the
 proceeds of eight courses of lectures appended to my address  of Jan-
 uary  2d,  delivered on Botany,  under  your auspices, proved, that
 while  it  is merely  optional to attend,  the professorship is wholly
 nominal, and the professor and his subject in reference to the school,
 undervalued in  their  estimation; to which may be added, that the
 well known current sentiments against the subject entertained by the
 Faculty as expressed in their communication to you, certainly confirm
 (his state of non-entity.   That  this must be the effective operation of
 the  doctrine of non-connexion of Botany with medicine, and its being a
 science of mere classification,* on the uninformed minds of students, will
 readily occur  to you.   And that  the Faculty does uphold this non-
 connexion, their whole communication  evidences.   In the close of
 it they embody  this idea in a tangible  form, stating  that  they have

   * I am not singular in denying in this circular,  (page 2.)  the correctness of
 the Faculty's position on the subject of the science being merely restricted to
 the classification of plants, and having no connexion with medicine.   Among
 many authors on this subject, I quote  the following remarks, as bearing with
 particular force on this idea.  " Botany,  as a science, is not confined to the
 description and classification of plants,  as ignorance has often been pleased to
 represent it; but comprehends many other important  particulars.  Its various
 objects may be conveniently arranged under the following heads."*  Here the
 writer enumerates eight distinct objects of this science, of which " mere clas-
sification" is only one ; and the seventh head comprises " the purposes to which
different plants are applied, either as articles of food, ingredients in the compo.
iition of medicine," hc.f
  • Article Botany, (suppoied by the celebrated Dr. Smith of England, author of the elements or
Botany, Lecturer, &c. on Botany, &«.) Rv.V Cyclopaedia.     + Ibid, wireauicie. 
26
"endeavoured to prove that this science has no legitimate connexion
with medicine ; yet in the very same document they at another time
palpably acknowledge this connexion by urging as  an objection to its
introduction into the  medical faculty, that the professor would, (by
teaching the subject after the manner in  which I have stated, is not
only the correct way but the method pursued in medical  schools ot
Europe,) encroach on the chairs of Materia  Medica and Pharmacy
and the Practice of Physic!  One or the other of their positions must
be incorrect.  Indeed the objection on this score involves so plainly
the idea of the intimate and close  connexion of Botany  with  the
science of medicine, that it is surprising the inference which you, as
well as a medical man, can draw from it, in favour of the introduction
of Botany to the courses of instruction, should  have escaped them.
  This idea of the non-connexion of botany with medicine is most ex-
traordinary and indefensible.   I  have shown already the grounds on
which such  an  idea must be deemed untenable.   But. to bring the
subject more forcibly to your mind, permit me to state some additional
facts which bear on the subject.  The authors who have written on
Peruvian Barks are 202 in number; on Camphor 136 ; on Opium 112 ;
on Rhubarb 95; on Ipecacuanha 81 ; on Jalap 72.  Of these writers,
the majority are botanists, who have written on these vegetable medi-
cines, not only botanically, but by detailing their medicinal properties and
uses.   I have purposely exemplified the bearing of botany on medi-
cine, by the  above facts relating to  articles familiar to every body.
But the chain of connexion between all the articles  of vegetable mate-
ria medica  and botany, is equally demonstrable.    The vegetable
dietetics, moreover, are the legitimate objects of botany;  and  that
this  subject is  important and intimately connected with medical in-
struction, must occur to you.  So necessary is it  considered to the
physician, that "dietetics" is of itself a branch ot* a professorship in
Edinburgh.   Vegetable  Toxicology  is another important branch  of
botany.  It is  the study of the plants  possessing poisonous  qualities.
That  a physician should be possessed of a knowledge of these, you
will readily admit to  be important; and  1 hazard  nothing which can
be denied, when I assert that vegetable toxicology without  botany is
impracticable of attainment—is a non-entity.   For  the objects of this
subject no provision whatever is made in this university.  It is not
and  cannot be  taught legitimately in any chair now requisite for a
degree.  Botany once requisite, it would be  provided for.   I have
shown, notwithstanding the  Faculty declare that the Materia Medica
embraces only 500 vegetable medicines, that Stokes'' Botanical Mate-
ria Medica, including dietetics, embraces 2b26* uncompounded articles.
Of this  number, at  least 1300  are  strictly medicinal.  The whole,
extending to vegetable dietetics and toxicolog\, is therefore sufficient-
ly copious u on which to found a distinct professorship."  Finally, the
non-connexion of botany and medicine does not and cannot exist, from
the  very nature of the sciences.   On the contrary, the intimate con-
 nexion of these sciences is proved.
   If, therefore, your candid and serious consideration of all the facts

   * " A Botanical Materia Medica, consisting of the generic and specific names
of the plants used in medicine and diet.  By Jonathan Stoke*, M. D."  Four
large 8vo volumes, London, 1812. 
27
and information which I have placed before you, should decide you
that a knowledge of botany is important to a physician ; the necessity
of some new regulation  on tiie subject will, I trust, suggest itself to
you as proper, and loudly  called  for by the nature  of the  case;
and induce you to render an attendance on the lectures imperative,
here, as it is in every other medical school of importance in the world.
   To conclude:  I have endeavoured, in  the foregoing remarks,  to
canvass dispassionately  a  matter of opinion on a scientific subject,
existing in discrepancy, not only between the Medical Faculty and
myself, but between that Faculty and the  Medical  Faculties of all
the colleges of Europe,  several of our own country, and the predomi-
nant mass of the medical profession of this union.  I have done this,
I trust, in a manner becoming the dignity of the subject, and that re-
spectful consideration for the gentlemen, whose opinions I have sought,
by  facts alone, to explode, which their high station required.   Having
represented to your board,  that the subject of the professorship  of
botany  was more important to the community than you  have hereto-
fore supposed, or  been led  to  believe, it  became  a duty I  owed
myself, as well as you, to  sustain my representations, by facts of his-
tory and record, no matter how closely soever those facts might press
on  the  validity of representations of a contrary tendency, made to you
by the Medical Faculty or any other body.   Of the strength and merits
of the case, viewed by you in all its aspects, you will certainly not be
the less prepared to decide, in consequence of the door to information
having been completely thrown open.
                     I have the honour to be, Sir,
                            Very respectfully,
                                   Your obedient servant,   \/
   Philadelphia, April 1,  1825.             William P. C. Barton.

   P. S.  I have been desirous of laying before you, all  the informa-
tion which could be procured on the subject of Botany,  as a requisite
branch for a medical degree in Europe, and on the point of its con-
nexion  with, and usefulness to, medicine.  Influenced by this  desire, I
addressed a letter a short time ago to Dr. Robley Dunglison,* who ar-
rived from England in this country, about five weeks  since.   This
gentleman has been invited  to  this country, in consequence  of the
high estimation in  which  his talents and  learning are  held, by Mr.
Jelferson and  Mr. Maddison, the founders  and principal  directors  of
the University of Virginia.   While pursuing his profession in London,
where  he  was distinguished for his professional abilities, he was ap-
pointed  six months ago, Professor  of the institutes and practice  of
medicine in the University of Virginia, a chair he  has now repaired
to this country to occupy.   The reply of Dr. Dunglison to  my que-
ries has this moment been received, and I now lay his  letter before
you believing it will be deemed interesting to the merits of the case
pending, not only  because of the  high  respectability of the source
itself, but because of the proof it affords of the state  of  Botany in fo-
reign schools, at this moment.
 • Roblev Dunrlison, M. D. late Lecturer on Midwifery and the Diseases of Women and Children,
Consulting Accoucheur to the Eastern Dispensary of London, one of the editor, of the London.
U.dical Repository, author of Commentaries on the Diseases of the Stomach and Bowels of Chil-
dren, fete, and now Professor of the Institutes and Practit* of Medicine in the  Univenuy of Vir-
ginia. 
28
                         University of Virginia, March 28,  1825.
  Sir.—" I  hasten to reply to your letter, dated the 22d  inst. which
I din1 not receive until yesterday, and although I am unable to afford
you information on all the topics contained in your communication—
I trust that what I may be able to offer may be of some service.
  " In answer to your queries :—
  " I. Botany is taught as a separate branch of medical education,
in the principal medical schools in Britain.
  "• 2. One course, at least, is  necessary to the candidate for  a de-
gree in the University of Edinburgh.  The fee of each course, so fai-
ns I recollect, is four guineas.
  " 3. Dr.  Graham was translated to Edinburgh  after the death of
Dr. Rutherford.
  " 4. Botany is  likewise a  separate branch in the  University of
Glasgow, and subjected, I believe, to  the same regulations as in
Edinburgh.   The fee, number of courses required, and time of year
 at which they are  delivered, being, to the best  of my recollection,
the same.  The present Regius Professor of Botany  in that Univer-
sity is Jackson Hooker, L. L. D. F. R. S. &c.
  " The very institution of a  Botanical Professorship is  a  sufficient
 proof of the estimation, as a part of Medical Education, in which it is
 held by the Directors of that University.
  5. With respect to the University of Dublin, there,  as in every well
 adapted school for Medical Instruction, it forms part  of the required
studies.
  " 6. As regards my own opinion on the importance  of Botany, in
 connexion with Medicine, and  of its necessity to complete the Educa-
 tion  of the Physician,  I  can  have no hesitation in declaring that I
 consider it  highly necessary, especially in this country.  Id the larger
 towns of Britain, and in those  of the European Continent, especially
 of France,  where the Medical Profession is divided as in  the former,
 into  Physician, Surgeon and Apothecary, and further, into Druggist and
 Herbalist, and in the latter into Docteur en Medecine, Docteur en Chi-
 rurgie,  Pharrnacien,  Droguiste and  Herboriste,  the resident practi-
 tioners do not so much require a knowledge of even the indigenous
 plants, and those who reside in the distant parts of the kingdom, from
 the free communication which exists between them and the larger
 towns can receive a ready supply.  But, in this country, where those
 facilities are  not so great, and where the Physician must frequently
 from his remote situation, be  compelled to depend  upon those re-
 sources which are within his immediate reach, a knowledge of Bo-
 tany, especially as regards the indigenous  plants, I consider as one
 of the most valuable acquirements of which he could  be possessed.
 The Court of Examiners of the Society of Apothecaries, of London,
 instituted according to the provision of the act of 1815, for the  better
 regulating of the practice of Apothecaries in England and Wales, had
 appointed Botany as an essential requisite in the education of the Apo-
 thecary, who, as you may be aware of, is the family physician in
 those countries ; the real physician being generally called in only in
 consultation,  &c.                     ROBLEY DUNGLISON.
     Dr. Barton.