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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
             Washington
Founded 1836
U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
             Public Health Service 
 
 
?
                  A

           DISCOURSE

                 ON

SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL DESIDERATA
       NATURAL HISTORY,   .  £
                                   (   t
                  AND ON

THE BEST MEANS OF PROMOTING THE STUDY
                 OF THIS     ,

              SCIENCE,
         IN THE UNITED-STATES.
READ BEFORE THE PHILADELPHIA LINNEAN SOCIETY,
          ON THE TENTH OF JUNE, 1807.
    BY BENJAMIN SMITH JJARTON, M. D.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY; ONE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE
    AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL>»Sp.CIETY ; AND PROFESSOR OF
     MATERIA MEDICA, NATURAL HISTORY AND BOTANY,
   j     IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.




                  tiV.f •  ....
     PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED BY DENHAM ts* TOWN,
     No. 278, South Second-street.
1807. 
 
PREFACE.
       The following Discourse was  originally drawn
up, without the  most distant  view to  publication.  It
was, indeed, my wish to have confined the reading of
it  to the Members of the Philadelphia  linnean
society: but I was  urged to pronounce it  in  a more
public  manner, before a large  and mixed  audience,
among whom were  many of the most  learhed  and
respectable  literary characters in Pennsylvania.  The
discourse,  with  all  its imperfections,  is  now  printed
and  published, at the request of the  Society which
gave birth to  it.

   It  is  not a matter  of any  consequence  to  ob-
serve,  but still I think it proper to mention the  cir-
cumstance,  that the Discourse,  as it now appears,  is,
in several respects, different  from what it was when
I  read it.   Some  few passages I have  omitted in
the publication:  a greater number have been  added; 
                      PREFACE,
 and a large part  of the  whole  has undergone  some
 variation, either  in the style, or arrangement.  These,
 I think,  are liberties which an author is, at all times,
 entitled to take with his  own productions.—It is hardly
 necessary to add, that the  appendix matter was not
 read  before the  Society,   Some  of  the  facts  con-
 tained in this supplement will,  I  flatter myself,  amuse
 the reader.   It is  possible,  that they may  even afford
 hints  for dissertations,  or  memoirs, relative  to  some
 of the most interesting  subjects of American Natural
 History.

  I am  not certain that the public is essentially be-
 nefitted by  the publication  of such  imperfect  essays
 as that which is now laid before them.  But there  is
 a class of society to whom this essay may be useful.
 I mean the American students in Natural History,  who
 wish some guide, or index,  to  point out some of the
 desiderata of  the science of  nature.  Imperfect and
 unfinished as is this essay, something upon the  same
 plan would have  been useful to me, when, twenty-
three years  ago,  I  made an effort to study zoology
 and  botany,  in  Philadelphia, where  I  sought, in
 vain, for any one to put me into that path  of study
 and research, which  I have since followed up, if not
 with advantage to  the public  at large,  yet with  hap-
piness to myself, and with some advantage to  my Pu- 
                      PREFACE.
pils.  If the  hints which I have  thrown out,  in this
Discourse,  should be of any use  to only one  half  of
my many pupils, now,  so happily for  science, settled
in different parts of the United-States,  I  shall feel
quite satisfied.   When they  read  it, I wish them  to
remember,  that,  in  one respect,  their  opportunities
and  advantages have been  greater than  my own:  for
I have never  attended any  lectures, however imper-
fect, on  Natural  History, or  Botany.
  Philadelphia, August 12th, 1807, 
 
AN  ORATION,  &c
        THE PHILADELPHIA LINNEAN SOCIETY Was
 established for the promotion of Natural History.  Its
 original  founders  (the  greater number of whom were
 young men), ardently attached to  the  study of nature,
 perceived the want of an institution which should be
 exclusively  devoted to  the cultivation  of the  different
 branches  of natural history:  an - institution similar to
 those which have been  founded,  and  have flourished,
 in most of the  countries of Europe, where the names,
 the nature,  and the properties of  natural objects have
 been studied with any degree of attention, or success.

  Already,  if I  do not greatly mistake,  have the
 benefits of our infant  institution begun to be displayed.
 It has given, as it were, a  new and very impressive
 direction  to the  minds  of a  number of. young  men,
 from whose talents, and industry,  and  zeal, in  union
 with better  opportunities than  have yet  been  afforded
to them,  much important information may be expected.
           ( 2 ) 
10
   At a meeting of the Society, in the month of March
last, it was resolved, that a member be appointed " to
deliver  an Oration, in  which  are  to be  particularly
pointed out the Desiderata in  Natural  History, and the
best means to be pursued for the Advancement of the
Science."

   With this appointment I have been honoured by my
colleagues.  The task which they have entrusted to me,
is  one of some difficulty,  and far too extensive to be dis-
cussed on this occasion.   It would require a volume to
do justice to the subject.   I feel, most unaffectedly, the
propriety of claiming the indulgence of the  Society,—
and of this learned  and polite audience,—while  I read
to  them these miscellaneous fragments,  which my nume-
rous avocations  have prevented me from digesting  into
better and more seemly order.   An entire disposition to
fulfill the wishes of the Society will not, I flatter myself,
be called in question.

   Natural History,  Gentlemen,  is the object of
our institution.  This  is a field so extensive, and with
respect to this country,  so interesting and so new,  that
none of us,  whether our object be the usefulness which
attends, or the fame which follows, science need extend
our inquiries far beyond its limits.   What those limits
are,  it may seem proper to attempt to specify on  this
occasion.

   Various have been the opinions of authors concern-
ing the precise objects,  or the actual limits,  of the  sci-
ence of nature.  Among the ancients,  especially among
the Romans, Natural History was employed as a term 
II
of most extensive import.   It comprehended whatever
of physical knowledge was then known; whether it re-
spected this globe, or the other worlds which compose
the universe.  Geography was considered as a branch
or department of Natural  History, and accordingly we
still  consult the work of  Pliny for some of the  most
precious  information  that  has descended to us,  from
those times,  concerning the geography  of the  earth.
Astronomy,  also,  was deemed a  branch of Natural
History.   Even  the  science  of  Medicine,  including
the  names and  nature of diseases;  the  names, the
.arrangement, and the  nature of medicines; the means of
preventing, or  of curing  diseases,  was considered by
the Romans  as a branch  of the  great stock, or stem,
upon which  they bestowed the appellation of natur-
ALIS HISTORIA*.

   From this imperfect view of the subject, it is evi-
dent, that among the Romans (so far, at least, as we
are permitted to form a judgement from  the books of
Pliny) Natural History embraced almost every depart-
ment of the science,—and even the  arts,—of the times;
mere moral or political science  excepted.

   In modern times,  the term Natural History is em-
ployed in a much more restricted sense.   Some writers,
indeed, among others the late learned Lord Kaimes,
seem to consider it as a mere science (or rather a col-
lection) of such physical facts as respect what we usu-
ally  denominate the  three kingdoms of  nature;
that is the series of Animals, of Vegetables  and of Min-

  * See Caii Piiwi Secvmdi Naturalis Histori* Libri xxxvii. 
12
 erals;  reserving  to other and  higher  sciences, the ex-
 planation of those facts, and whatever of theory, or of
 speculation, might be adduced concerning them.

   But Natural History is by no means thus limited in
 its views.  It  is,  indeed, or it ought to be, necessarily a
 Science of Facts. But no science more than this calls for
 systems or arrangements of facts,  and for  reasonings
 concerning them.  One of the higher charms of Natural
 History is, that it so easily admits, in  many instances at
 least, of just and happy arrangements; and of  beautiful
 and  correct theories: of theories,  too, which  are per-
 manent, and not those false, those evanescent,  creations
 of a day,  Ivy which Medicine  (not  to mention other
 sciences) has  sometimes been  injured, and often sul-
 lied, disfigured, or disgraced.

   I do not intend to attempt a precise or regular defini-
 tion of Natural History.   I  will only  observe, that the
 least objectionable definition of the science, that  I have
 met with, is that which designates it to be "the Physical
 History of  Nature on this Globe."   But,  certainly, this
definition  is  infinitely  too  extensive,  since  Natural
 History, thus  characterized,  would  comprehend  the
whole  of the great sciences of  Anatomy, and Phvsio-
logy, Chemistry, and Materia  Medica; the  history of
 Light  and  Colours,  and even,  in  some measure,  the
history of  the Tides; not to mention many other sci-
ences,  or branches of science,  which no one, in  our
times,  considers as appertaining exclusively to NaturaJ
History. 
13
  It  is, in  truth, extremely difficult to point  out the
precise limits of Natural History, so intimately connect-
ed is this science with many others,  particularly perhaps
with Anatomy, Physiology, the Materia Medica, and
Chemistry.  Unquestionably,  a large portion of what
relates to the fabric  and functions  of animals; of what
relates to the general analysis of natural objects, whether
they be  derived from the animal, the vegetable, or the
mineral  kingdoms, or elsewhere; as well as what relates
to the uses of those objects in medicine, or the arts,
and many other questions of a like nature, are all, in
strict propriety, subjects of  Natural History.

  Natural History has been divided into the follow-
ing six  great branches, each of which  may be  said to
constitute a distinct science  of  itself:  i. Zoology.
ii. Botany,  hi. Geology,  iv. Mineralogy,  v.
Hydrography:  and, vi. Meteorology.

  i.  Zoology  is the history of the Animal kingdom.
This  is, unquestionably, the most important branch of
Natural History.   It involves  a most numerous set of
living beings, whose structure and functions,  whose in-
stincts or manners,  whose uses, are eminently entitled
to the attention of philosophers.

  ii. The  science of Botany, called likewise Phyto-
logy,  is the history  of  the  Vegetable kingdom.   It is
principally restricted to  the  nomenclature and the clas-
sification of vegetables,  their anatomy, and physiology.

  in. Geology is  the history of  our  Mineral globe.
It, in an  especial manner,  regards the fabric  of the 
14
fflobe,  the  nature  of the materials of which it is com-
posed;  the arrangement of those  materials, and many
other questions of  a like kind.

  iv.  Mineralogy  is, in strict propriety, a branch or
division of Geology.  It is more concerned with particu-
lars  than is Geology.   It regards the names, the ana-
lysis, and the classification of the individual Minerals of
the globe.

  v. Hydrography,  which Linnaeus  considered as a
part of mineralogy, is  that branch  of  natural history,
which relates to the Waters of our globe.

  vi.  The sixth and last branch of the science is Me-
teorology.   This  may be defined  the history of  our
Atmosphere, and of its various phenomena. It has been
justly  observed of this science, that it  forms the con-
necting link, as it were, between Natural History, pro-
perly so called, and Physics.  It is certain, that many
important  circumstances relative to the atmosphere do
not so properly fall under the notice of  the naturalist, as
under that of the natural philosopher, or the chemist.

  Whatever strictly appertains to any of these sciences,
comes within the scope of our views.   It can hardly be
necessary to add, that some of these branches of Natural
History are more entitled to our attention  than others.
Such are Zoology, Botany, and Geology, or Mineralo-
gy.   Of these the two first seem to me to have a more
immediate relation, than the others, to the important sci-
ence of medicine, to which most of you have attached
yourselves.  Thus the great and  beautiful science of 
35
Physiology borrows many of its most essential aids from
the natural history  of animals.  Indeed, without the
assistance of Zoology,  Physiology is a very feeble, lim-
ited, and imperfect  science.  If Haller had not been a
profound naturalist, his Elementa, which is infinitely the
greatest  medical work the world has,  hitherto,  seen,
would not now claim,  as I have no  doubt it will claim,
five hundred or a thousand years hence,  when medicine
and all its branches shall have undergone great,  perhaps
total revolutions; if  Haller, I say,  had not been a great
naturalist,  his Elements would not now claim the notice
and  the  admiration of every philosophical physician.
Nay,  such is  the intimate  connection which  subsists
between the different sciences, that the  human  physio-
lopy is,  and ever will be,  imperfect, until we shall, by
numerous  experiments, have enlarged  our knowledge
of the physiology of plants.

   I shall now, agreeably to your request, endeavour
to point  out some of the principal Desiderata of the sci-
ence of Natural History, and the most effectual means to
be pursued for the Advancement of the Science.  And
here I shall especially confine  myself to those subjects in
the investigation of which we, as Americans, are espe-
cially  interested.

   I  begin with  ZOOLOGY.

   Our first object, in this branch of the science, should
be to render more perfect the catalogue of our indige-
nous animals.   Many of these are, unquestionably, un-
known to us.    This is especially the case with respect
to the Fishes,  the Amphibious animals, the Insects, and 
16
the Vermes.  But even in the class of Mammalia,  not a
few, and of the Birds a considerable number of, species
are undescribed.   I believe one  tenth part of all the
North-American  quadrupeds is  in  this  situation.   I
shall not  be  found too rash in hazarding an assertion,
that, at least, one  sixth  of our birds is unknown  to
naturalists.  With respect to the other classes, which I
have mentioned,  the field for discovery and observation
is incalculably large.

  But  Natural  History  is not merely  a  science  of
Names and Arrangements. Higher objects should  claim
the attention of the philosophical naturalist.  Some  of
these I shall now proceed to mention.

  Whatever relates to the  physical history of the
Human Kind is a primary object whh the philosophical
naturalist.  The natural history of our Indians is a sub-
ject of much curiosity and importance,  but has been
greatly neglected.  It is  true, many of  the  European
writers who  have visited this continent, have given  us
some valuable  information  on the  subject.  But they
have left much more to be done.—I say nothing of the
labours and researches of our own countrymen.—We
should lose no time in completing 'he history of thee
people, before  they shall be swept f cm  the surface of
the earth, by the contagion of our vices: shall 1 add,  by
the  injustice of our measures?

   The origin, or  native country,  of the Indian  races
of America, is one of those questions whic.i have  so-
licited the attention of philosophers and historians, ever
since the first discovery of this portion  of the world. 
17
The generality of writers have supposed, that America
was peopled from Asia.  Some writers,  however,  who
have examined this  subject (or rather looked upon it),
in a very superficial manner,  are of opinion, that  Asia
received its  inhabitants from  America:  while others,
whose claims to the character of patient and correct
inquirers  are equally  inconsiderable,  have imagined,
that  the  Americans  are   really  the  Aborigines,  or
Autochthones, of the  soil  and regions  in  which they
were discovered.

   The latter opinion  has been warmly espoused  by
Bernard Romans, whose  name (although less known,
and infinitely less splendid, than those  of several other
writers, on the same'side of the question) I here par-
ticularly mention, because this rapid writer supposes it
more probable,  that Asia  received  some of its hordes
from America, than that  the latter continent was peo-
pled from the former*.

   The theory of Romans seems,  in part, to have been
adopted by  a distinguished  American  character, who
supposes, that the Red-Men of America are older than
those of Asiaf.   But the arguments by  which this gen-
tleman has endeavoured to establish his hypothesis, do
not  appear to me to have much  weight.   I will even
venture to say,  that they  are feeble and illusory.   In-
deed,  I cannot  help observing, in thus  openly address-
ing myself, in an especial manner, to a number of young
men,  and young naturalists, who  may be misled by the
authority and opinion  of men of high  reputation, and
          *  See Note A.             t See Note B
            (3) 
18
 high in the confidence of their country, that the notion
 of the derivation of the Asiatics from America, is a doc-
 trine opposed to the authority of the most ancient writ-
 ings that have descended to us ; opposed to the history
 and traditions of the Asiatics, in more recent times; op-
 posed to the  pictures and traditions of the Americans,
 and to the actual  state of society and of population,
 in the  greater part of America.

   Whatever may serve to throw any additional light
 upon this  question,—to  which, as one  of the grand-
 est and most important  questions  in  natural  history,
 I  could  not refrain from alluding,^is worthy of  the
 attention of the Linnean  Society,  and of every  lover
 of truth,  of genuine science,  and  religion*  wherever
he may be placed.  Nor is the satisfactory  decision
of the  question  relative  to  the original  of the Ame-
ricans, beyond the reach  of science.   It  is,  indeed,
a question  which can only be  fully decided by much
labour and patience in research; aided by that candour,
which  should be inseparable from  the character of a
genuine philosopher.

   For  the investigation  of this subject,  Ave should
lose  no time  in collecting vocabularies of the langua-
ges of the  Indians; as well those with  whom we have
long been acquainted, as  those  who have  recently be-
come known to  us through the  medium of the travels
of Mr. Mackenzie,  Captains  Lewis, Clark, Freeman
and others.  In this inquiry,  too, it will be highly im-
portant to have an eye to the religious  institutions  and
the  mythology  of the  Americans.  I  have elsewhere
shown, that large fragments of  the Asiatic mythology 
19
are preserved,  in  a considerable degree of purity,  in
the most distant or  opposite regions of America:* on
the shores of Lake-Superior and  Ontario, and on the
confines of the Plata and Maragnon.

  The Indian  is, unquestionably,  of  Asiatic  origin.
But some of the American quadrupeds and other mam-
malia are peculiar to this portion of the earth.   Actual
weights of these animals, both those of the former and
of the latter class;  observations respecting their food,
the extent  of country which they occupy,  their migra-
tions,  and the causes of those migrations;  whatever re-
lates to their instinctive manners, their useful or injuri-
ous effects in the  economy of nature,  their torpid con-
dition, their anatomical fabrick, are all questions wor-
thy of our  attention.—A complete natural history of the
Beaver, or  the  Opossum, would be a real treasure to
the philosophical world.

   We are already in possession of a sufficient number
of facts  to establish this point, that the  continent of
North-America was formerly inhabited by several species
of  animals,  which  are now entirely  unknown  to  us,
except by their bones, and which, there is every reason
to believe,  now no longer  exist.    The  bones  of the
Mammoth, or American Elephant,  those of the Mega-
therium,  not to mention some others,  have been dis-
covered; the former in many parts  of  North-America,
Whatever may tend to  render more  perfect our  ac-
quaintance with these animals will form one of the most

  *  See New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America
Preliminary Discourse.  Philadelphia: 1798. 
20
interesting points in Natural History, and ought I think,
to engage the attention of the Society.   For what can
be more interesting than histories  of the species  which
formerly  inhabited this Globe, and have now entirely
disappeared ?

  I speak of these animals as extinct.  In doing this, I
adopt the language of the first naturalists of the age.  No
naturalist, no  philosopher;  no one tolerably acquainted
with the  history of nature's works  and  operations, will
subscribe to the puerile  opinion,  that Nature does  not
permit any of her species  of animals, or of vegetables, to
perish. There is, without doubt, a harmony in the works
of Nature:—a harmony beautiful and divine!  There is a
passage,  by gradual and intermixing characters, from
species  to  species,  and from genus  to genus:  but
there is no such  thing as a chain of nature:
an absolutely necessary dependance  (on this  earth)  of
one species upon another.  Plato's  chain of nature is a
dream.   The metaphysical views  which that sublime
genius has given us of the intertexture of species, have
spoiled by their influence, in succession,  the philosophy
of Greece,  of Rome, and of America.   So powerful is
the influence of authority!  So propense  are men  to em-
brace systems, without an examination of the solidity of
their foundations.

   In the science of  Ornithology, there  is likewise,
much to engage the attention of the naturalist, whether
as a mere nomenclator, or as a cultivator of the science
in a philosophical point of view.  North-America is im-
mensely  rich in the species of Birds, and I have already
hinted at the great number of species that remain unde-
scribed. 
21
   Under this article of our ornithology, I beg leave to
mention the following heads  of subjects,  as  a few of
those which  should claim the notice  of the naturalist.
Whatever relates to the migration of our birds, and the
causes of their migration:  an accurate list  of  the gene-
rally resident, and generally migratory birds of particu-
lar States of the Union, or particular districts of those
States:  the times of the disappearance and  return of the
real  migratory species: the state of  vegetation at the
time; what useful indications any of  our birds may af-
ford to the farmer respecting the cultivation of the earth,
or the management  of vegetables: a  subject  to which,
it  is  well  known, the ancients  paid mudi  attention.
What is the theory of the fact,  that the southern migrato-
ry birds of our country ascend to much higher latitudes
on the western, than on the eastern,  side  of  the  great
Alleghany-chain of mountains? I have, in another place,
attempted to explain the fact, but every one may not be
satisfied with my theory.*  What  is the  real truth in
regard  to  the long-contested  question,  respecting the
different species of Swallows? Some  of the species do,
unquestionably,  hiemate  among us,  if not always, at
least very often.   Of other species  it is equally certain,
that they sometimes, if not always,  migrate.  Does not
our Sand-Swallow (Hirundo riparia)  generally pass the
winter with us?  How far are we to  place dependance
upon the accounts which we  sometimes receive of the
torpid state of Parakeets (Psittacus Carolinensis), of
Goat-suckers (Caprimulgus Virginianus), not to men-
tion many other birds, which  are generally deemed mi-

  * See Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania. Part First.
Introduction.  Pages 6 gc 7.  Philadelphia: 1799. 
L>)
oratory? Which of our birds are the most injurious to
the labours  of man?  and which species are especially
worthy of being  preserved ? In the state  of Georgia,
our countrymen have already enacted laws  for the pro-
tection of one species (the Vultur  Aura),  which  we
call Turkey-Buzzard: but  several  other species,' if  I
do not greatly mistake,  are equally entitled to the pro-
tection of the laws,  and have claims for  their preserva-
tion,  upon the good sense  of the public*  Are not se-
veral of our native species of birds worthy of being  do-
mesticated?  Our Wild-Goose  (Anas Canadensis) is ea-
sily brought into this  state,  and readily intermixes with
the common tame Goose.—Would it not be possible to
domesticate  our  Pheasant,  the Grouse, and the Par-
tridge, or Quail?f Two of these noble species of birds
are rapidly disappearing in some parts of the Union.—
The Indians of Carolina  domesticated a large  bird of
the natural family of the Grallae, or Waders.   What
bird was this ?—Some of our  grallae are  good eating,
and might,  with great facility,  be brought  into the  do-
mesticated  state.   A  very interesting paper might  be
written on the North-American birds that are worthy of
domestication.  In hopes  that  some active member of
the  Society  will  endeavour  to  collect materials  for
such  a paper, I have  ventured, in this place, to throw
.out the few crude hints  which I have given you.

  * See Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania. Part First
Appendix, p.  21—24.
  t The Pheasant is the Tetrao Cupido, the Grouse the Tetrao umbellus,
and the Partridge the Tetrao Marilandicus, of Linnxus. The last of these
birds is called Partridge in Pennsylvania, and Quail in New-York, *ac.
Other of the States,----See Note C. 
23
  The naturalists of the United-States .enjoy uncom-
mon advantages of cultivating the natural history of the
animals of Linnaeus's .third class of animated nature:  I
mean the Amphibia,  comprehending the  Oviparous
Quadrupeds,  the  Serpents,  and several  anomalous
genera, which do not fall  under  either of the appella-
tions just mentioned.  Our country abounds in animals
of these great families.   Many of the species are un-
described, and  the  structure, the functions,  and the
manners,  of most of them are,  in  a  great measure,
unknown to the writers of books on the science.

  It is true,  indeed,  that,  within the  last ten years, our
knowledge of the North-American amphibia has been
considerably enlarged.  We have discovered several new
species of Serpents, belonging to the genera Crotalus,
Coluber,  and others; some new species of Salamandra,
and  new species  of Siren, or  Proteus.   The  largest
Salamandra,  yet known,  is a very common inhabitant
of the  American  lakes, Erie, Ontario, &c., and  also
of the Ohio, and other waters of  the Missisippi.  It is
less common in the western streams of the Susquehanna.
I call this species Salamandra horrida*.   My pupil Dr.
Peter Ctistis, of Virginia, has observed near the Red-
River,  a  new  and singular species  of Proteus, which
resembles the Proteus anguinus, and some other Europe-
an species, in being furnished with four legs.  I have my-
self  paid great attention to one of the biped species of
this  genus,  perhaps that which  Linnaeus denominated
Siren lacertina,  and have  I flatter myself, nearly com-
  * See Second Supplement to the Pkil-dtlphia Medical and Physical
Journal.  Pa&-:s 196 St 19,". 
24
pleted its history.  But the history of the other American
Protei is very imperfectly known to us.—Is the animal
described by M. De Beauvois* a species of this genus, or
only the cordylus or some lacerta?—The natural history
of our Alligator  is worthy of particular attention.   If I
do not greatly mistake, two distinct species of the genus
inhabit the shores and rivers of the United-States, to the
south of Virginia.   Yet it is commonly supposed,  that
we  have only one species,   within  the limits  of  the
Union.—Might not the  musk of our common  Alliga-
tor be collected in  sufficient quantity to answer some of
the  demands of commerce, both as  a medicine and as a
perfume.    In North-Carolina,  this  odoriferous  sub-
stance is sometimes collected, and is used  with  the
latter intention.  As  a medicine, it  would, in all proba-
bility, be found much more powerful than the generality
of the musk  of  the  shops.----Having thus mentioned
the  Alligator, I take the opportunity of observing, that a
species of  this vast amphibious animal was once  (pro-
bably at a very remote period) an inhabitant of different
parts of the United-States, considerably  further to the
north than  the present most northern habitation of any
of the species, that are  known to us.   The remains of
a Crocodyle have  been  found  in  the State of New-
Jersey, nearly in the latitude  of  40°  20', and at the
distance of  about forty miles from  the (present)  near-
est  margin  of the  Atlantic.

  A complete  history of the different American spe-
cies of Crotalus,  or Rattie-snake,  is a great desiderat-

  *  See Transactions of the American Philosophical  Society.  Vol. [r
art. xxxiii. page 277, &c. 
um in natural history.  Under  this head, the following
points,  among many others,  are particularly worthy  of
attention:  viz. the precise period of the generation  of
this reptile, and  the number  of its young*  Is the cro-
talus  viviparous  in every part, or only in the warmer
parts, of America? Do the young crotali, when alarm-
ed, or  in danger, take shelter in the stomach (or oeso-
phagus) of both  their parents,  or the mother only ?—*
The uses of the  crepitaculum,  or rattle.   Is this appen-
dage of any use in procuring  the animal its food?* The
chemical and physiological nature of the poison of the
crotalus. How far are its powers enhanced or diminished
by the temperature of-the climate, in which the animal re-
sides? Is there any difference in the degree of activity of
the venom of the different sexes ? Is it a fact, that the
venom is peculiarly deleterious during the season of the
generation of these reptiles?  I believe it is.—At what
age is an active  venom first  secreted in the young cro-
talus ?__What animals does the poison  affect, and which
are  proof against its action?—It  is not true, that  the
venom exerts no effects upon the hog-kind.—What is
the most plausible theory of the innoxious nature of this
poison, when it is applied to  the bodies of the greater
number of  the  animalia  frigida,  or cold-blooded ani-
 mals?  Is  the venom capable of affecting the animal it*
 self?  Can one  rattle-snake destroy,  with  its poison,
 another individual of the same  species?  What is  the
 mode of action  of the poison upon man, and other ani-
 mals ?  Does it act by being  absorbed into the course of

   * See Supplement to a Memoir concerning the Fascinating faculty which
 has been  ascribed to the Rattle-snake,  and other American Serpents, p.
 * 8, 38,  &c.  Philadelphia: 1800.
                  (  4 ) 
26
the circulation?  Or does it act through the medium of
the nerves, or the muscular system?  What foundation
is there for the theory of the  Abbe Fontana, who sup-
poses,  that the poison of the  Viper exerts its principal
effects  upon  the blood? What  are the best means of
curing the violent symptoms induced by the poison of
the crotalus? Have we yet discovered  any certain speci-
fick for the bite of this reptile? Does not nature,  that
is the  powers of the  constitution,  generally  effect the
cures,  which we fondly ascribe to the agency of medi-
cines?  What is the ordinary duration of the life of the
common crotalus?  We now  know, that the crepitacu-
lum does not give  any certain  indication of the  rep-
tile's age*.  In general, very old rattle-snakes have very
few bells, or rattles.—What is  the best theory of the
fact, that the  rattle-snake is capable of subsisting for a
year,  for two years, and even longer,  without any  solid
food?  Is it not supported by the water which is taken
into its system*,   both  by the skin and by the lungs?—
What  foundation is there for  the tales which  are so
often related, of the fascinating power of this and other
serpents? And  how far are we to place any dependance
upon the relations of Carver,  Bossu,  and others,  con-
cerning the great measure of intelligence of the rattle-
snake?—Certainly,  there does belong to this  reptile, a
large share of memory,  or if you prefer another expres-
sion, of reminiscence^.


   * See Supplement to a Memoir, 8cc. pages 38, 39.

   ; See Note D 
27
  That part of Zoology which is called Ichthyolo-
gy, or the natural history of Fishes, has been extremely
neglected in the United-States.   This is the more to be
regretted, because many of our fishes are  peculiar to
this portion of the Globe.  In particular,  there are good
reasons for believing, that the great lakes of North-
America contain  not a few species  which are entirely
unknown to naturalists.   The  Ohio, though not rich
in the number of species,  contains several which have
not yet received  scientific names.   I need say nothing
of the enormous  size of  some of the fish of this river,
particularly in the genera  Silurus, and Esox.—Even a
catalogue of the North-American fish, designating them
by their common names,  is a desideratum which has not
yet been supplied.   A correct catalogue of the fish of
the lakes is especially wanted.   Such a catalogue might
throw some light upon the ancient  state of our conti-
nent.   The existence of sea-fish in the lakes,  above the
cataract of Niagara,  would concur with  many other
facts, in proving, that our  continent was once covered
by the  ocean.   Is it a fact, that there is no  species of
Eel  in  any of the lakes above the  great cataract ?—It is
certain that they are  by no means common there, as
they are in Ontario,  and its streams,—I  have  hinted
at the propriety of collecting the common names of our
fish.  The Anglo—(or  rather Europo)  American no-
menclature of the same  species of fishes is  often ex-
tremely different, in different parts of the Union.   The
Indian  names of  these animals should be sedulously col-
lected.   They are often  very characteristic  of the fish;
that is, of some circumstance in its form, its manners, or
its food.   Thus  the Delawares call the Eel,  Schaach- 
28
a-meek,  or  the  " Slippery-Fish."—I  am  of opinion,
that no people, in their state of society, were ever bet-
ter naturalists than the Indians.

   The migrations of our fishes, the periods of their ar-
rival in,  and their  disappearance  from, our bays, our
rivers, and our creeks; the times of their spawning; the
coincidence of these circumstances with the leafing, or the
flowering, of particular vegetables,  are subjects to which
I would wish to direct your attention.—The flowering of
the American Draba*, and of the beautiful Cercis Cana-
densis, is supposed to mark the first appearance of our
Shad (Clupea) in the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill, near
Philadelphia. Hence the common names  of these two ve-
getables, " Shad-Blossom."—r-Which species of our fish
are migratory ? and which are stationary ? Are not many
of  the supposed  migratory species residents of our wa-
ters, concealing themselves, during the colder seasons, in
the mud, among the  roots of vegetables, &c. ?—Do the
two species  of  Sturgeon (Acipenser),  which inhabit
the Delaware, migrate to the Sea?f—Has not the Sal-
mon (Salmo -Salar), within the  last one hundred years,
relinquished some of the rivers in  which it was observ-
ed by the first settlers  of the country?—What  is the
theory of the well-ascertained  fact,  that  although the
Salmons abound  in Ontario,  and in many  of  the waters
which ernpty into this great lake,  they have never  been

  * Draba Americana, mihi: Draba hispidula of Michaux : Draba Carolini-
ana of Walter.
  \ The Sturgeons of  the great lakes appeal-  to be entirely distinct from
those of the rivers Hudson and Delaware. 
29
known to penetrate  up the  Niagara-River, even as far
as Queenston,  although there is  nothing to obstruct
their passage, for near nine miles higher up the stream?
Have they learned, by a kind of tradition, that the cata-
ract opposes an insurmountable barrier to their migra-
tion beyond a certain distance? Is  it the noise of the
Falls, propagated along the course of the Niagara-river,
that deters the fish from moving upwards? Perhaps, we
shall discover the  solution of the fact in a difference of
the temperature of the waters of Ontario and those of
the Niagara-river; or in some  peculiarity  of impreg-
nation of the  waters*.-----Tables  of the comparative
usefulness or wholesomeness of different species of our
fish,  or  even of the  same species at different seasons of
the year, and in different parts of the union, would be a
valuable accession to the stock of our knowledge.—The
Sturgeon of the southern rivers of Virginia is deemed a
much more delicate food than that of the Delaware, though
I believe  they are  specifically the same.—Which of our
native  species  of  fish prove poisonous,   when eaten?
This is a question of much importance,  both in a phy-
siological,  and  in  a practical  point of view.  And an
accurate history of the symptoms produced by such poi-
sonous fish is much  wantedf.

   The  physiology of the  class of fishes opens a wide
and very interesting field for inquiry and discovery.   Of
the modus generandi of these  animals we  are still,  in a

  * See Note E.

  | See the Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal. Vol. i. Part ii. Art,
vi. p. 43—48. 
30
great measure, ignorant.   Some  new  light, however,
has lately  been thrown  upon  this curious subject by
one of my ingenious pupils,  Dr.  Henry M. Gray, of
Virginia: and I will venture to add, by my brother, Mr.
Matthias Barton,  of Lancaster,  in Pennsylvania.   To
the first of these gentlemen,  we are indebted for the
discovery of a small species of  viviparous  fish, whose
young,  when first excluded from the mother, are in an
unfinished, or embryo-like, state.   From the latter, I
have received some valuable facts respecting  the  gene-
ration of the  American Eels (Muraenae), and of some
species  of  L:i>ius*.

   The respiration of the fishes is by no means completely
understood.—Much  remains to be done to complete the
naturd  history of the vesica aeria,  or air-bladder, of
many of these  animals.    What is  the precise nature
of the air which  it  contains?  Some writers represent
it as a pure, oxyginous  gas,  while some have found it
to be azotic  gas.  In the 'Xiphias,  or  Sword-fish, the
bladder, certainly, does contain an  air  far  from  im-
pure, as  is  shown  by the experiments  of Dr.  Brod-
beltf;  but Fourcroy  found  azotic  gas  in the  vesica
of the  carp.—Brodbelt  supposes, "  that this pure air
is to serve  the purposes  of  life, when  the animal  is

  * My brother's drawings of the fish  of the river Susquehanna, and its
streams (particularly the Canestoga), will, certainly, be considered as va-
luable accessions to the stock of American Ichthyology.  It is my inten-
tion to publish engravings from these drawings, than which nothing can be
more accurate.  As the production of an untaught artist, who paints for his
amusement, the drawings are uncommonly neat, and even elegant.

  \ See Duncan's Annals of Medicine.  Vol. i. Pages 393—395. 
31
far below the surface of the water."   But this hypothe-
sis is opposed by many facts.—Are there not minute
ducts which lead  immediately from the branchiae, or
gills, of fish into the vesica aeria? Mr. Gotthelf Fischer,
a German writer, has published a vefy curious and in-
genious paper  on the air-bladder*.

   The  heat of  fishes,  notwithstanding so much has
been written upon this subject, is a question still open
for further, and  more perfect, observations.  Between
the different species, there  is  a  difference (if we can
depend  upon the experiments of writers)  of at least
twenty-five degreesf.   A certain  French  writer pro-
posed to make  the heat of fishes a new grade upon the
thermometer.   The idea was ingenious; but certainly,
entitled to little attention, if it  be a  fact, that  the heat
of the different species (or at  least  different genera) is
so very various, as has been represented^.

   There is a vast chasm in the history of the fishes;
a chasm,  too, in  relation to what  I have always deemed
the most interesting part of animal natural history: I mean
the instincts, or manners, or habits,  of animals.  How
little do we know of the instincts of the fishes! Forget-
ting that  the element in which they live precludes us
from acquiring an easy or a  rapid acquaintance with the
mores of  the fishes, and not sufficiently modest to ac-

  * Versuch ueber die Schwimmblase der Fische.  Leipsic: 1795.

  I On the scale of Farenheit.

  * See Note F 
32
knowledge  their  own  incurious  supineness, the best
naturalists have fallen into the error,  that the fishes are
a stupid race of beings; that they discover very little of
ingenuity; and that they are, in a great measure, stran-
gers to  that storge, or  powerful  affection,  by  which
animals  are  so generally attached to  their young.   I
venture to assert, that very much of what has been said
upon these subjects is  mere declamation,  unsanctioned
by enlarged  observation,  or  experience.   My own in-
quiries have  convinced me, that we  have detruded the
fishes to too low a station in the  scale  of animal intel-
ligence,  and of storgal love.   The  intelligence  of the
fishes is manifested by numerous circumstances; and,
if this were the proper place to enter on  the inquiry,  I
could lay before you well-authenticated facts in regard
to the solicitous  care  which  some  of our  native Si-
luri,  Labri, &c,  manifest for their young; facts which
would almost lead you  to believe, that what is  said of
the Cottus Gobio  of Europe* is not  a  fable.-----Let
me beg  of you, then, to devote a portion of the time,
which you may be able to  spare  for the cultivation of
natural  history, to  a candid  vindication of the fishes
from the aspersions of ignorant, of lazy, or of systematic,
naturalists.   The  facts for  this  vindication  you  will
often find it easy  to  procure;  from  the friends with
whom you  may associate: or you will meet with them
in those hours which some of  you will, doubtless, de-
vote to  piscatory  pleasures.


  * Speaking of this fish, which the English call Bull-head, and Miller's-
thumb, Linnaeus says, " Nidum in fundo format, ovis incubat prius vitam
desertuxus, quam nidum."  Systema Naturse. torn. i.  p. 452. Editio. xiii. 
33
   Entomology is  by no means the least  important
 department of  Zoology.  For in the~ class of Insects
 are arranged some of the greatest enemies to the labours
 and industry of man.  Infinitely more powerful,  or  at
 least more pernicious, and more difficult to subdue, are
 the  small insects which lay waste our fields, our gar-
 dens, and our forests, than the largest and most feroci-
 ous quadrupeds in the order of the Ferae.  Man  is ca-
 pable, by the exercise of the strong  arm which nature
 has given him,  of subduing  the Lion and the Tyger:
 the tyrants  of the forest.  It is  even in the  power  of
 man to exterminate the whole species of these animals.
 That he has not already done  it, is only a proof, that he
 has been slow and sluggish in attaining that culture and
 that perfection, for which nature has destined him.

   But far  different  is the relation which subsists be-
 tween man  and the insects.  They are,  I repeat it, his
 greatest  enemies^  This remark,  at  least, applies  to
 thousands   of the  species that  are  already  known.
 And  how much mischief is  occasioned by  hundreds
 of  other species, which  have,  hitherto,  escaped the
 researches'!  which may have even  eluded the  keen
 eye, of the naturalist!

  Notwithstanding the importance of  the  science
of Entomology,  the history of our insects has,  hither-
to, solicited but little  attention. It is true, however, that
considerable progress  has  been made in  collecting, in
naming,  and in marking by external characters, the in-
sects of the  United-States.  But it is not likely that even
the catalogue of  our  insects  will be  completed in our
                ( 5) 
                         34

times.  And, indeed,  more important subjects, relative
to these animals, demand the  attention of Americans,
whether as naturalists, as agriculturalists,  or even as
mere lovers of the beauties of  vegetation.

  It is an object of the first importance to  investigate
the natural history of  those insects which are particu-
larly injurious  to us,  in any way.   Unfortunately,  our
country, as much perhaps as any on this globe, abounds
in such insects. I shall here mention a few (a very few,
indeed) of those which are especially worthy of  the at-
tention of philosophical or useful naturalists.

  These are the Hessian-fly,  an insect, I believe,  pe-
culiar to America.   The Moth (Tinia granella) which
has, at  various periods,  committed  such havoc upon
the grain of the wheat, the rye,  and the  barley, after
these grains have ripened, and have been taken from the
field.  The different  larvae,  the Cimex, and  other in-
sects, which destroy the most important of all the cere-
alia that are cultivated in America: I mean  the  Mays,
or Indian-corn.  The Bruchus Pisi, or Pea-Bug, which
proves  so destructive to the common cultivated Pea
(Pisum  sativum).   The Zygaena,Alepidopterous insect ,
which attacks the bark and the woodNof the  peach-tree
and concurring with other circumstances, such  as  the
variableness and extreme cold of our climates, occasions
the premature decay of these invaluable trees,  in almost
every part of the United-States.   The  coleopterous in-
sects, the Canker-worm (Phalaena............),  and others
which destroy our apple-trees; the different  species of
Curculio, or Weavil,  which attack, and occasion the fall
of,  the  infant fruit of the Plumb, the Nectarine,  the 
35
Cherry, and many of our  other  fruits:  various  other
coleopterous insects, which destroy the valuable timber
of the country, particularly the Locust (Robinia Pseud-
Acacia), the Ash (Fraxinus), the Beach (Fagus ferrugi-
nea), different species of Hickery (Juglans), &c.—Sure-
ly,  no  subject is more worthy of attention than that
which  relates  to  the  means of -preventing,  or of very
essentially limiting, the  ravages of such insects:  and I
believe it is a fact, that  the only effectual means of ac-
complishing these  desirable ends, are  to be  acquired
through the medium of  an  exact acquaintance with the
natural history of the insects*.

   Let us not, however, complain  of the insects as  if
none of them were useful to us.   Some of those very-
insects  which infest our  vegetation may be, and in all
probability are, highly beneficial to us, by destroying the
exuberant growth of a  country.  But waving the con-
sideration of this  idea,  we know, with  certainty, that
some of our insects,  of  whose ravages we have  been
wont to complain, have already  been  turned  to very
useful  purposes, in medicine. The Lytta vittata, which
we call " Potatoe-fly,"  is not only an excellent substi-
tute for the  best cantharides of the  shops, to which ge-
nus it belongs, but is,  I believe,  a more powerful vesi-
catory.   It  may be kept for years,  without its proper-
ties being essentially  impaired.  Besides  this, we have
several other  species  of the same genus.   Such  is the
Lytta marginata, the Lytta cinerea, and the Lytta atrata.
The two former of these species are still more power-
ful than the Lytta vittata, but have not yet been discov-
* See Note G, 
36
ered in sufficient quantity to answer the demands of me-
dicine.-—Lytta vittata is one of our most common in-
sects.   It extends from the New-England States in-
to the Carolinas, and Georgia, and, in all probability,
much further south.   It feeds upon a great variety of
vegetables (both wild and cultivated), belonging to the
most opposite natural families of the Luridae, the Um-
belliferae, the Atriplices, the Amarantht, the Ranuncu-
lacede,  &c,  &c.  I have  now satisfied myself, by ac-
tual experiments, that  the activity of  our most pow-
erful  species of Lytta is not,  in any essential degree,
dependent upon the acrimony of the plants upon which
these insects feed*.   They are equally  active  whether
they feed upon  the  acrid Clematides, which  of them-
selves, induce vesication, or upon the mild and esculent
Beat, or  the mucilaginous Malva.

  An accurate  description and history  of the  insecta
vesicatoria, which I have mentioned, (and we, no doubt,
possess many others), could not fail to be an acceptable
present to naturalists and physicians.

  Independently  on the evils which they inflict,  or
the good to  which they may be converted, there are se-
veral  of our insects which are  eminently entitled to the
attention of  philosophical naturalists.  Of these, I shall
only mention one, the Periodical  Locust  of our coun-
try :  the Cicada  Septendecim of Linnaeus.   The history
of this insect, so far as  it is known to  us,  is one of the
most singular with which we are acquainted. It returns,
in immense periodical swarms,  after an absence of six-
* See Elements of Botany, Sec. Part iii. p. 70. 
37
teen or seventeen years, in particular districts of our
country.   The  greater  part  of this long period,  it
passes in the earth, where its life is,  in all probability,
nearly as tranquil, and undisturbed, as that of the Seed,
before it has begun to vegetate.—A well-written history
of this Cicada (or Tettigonia),  together with  that  of
some other species, or genera, nearly allied to it, would
be  a  most interesting  present to  the philosophical
world*.

  Of  the  great  class of Vermes of Linnaeus, which
may,  I think,  very properly be considered as an aggri-
gate of several distinct classes  of animals, I have very
little to say,  in this place: not that the subject is a bar-
ren one; but because it is so immensely extensive; be-
cause it can only be investigated with much labour and
attention; and  because, by reason of the richness of the
field,  it is difficult to say, which are the subjects, under
this head, to which you  should particularly, and prima-
rily, devote your attention.

  Some of the remarks  which I have to make, in re-
gard to this class of animated nature, are deferred to the
head of our Geology.  Indeed, owing to the great revo-
lutions which our globe has undergone, there is an inti-
mate,  and  even a necessary, connection between  Geo-
logy and that part of  Zoology, which for want of a bet-
ter  general name, I might denominate Elminthology.
In other words, the  images of the Vermes are so ex-
tensively impressed upon the materials of our former
* See Note H. 
38
 globe,  that their history will ever go  hand  in  hand,
 with the studies of the geologist and mineralogist.

    I cannot  here undertake to point out to you, as I
 have done in regard to the preceding classes, particular
 subjects for your investigation, and inquiry. Indeed, the
 situation of many of you, at a distance from the Ocean,
 the great empire of the Vermes, will prevent you from
 cultivating this branch of natural history with  the same
 success as the others, independently of the difficulty of
 the subject.  I  will only,  therefore, observe, that the
 laws and phenomena of life will  be studied with great
 advantage  by an attention to the class of Vermes;  and
 that some of the animals of this  class are particularly
 entitled  to  your  attention,  as physicians.   It  is the
 vermes which intermix,  as it were, with the great series
 of vegetables;  which lend their characters to the plants,
 which borrow characters from them in return.  " Natura
 non facit saltum:" " Nature does not make sudden tran-
 sitions," is an aphorism, the truth and value  of  which
 are best perceived by the naturalist who has studied the
 life and the properties of the vast families of the vermes,
 and the kingdom of the plants.

    In speaking of the insects, I observed,  that they are
  " the greatest enemies  to  the labours and industry of
  man."  Of the Vermes it may be said, that many of them
  enter, as  it were, into  the very  composition of man,
  inhabiting our fluids, and taking  possession of the ca-
  vities of our bodies.  What fluid of the body  is not the
  residence of myriads of vermes? Fortunately for us, the
  greater  number of these are our  innocent companions,
  in life,   But, on the other  hand,  in the cavities of out

s 
39
bodies, and in the very subtance of some of our vis-
cera,  we  find vermes,  whose history, by reason of the
evils which they  inflict upon  man,  it is important to
study.  I need not  mention, in this place,  the vermes
of the human alimentary canal.  The evils which these
occasion are,  I believe, much greater than  many phy-
sicians imagine.   Unphilosophical and trifling is the no-
tion,  that the vermes of the intestines are  salutary in-
mates of our constitution!

   I will conclude this subject by observing, that a pa-
tient of mine* discharged,  when under the operation  of
powerful  anthelmintic  medicines, several individuals  of
that particular kind of worm which is called  the Tricho-
cephalus hominis: a worm  which I have not, hitherto,
heard mentioned as a native of the United-States, though
it is highly probable, that it is by no means uncommon
among us.

                     BOTANY.

   Botany has,  certainly,  been cultivated, with more
attention  and success,  in the United-States,  than any
other branch of Natural History.    The earliest natu-
ralists of our country were  chiefly attentive to the exa-
mination  of the  indigenous vegetables.  We claimed a
Colden, a Clayton, and  a Bartramf, long before we could
boast of a single  zoologist, or a  mineralogist.   The
Flora of the United-States is, indeed, perhaps as com-

  * An Infant at the breast.
  \ John Bartram. Of this gentleman some interesting  notices may be
seen in the Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal.  Vol. i. Part i
p. 115, &c. 
40
plete as  that of some of the countries of Europe, and
unquestionably, as complete as that of many of the coun-
tries of Asia.  I say nothing of  Africa, and of the con-
tinent of Australasia.  The vegetables  of these  coun-
tries are very imperfectly known to us*

  But although,  through the labours  of many ingeni-
ous and industrious botanists,  the  vegetables of the
United-States  have  been considerably attended to, our
Flora  is far  from being complete.   On the contrary,
it presents to future cultivators,  an immense field of
discovery.   Even our forest-trees, and such as  are con-
stantly presented to our view, are  very imperfectly
known, and scarcely defined by appropriate characters.
It is true that our Oaks have lately been attended  to by
Mr. Michaux, in a work of real merit. But not a few of
our species of this family of plants, and  many of the
varieties, have escaped  the  observation  of this indus-
trious botanist.   Neither  have  the properties  of those
which he has  described, been  sufficiently attended  to.
Our native species of Juglans, our Magnoliae, our  Vac-
cinia, Andromedae, and Hyperica, deserve to be attend-
ed to,  in separate Monographiae.  From my own inqui-
ries, in various parts of the United-States,  I  am per-
suaded, that a very considerable number of  our native
plants  is still unnoticed.  This remark  applies,  with
peculiar  force, to the American  plants of  Linnaeus's
24th class,  which he calls Cryptogamia; to the Gramina,
or Grasses,  and to our Alpine plants.  With respect to
the Cryptogamia there is ample room for inquiry.----
My own American Herbarium contains several  hundred
species of North-American  plants more than are con-
tained in the whole Flora of Mr.  Michaux.   Through 
41
the kindness of my friends and pupils, I am continually
receiving accessions  to the  list.   The hhtci-y of my
whole collection is  intended  for the public.   Indeed,  I
have  already made considerable progress  in describing
our plants.

   When  we Consider the great  extent of the United-
States, even excluding the country beyond the Missi-
sippi, I presume it may be stated, at a moderate calcu-
lation, that, at least, one eighth part of our native vege-
tables is entirely unknown; certainly to  the  botanists of
Europe.   And with respect to the regions between the
Missisippi,  and the  Ocean, the botany is still more im-
perfect.  Hitherto, these countries have not been ex-
plored by men competent to the task of telling us what
are their vegetable or other riches.  But this vast region
will, unquestionably, afford much  for the gratification of
the botanist.  In its higher latitudes, we may expect to
find many of the vegetables  of the  north and  east of
Asia; as  we have  already  found,  in those latitudes,
many of the animals of Asia*; and in the lower latitudes
we shall, in all probability, meet with many of the plants
of China, and Japan, of Cochin-China, Hindoostan, and
other regions of the old world.

   We are interested, however, in  other  inquiries than
those which respect the mere collection, the nomencla-
ture,  or  the  systematic  arrangement,  of  our plants.
Among these inquiries, there is one for which it is pecu-
liarly  important  to  collect materials:  and  for this pur-

         * See Note I.
            (6) 
42
pose  valuable  materials may  easily be collected.   I
mean a Geographical View of our vegetables.

  By a geographical view of vegetables, I mean an ar-
rangement of vegetables according to the extent of coun-
try which they occupy  from north to south, and from
east to west;  as well as according to their altitude above
the level  of the sea.  Such an inquiry would, of course,
involve much curious and important matter relative to
the nature of the soil, and climate of the country.

  To this subject I have devoted much sedulous atten-
tion.  In  the month of February, 1800, I  read to the
Philosophical Society  an extensive memoir,  entitled A
Geographical View  of the Trees and Shrubs of North-
America.  Hitherto, I have not published this memoir,
from  a desire to render  it more perfect.  The truth is,
that much remains to  be collected relative to the diffu-
sion of our vegetables,  before  any thing like a finished
geographical  view of them can be published.   But  I re.
peat it: many important materials  for such a work may
be collected,  with great ease.   How easy is it,  for in-
tance, to determine the most northern (native) limits of
our Live-Oak (Quercus virens), and of the  Long-Moss
(Tillandsia usneoides)?   How  easy to  determine  the
southern limits of the Sugar-Maple (Acer saccharum) ?
How  easy to mark  the  eastern boundary of Menziesia
ferruginea, iEsculus flava, which we call Buck-eye, and
many others.   The most northern latitudes, alono- the
sea-coast, of our native Palmae  are also known;  and we
are even capable of determining, with considerable cer-
tainty, where,  in the country west of  the Missisippi, 
43
many of our common Atlantic vegetables entirely disap-
pear.

  I  consider the geographical view  of vegetables as
one  of the most curious, and at  the same  time  as
one  of the  richest,  subjects  in the  phytology of  a
country.   It  is intimately  connected  (as  I  have al-
ready  hinted)  with whatever  relates  to  the  soil  and
climate of a country,  and, of course,  with the proper
management,  or  culture, of  vegetables.   It will  aid
us  essentially in constructing a rational geology  of  a
country, or at least it will  assist us  in  arriving at  a
better  knowledge of the revolutions which our globe
has  undergone.   Thus, from  a mere  attention to  the
vegetables of  the north-eastern parts  of Asia  and the
north-western parts of America, we should conclude,
that these two continents had once been united -to each
other:  for many of the  vegetables  of  these regions of
the old and new world are  specifically the same;  and
where  this is not the case, we find a remarkable coinci-
dence in the genera.—The geographical  view  of vege-
tables,  in the first settlement of a country, is peculiarly
important.  It  tells  us what are the natural situations
of vegetables, before  man has  begun  to lend his  aid
in diffusing them from one place to  another.   It will
put our posterity in possession of many interesting facts
relative to the progressive  migrations of vegetables, in-
dependently of the aid of man.   I believe it to be a fact,
that in proportion as the country  between the great
ranges of our mountains and  the Atlantic has become
cleared and cultivated, there  has been a natural inter-
change of the vegetables  of these opposite regions.—
But I cannot dwell,  in this place, upon the precise ob- 
44
jects or the importance of this subject, the discussion of
which  would  demand a  great deal of time.

  Subjects  of a  still more practical nature  present
themselves to  our view.   Whatever relates  to the usus
of our plants  is eminently entitled to  attention.  The
medical properties of many of these plants have never
been properly investigated.   Of  many others the me-
dical properties are entirely  unknown to us.   And who
will  doubt that on this  subject much may be done ?
when it is remembered, that some of the  most valuable
articles of the materia medica,  are either  natives of  the
United-States,  or may be  supposed,  from  what  we
know of  their native countries,  to  grow within  the
limits of the Union.  Such  are the Jalap  (Convolvulus
Jalappa), the Seneca Snake-root (Polygala Senega),  the
Carolina Pink-root  (Spigelia Marilandica), various spe-
cies of Gentian (Gentiana linearis, &c), not to mention
many others.

  I do  not mean to contend, that remedies for all our
diseases are to be discovered within the  limits of  the
United-States.   But  I cannot  doubt,  that among  the
vegetable treasures  which nature has bestowed upon  us,
many important remedies will be discovered.   I  have
elsewhere shown*,  that our Indians are in possession of
many useful medicines.   However imperfect the state
of medicine among these people, however rude or em-
pirical their practice in the employment of  their reme-
dies, we may derive essential advantage by  studying

  * See Collections for an Essay towards a Materia Medica of the United
States. Part ii. Preface, p. 12, &c. 
45
the history  of  medicine among  the  Indians.   Slow,
indeed, would be the progress of  the Materia Med-
ic a ; wretched and shackled the state of medicine itself,
if we refused to receive medicines from a people, merely
because they were incapable  of teaching us the whole
nature of their remedies,  and could offer no satisfactory
theory to explain  the mode  of their action  upon  the
system.

   We are the inhabitants of a country peculiarly blessed
by the allwise and benevolent Creator of the universe.
He has  given us  an abundance of valuable esculent
herbs, and roots,  and fruits, of various kinds:  and  our
soil and climate  are admirably adapted to the  growth of
many others, which are not indigenous.   But we tram-
ple under feet, our native esculents, or merely look upon
them,  without knowing their properties; or, at least,
without paying any attention to them.  Thus the Zizania
of the lakes, which serves as the chief vegetable food
of the Meenomeneyuk, or Folles-Avoines, is wholly  un-
attended to by  us.   Yet there are reasons to believe,
that this grain,  if taken under the culture of man,  and
transferred to other  and milder climates, would prove
a most  valuable addition to the stock of our cerealia.
The rice,  the wheat,  the rye and the barley,  in their
native soils,  and in the wild  hands of nature,  were, in
all probability, as  little entitled to attention.  More ca-
pable of supporting the  colds of the northern climates
than the rice, it should be transferred to those regions
where the  rice will not grow, and where poverty is  the
lot of the inhabitants*.----Some of our native Legumi-
* See Note K. 
46
na, both  seeds and roots, are also deserving of atten-
tion.   Such are some of our native species of Dolichos,
in the southern states; the Glycine Apios, which we call
Wild-potatoe, not to mention others.  If I do not greatly
mistake, some of our native Convolvuli, (perhaps Convol-
vulus panduratus, called Yams and Hog-potatoe, might
be used as substitutes for the Sweet-Potatoe (Convol-
vulus Batatas.)   Some measures ought to be taken to
preserve that large subterranean Tuber, which is called
Tuck-a-hoe* in Virginia,  and other parts of  the Union.
The Indians  made bread of  this  vegetable production,
and I am assured,  that a most delicious cake is prepar-
ed by mixing with the farinaceous matter of the Tuck-
ahoe a  portion  of rice-meal.—The  natural  history  of
this  vegetable,  together  with its  chemical analysis,
would be well received by the public.

  Some of our native fruits  are likewise well worthy of
attention.  Such are the Persimmon (Diospyros Virgini-
ana),  the Chickasah-Plumbf,  some species of Annona,
or Custard-Apple, some of our Ribes, or Currant,  and of
Vitis, or Grape. Our finest native Grape is the southern
species which I call Vitis punctata.  This is  particular-
ly worthy of attention.

  I have recommended  an inquiry into the medicines
of the Indians.   I would also now suggest the propriety
of an inquiry into their  materia alimentaria.  No doubt,

  * " Tubera Terrse maxima, externe pulla & scabra, intus Candida.  Ad
panem  conficiendum  Indi utuntur, vulgo   Tuckahoo." Clayton,  in the
Flora Virginica,  &c. p. 176. quarto edition of 1762.
t Prunus Chicasa of Michaux. 
47
we live much better than  the  Indians do: but they are
nevertheless capable of furnishing us with some good
and pleasant dishes.  Some substantial dishes we have
got from them, and we have even condescended to re-
tain their names  of those  dishes.   Their whortle-berry
bread might be used in other times than times of scar-
city.  They made bread from the fruit of the Diospyros,
of the root of a species of CquvoIvuIus, which grows in
the southern states, in the  low cane-grounds; of the root
of a species of Srnilax;  and I have already said that they
used the Tuckahoe. The Hickery-milk of the Southern
Indians would not, I suspect, disgust the palate of the
nicest epicure.   Their compound of the flour of Mays
and honey would at least  be nutritious.—I could men-
tion an Indian receipt for making a Beer,  which they
drank before the Whites came among them.  But I be-
lieve, it is on all hands allowed, that we excel the Indi-
ans in the manufactory of strong drinks.—The acorn
of a variety of Michaux's Quercus macrocarpa, is  one
of the principal nutritious articles of the Panis and other
Indian tribes, in the trans-Missisippi part of the United-
States.   In pursuit of  this vegetable,  the Indians are
accustomed to make regular migrations of some hun-
dred  miles.  How important is it to attend to the cul-
tivation and preservation of such a vegetable!  The tree
I allude to grows within the limits of Pennsylvania,  and
in many other parts of the United-States.

   In times of scarcity,  the Indians are known to have
recourse to many native fruits, roots, &c. They eat the
young shoots of some species ofCanna, or Indian-Reed;
and make bread of the acorns of the Live-oak, or Quercus 
48
virens.   They eat  the roots of Hydrophyllum Cana-
dense.  About Chatham,  in New-Jersey,  are still to be
seen the pebble-pavements upon which they baked the
large  roots of an aquatic plant,  which served them as
bread. This plant, which they called Mockshauw, is not,
with certainty,  known to me.  Perhaps, it is Nymphaea
advena, which we call Can-Dock,  and Splatter-Dock.
Perhaps, it is a species of Calla, or of Arum.  It is not
Sagittaria sagittifolia.  With the bulbous roots of this
last-mentioned plant, so universally distributed over the
world, the Indians  are well acquainted.   We should
imitate them,  more generally than we do,  in the collec-
tion  and eating of this root, which is hardly inferior to
the finest potatoe*.

  The  Indians had their sallads.   The "  Shawnee-Sal-
lad,"  and the " Indian Sallad"  of the States of Ken-
tucky, Ohio,  &c,  are not thoroughly known to me*
They are praised by the  White-settlers.

  But  there is one  subject connected with the botany
of our  country, which is  so  important,  that it ought
not to be any longer  neglected.   I mean  the catalogue
of those wild plants, every where  spread  before us,
which our cattle carefully select, as good and whole-
some food.   The number  of these  plants  is, certainly,
very great.   And what is distressing,  many of  them
have not yet received any common names,  and the farm-
er, or the grazier, does not know them, when he  sees
them.  In my botanical excursions, in my  solitary rides,
I never neglect to watch the appetite of my horse.  How
* See Note L, 
49
carefully does he select his food!!  Like a good botanist,
he knows the plants, though he has  never before seen
them.   On  the  rich  hills  of Virginia, the Collinsonia
Canadensis,  which is there called " Rich-weed," affords
a most excellent pasture for the horses and horned-cattle.
They grow fat upon it very  fast, and also improve in
their  health;  But no pains are taken  to  preserve this
plant, nor any of  the valuable native  Hedysara,  which
we  call  " Pea^Vines."   Indeed,   in many parts of our
country, these plants, as well as the Buffaloe-Clover, and
many others,  are  in a fair way of being totally exter-
minated*.

  It  is much to be wished,  that some intelligent and
industrious  naturalist (perhaps, the task is too extensive
for any  one  person) would furnish  us with a set of tables
of the wild plants of our country, pointing out the places
of their growth, and carefully giving,  where this can be
done, the common or vulgar names  of the plants; and
noticing*, in connection with  these circumstances, what
plants are eaten, and Which are rejected, by the domes-
ticated  animals,  especially the horse, the oxj and the
sheep.   Such tables  have been  published in different
parts of Europe.   The Pan Suecus of Linnaeus is one of
the  most important specimens of the kind.  Never will
the agriculture  of our country be properly understood,
or economically attended to,  until something on this plan
is attempted in  the United-States. We have a striking
instance of  the value of such inquiries in a paper by the
late Dr. Pulteney.  The Ranunculus aquatilis* or Water-
Crow-foot,  had always been deemed one of the most

            * See Note M,
              (7) 
*
                         30

worthless of plants.  It frequently choakes up the chan-
nels  of streams or creeks in England, and was  thrown
out of the water, with much labour, merely to rot.  But
the respectable physician and botanist whose name I have
mentioned, has shown us, that in some parts of England,
this long-neglected plant is the principal food of the cattle,
and gives abundance of excellent milk*.  This Ranun-
culus grows in the vicinity of Philadelphia;  but none of
our farmers or graziers  think of feeding their cattle with
it.   We talk incessantly of  the  benevolence of Provi-
dence : but,  really, from an inattention to his works,  a
large proportion of what  we say, is mere theoretical  or
habitual  declamation.    But how abundant is the display
of that benevolence, when we see almost every weed,
even the vilest, and seemingly most useless, even those
which are poisonous to  man, affording subsistence to
other  animals* and, through the medium  of some of
these animals,  even to man himself!!

   The United-States possess many colouring plants, or
Plantae tinctoriae.  The list  of those which are already
known to  us, is by no means small.   One  of the most
important is the bark of the Quercus tinctoria, which is
now very extensively used in the British manufacturing
houses, by the name of quercitron-bark.  It is employed
for dying various shades of yellow; and such is its value,
that it bids fair to supercede most of the other yellow
dies, the Reseda Luteola,  or Weld, not excepted.—How
many years passed away, before the die property of this
 common tree, which is daily felled in the forest for the
 use of the tanner,  and  for fuel,  excited any  great atten-
* See Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 
51
tion!—The bark of one of our species of Hickery {Jug-
lans) is now considerably employed among us to give a
fine  yellow  ground  to  paper-hangings.  The colour
which it imparts is more brilliant than that of the Quercus
tinctoria. Good colouring matters are furnished by some
of our Maples, by the common Black-Walnut (Juglans
nigra), &c.   The Zanthorhiza apiifolia, the Hydrastis
Canadensis, the Virgilia of Tennessee, the Yellow-wood
of Louisiana,  the Helleborus trifolius, the Batschia, or
Clinanchee of the Indians; the Galium  tinctorium, the
Heritiera gmelini, the Betula serrulata, are but a few of
the known vegetable dies of North-America. Even the
Phytolacca,  one of our most common  plants,  has not
been  sufiiciently attended to.   Hitherto, no successful
experiments have been made to fix the colouring matter
of the berries of this plant.   But may not this  be done
by the aid of some of those mordants which Chemistry
furnishes us with?  A finer colouring matter we do not
possess.—It is well known that a tolerable substitute for
indigo has been obtained from the Podalyria tinctoria,
one of the more common of the North-American plants.
From anbther  species of the same genus, * the Podalyria
australis, which grows abundantly upon the  rivers She-
nandoah,  Potomack,  &c,  I have  produced  a  better
fecula*.

        GEOLOGY, and  MINERALOGY.

   Of all the branches of natural history, there is not one
which has been cultivated  with  so little attention, zeal,
or success,  in the United-States, as Geology,  or  Mine-
* See Note N. 
52
 ralogy.  This, however, is  a science of great curiosity
 and importance, and is,  in an especial manner,  entitled
 to the notice of Americans.

   Under this head,  it is rather difficult to say what
 is most worthy of being attended to, as almost every
 thing is new.  The geologist, however, will find ample
 scope for his researches  in investigating the mountains
 of our country.   These  have never  been examined in
 a philosophical manner.  Even the most prevailing ma-
 terials of which they are composed,  is a desideratum in
 the natural history of our country.  I believe, it will be
 found, that the  North-American  mountains are much
 less  granitical  than mountains of similar  heights,  in
 other parts of the  world.   Much has been said respect-
 ing the vestiges of volcanoes among the mountains of
the United-States.  On this subject,  however, we are in
want of specific information.  In all my examinations of
 our mountains, in various parts of the Union, from the
latitude of 43° to that of 38°,  I have not met with a sin-
gle appearance, that I should  ascribe to a volcanic cause,
except, perhaps,  in the  neighbourhood of the North-
mountain,  in Virginia*   On many  of our  mountains,
indeed, we discover regularly figured  basaltic  stones:
 but the volcanic origin of these is now pretty generally
 deserted.  Having mentioned  basaltes, I cannot help ex-
 pressing  a wish, that the  famous " Wall", as it is called,
in North-Carolina, were more carefully examined. The
idea which I first threw out, many years ago, respecting
the nature  of this wall,  that  it  is not artificial,  but  of
basaltic origin, is  now admitted by most  of those who
have written or reflected on the subject.  But accurate 
53
plans of this wall, together with more finished descrip-
tions, are desiderata in the geology of the country*.

  The petrifactions and impressions which  are  found
upon many of our mountains form a most interesting
subject of inquiry.  I possess a large collection of such
impressions, &c.; and I consider them as some of the
most interesting  medals of the revolutions which our
country  has undergone.  It  is, in fact, only by a very
critical attention to these medals, that we shall ever be
able to form a correct theory of our earth.

  That I may not appear to overrate the value of this
study, I would here observe, that I possess  specimens
of slate found in Pennsylvania,  upon which are distinct-
ly impressed  several of the Filices, or Ferns,  of South-
America and Jamaica; and my  cabinet is enriched with
a large mass of freestone with the  distinct impression of
some immense  species of Cactus, or Indian-Fig, not
now known  to exist  in  any  country.  This  specimen
was  found about one hundred  and twenty miles  north-
west  of  Philadelphia.

  The vallies of our continent  are hardly less worthy
of investigation than the mountains.   Some  of these
vallies, such as the great vale, which extends from Hud-
son-river,  through New-Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Mary-
land, and Virginia, and even into North-Carolina,  there
are many good reasons for supposing, were once arms of
the sea.   An examination of the  strata which they con-
• See Note 0, 
54
tain, and the various exuviae,  which are imbedded  in
these strata, are well worthy of our attention.   In the
neighbourhood of Chambersburg and Winchester, the
limestone contains Cornua-amttionis, of different sizes.
And the impressions of Sertularias, Madrepores, Cel-
lepores, Tubipores,  Echini, and many other marine ani-
mals, are abundantly distributed in the calcareous pave-
ment of the valley, all the Way  from the neighbourhood
of Easton, in Pennsylvania,  to the first streams of the
Roanoke in Virginia. Certainly, this great Valley,—now
one  of  the fairest and  most fertile regions of North-
America, possessed  by a race  of men,  virtuous in in-
dustry and morals, and rich in l i b e r t y ,—was once the
domain  of  the Sea, and the refuge  and a portion of the
empire of her animals, whose death and destruction now
largely  administer to  the  comforts  and happiness  of
man*.

  I call upon those of you who are interested in ge-
ological  inquiries, to attend  to the arrangement of the
strata of different kinds, in  every part  of our country.
This is  a very curious subject of inquiry.  As early  as
the year 1785,  I paid particular attention to this subject,
in the western  parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia,  and  in
the country north of the Ohio, &c.  I remarked,  that
the strata in the countries west  of the great Alleghany-
mountains, are, in general, horizontally disposed, while
the strata, of the same materials, in the countries between
the mountains and the Atlantic, are almost all.disrupted,
or placed at an angle  of about 45<\   Mr. Volney, witn-
* See Note P 
                         55

out any acknowledgment from whence he received it,
has published my theory, or rather my hypothesis, on the
subject.   But more mature and enlarged inquiries have
since convinced me, that the theory which the eloquent
French traveller  has published in his  Tableau*, is of
much less importance than I had imagined.  I have, in
another place,  delivered my sentiments more at  large,
on this subjectf.

   The very different arrangement, then, of the strata of
stony  matters, of coal, of  iron-ore,  &c, in  the  coun-
tries on both sides of the Alleghany-Mountains,  is one
of those great features in our country, for which we have
not yet been able to  give a satisfactory theory.   But I
doubt  if such a theory be beyond  the reach or  grasp of
science.   We shall,  at some  future period, possess a
correct theory of the  earth.   But such  a theory is not to
be attained, by the mere aid of genius, or imagination,
in a cabinet of little fragments of  stones, of earths,  and
of metals.  Nature disdains to be courted in this way.
She will not answer us unless  we interrogate her, in all
the wild and majestic  scenery of her works: on mountains,
in vallies,  in caverns, and  in  mines.   Thither she calls
the genius and the powers of her favourite  geologists.
To them,  toil, in pursuit of facts and  truth, is luxury
and pleasure. Lesser minds hang over romantic and vi-
sionary volumes; and sicken, with the burnings of their
own or' another's imagination, amidst specimens upon
which nothing legible  is written, or impressed.

  * Tableau du Climat et du Sol des Etats-Unis d' Amerique.
  \ See the Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal. Vol, i. Parti  Art
ivii, p.  60, &c, 
56
   There  cannot  be a doubt, that the  United-States
possess within their limits, many  important minerals,
which might be applied to various useful purposes.  In
many parts of the country, Vast collections of coal have
already been discovered; and beds or strata of this useful
fossil are daily discovered in other places,  where before
they were not known to exist. That important substance,
gypsum, or plaister of Paris, is now known  to exist in
various parts of the United-States.   I have found it, in
great abundance, at the Falls of Niagara.  It is likewise
found, upon the same slope, at the falls of the Jenisseia-
river ;  and I have received fine specimens of it from the
Outlet of the Owasco-lake,  in the State of New-York.
No doubt,  large quantities of this substance  will  be
found among the limestone of  our country,  particularly
perhaps in the counties  of  Lancaster and Dauphin, in
Pennsylvania; and in the great  valley of Berkeley, in
Virginia, where, along with the common corbonates of
lime, we discover immense quantities  of  cubic pyrites^
and  pyrites in other shapes.—Having mentioned the
limestones, I would suggest the propriety of  examining
different  parcels of these with great attention, as the
subject is one of so much practical importance.  Our
farmers seem divided in opinion concerning  the use of
lime, as a manure.   It will,  in all probability be found,
that  some of our limestone, like that of Bredon in Eng-
land, is contaminated with magnesia, which may in some
measure account for the diversity of opinion among the
farmers.   The existence of magnesia among the lime-
stone of Pennsylvania, in particular, is rendered highly
probable, by the  circumstance, that the  edges of the
strata  of limestone are  often  known to  be  skirted 
57
with  mica, steatites, and  other magnesian genera  of
stones.—But I do not mean to assert, possitively, that
magnesian limestones (if I may so call them) are less fa-
vourable to vegetation than the more pure limestones.
On the contrary,  some experiments lead me to believe,
that magnesia is much less unfavourable to vegetation
than is  generally imagined.

  Within a few  years, we have become acquainted
with the existence of immense quantities of a fine Porcel-
lana, or porcelane-earth, in the state of Maryland.  It
is  found, in close  connection  with mines of iron-ore,
near the foot of the  South-mountain.  It evidently owes
its origin to a decomposed  granite.   I have received
specimens of the  same species of earth, by the name of
Chalk,  from the neighbourhood of  other mountains,  in
Virginia.  It is probable, that it has an extensive range
in America.  There can be no doubt that this earth will,
at some future period, be applied to the manufacture of
beautiful vessels,  or ware,  of various  kinds*.

  Plumbago, or Black-lead, has been discovered in the
vicinity of Philadelphia,  and in other parts of the  Uni-
on: and Cinnabar is said to have been found in Virginia.
Our lead and other  mines furnish us with an abundance
of Sulphat of Barytes.  In short, almost every day brings
us acquainted with  some mineral with whose existence,
in this country, we had previously no knowledge.

  I need say nothing of  our  mines of Iron, Copper,
Lead,  Gold, and other metals.  Perhaps, no part of the

          * See Note Q.
              (  8  ) 
/
                         5$

 world is richer  in  iron than  Pennsylvania, and  some
 other parts of the United-States.  Copper and lead are
 by no means rare.  Gold, in considerable quantities, has
 been discovered.  Tin and Antimony have been  found
 in Pennsylvania; but, hitherto, I believe,  in very small
 quantity*.

   Some of our  minerals have not, hitherto, been disco-
 vered in other parts of the world.  Such is the Colum-
 bium, of which Mr. Hatchett has given the  analysis.
 The specimen of this new metallic body, which the able
 and ingenious English chemist examined, was sent from
 some part of New-England, about an hundred years ago.
 Since this period, no  other specimens  of  it  have been
seen in Europe.   I need hardly call upon the ardour of
 the young mineralogist to search and inquire about this
 substance, of which it is highly probable that specimens
 are often to be met with, in some part, or parts,  of the.
 New-England States,

  Under this head of the  mineralogy of our country>
 it may not  be improper to  turn your attention to the
nature of the various Mineral Springs which are so  abun-
dantly distributed through the  United-States, but  parti-
cularly, perhaps,  in the States of  New-York  and Vir-
 ginia.  Analyses of some of these springs have, indeed,
been published.   But none of these analyses are sufficir
ently correct, or extensive.   Of the water of the Cape-
 Capon-Springs, in  the State of Virginia,  we have  not
 yet any analysis: yet this is, perhaps,  one of the  most
* See Note R. 
59
important of all  the  known North-American  mineral
Waters.

  Our  bituminous or naphtha  springs are entitled to
attention,  in a philosophical,  if not in a medical,  point
of view.  Some of those in the State of New-York,  by
flowing  upon great beds of madrepores,  below the sur-
face of  the earth, furnish  the naturalist with very inte-
resting  specimens for his cabinet.  Such  specimens I
possess, and  the theory of their impregnation  is very
obvious.   The specimens themselves are  indubitable
proofs of a theory at which I am now  to hint.




  In concluding these  few and imperfect  hints on the
two heads of our geology, and mineralogy, I would sug-
gest the propriety of collecting, with sedulous care, the
traditional  knowledge  of  our  Indians  concerning the
changes which the continent  has undergone.  I am  far
from insinuating, that such traditions should be received
els pure  history : but I am persuaded that, on some occa-
sions, much  interesting information  might be educed
from them.  The  Indian tradition of a  vast serpent
which passed through Lake-Erie, and  over the cata-
ract of  Niagara, unquestionably refers to some great
change  which has taken place in the  Falls.   They say,
that their fathers have told them, that lake Erie and all
the other  great lakes  were once much  more extensive
than they are at present.  Now every geological appear-
ance favours this opinion.—The  Indians of the State of
New-York preserve a tradition, that  the country about 
60
Newburgh, on the  North or  Hudson-river,  was once
a Lake; and that, in process of time,  the waters of this
lake broke their way through the mountains, now called
the " Highlands," and thus gave origin  to  the great
and  important river which I  have  just mentioned.
Others of the Indians say,  that the Hudson-river now
passes over land which was  once dry,  and that a greaj
noise, of three days continuance, preceded and accom-
panied the raging flow of the  waters, during which many
Indians  perished.  I deem  these traditions  highly im-
portant. In fact, the appearances about Newburgh ren-
der it more than probable, that  there was once a vast
lake back  of the mountains there;  and I have no doubt
of the irruption of the waters through the mountains
at this particular spot: an event which, perhaps, is not
of so very remote  an era as  might  be supposed, and
during which not only many of the human inhabitants,
but also some  of those large  quadrupeds, whose remains
are found along the North-river,  may have perished*.
We cannot,  I say,  place too high  a value upon the
Indian traditions of this kind.  To a discerning and vir-
tuous naturalist, they are like mines, among the rubbish
of which we dig, with success,  for the most precious
metals.  Do not suffer yourselves to  be deterred from
noting down the Indian traditions, relative to these and
other points, however extravagant they may seem to be,
by the sneers  of little, intemperate philosophers,  who,
without candour to receive,  or ability to discuss, tradi-
tional tales, would throw a veil of doubt uponthose very
points,—the  origin of mankind, their dispersion over
the globe, the physical revolutions of the globe itself,—
* See Note S. 
61
which are among the most interesting to which philoso-
phers can attach themselves.  The tradition of the Ca-
rolina-Indians,  concerning their  beloved Yaupon*, and
that of the Iroquois concerning their  Tobacco, are of
more importance, in regard to the intercourse that has
once subsisted between the old and new world, than all
the pages of Le Philosophe Douceur,  Bernard Romans,
M. de Voltaire, and others, on the same subject.


                METEOROLOGY.

   Whatever relates to the Meteorology of our countrv
is eminently entitled to our attention.   To increase the
quantity of knowledge in this interesting department  of
natural history, the  Society should furnish itself with  a
good thermometer, barometer, and hygrometer,  which
might be placed in the hands  of one of the curators,
whose business it should be to notice,  with all possible
care,  the states or changes of the weather, so far as they
are indicated,  or may be  ascertained,  by these instru-
ments ; and to deliver into the Society, at least once every
year, a register of his observations.   Similar  observa-
tions by the members, in different parts  of the Union,
would likewise be  acceptable,  and the  whole  would
serve as a foundation  upon which, at some future pe-
riod,  a complete history of our climate might be con-
structed.* I would also propose, that a rain-gage,  toes-
timate'the annual or monthly quantity of rain that may


  * See Collections for an  Essay towards a Materia Medica of the United-
States. Part First,  pages 56—-5§. 
62
fall in this city, or its neighbourhood, should be kept at
the expence of the Society*

  It  is  a point which may,  I  think, admit  of some
doubt, whether  any very essential change has actually
taken place in the temperature of the American climates,
since the first discovery of the continent by the  Europe-
ans, in the fifteenth century; or, at least, since  the  first
settlement  of the  European colonies,  now  called   the
United-States.   Many facts and materials for determin-
ing this point may still be  collected.  For this purpose,
it is obvious to propose, that inquiries should be made
of the oldest people residing in  the Union; but, in  par-
ticular,  inquiries of our Indians, who are remarkably
attentive to the  preservation of the memory of  severe
winters,  uncommonly warm summers, seasons  of great
rain, of great drought,  and other circumstances relative
to the atmosphere.  These inquiries might be  conducted
with peculiar  advantage, in the  southern  parts  of the
United-States, where several of the Indian tribes, such
as the Cheerake, the Chikkasah, &c, are known to have
resided, in particular districts of country, for near three
hundred years.   Mr. Lawson informs us, that when he
was in North-Carolina, in  the  very first years  of the
eighteenth century, the Indians of that country  preserv-
ed the memory of an  uncommonly hard winter,  which
had occurred there one hundred and five years  before.
This  carries  us back  to about the year 1596,  in   the
reign  of Queen Elizabeth,  at which time there  were no
European settlers in Carolina.   At that time,  according
to the tradition, " the great  Sound was frozen over,  and
the Wild Geese came into the woods to eat acorns,"  and
were so  " tame,"  no doubt through want, that the In- 
63
dians killed  abundance of  them  in  the woods,  " by
knocking them on the head with  sticks*.

  In collecting materials for this part  of our subject, it
would also be useful to inquire, what  changes have tak-
en place in the timef of the leafing, the flowering, and
the fruiting,  &c,  of particular vegetables, as well na-
tive as foreign?  There are still living among us,  many
old people, who  could  inform us, whether the Apple,
the Pear, the Peach, the imported Cherry, and others,
formerly flowered at the same time that they do at pre-
sent.  It  is  known  that  the  Lima-Bean  now flowers
much earlier  than it  did when it  was first introduced
among  us, between  forty  and fifty  years  ago.   The
Franklinia  (Gordonia pubescens)  has, in like manner,
altered its  time  of flowering:  but I do not assert that
what has taken place, in regard to  these two vegetables,
is a  proof  that our climate of Pennsylvania has under-
gone any change.  Indeed, I am fully aware, that what-
ever facts we yet possess relative to an alteration in the
times of the  frondescence, florescence,  &c, of our ve-
getables, must be very cautiously admitted, if they be
admitted at all,  as facts of any importance in the view,
which I have suggested, of the changes, or stability, of
the American climates.

  Some important light might also be thrown upon the
ancient  or  former state of our climate, by a careful ex-
amination  of the annual circles of some of our largest
trees.   By such an examination, we should, at least,  be
able, on many occasions, to determine (what it is a point
* See Note T. 
64
of curiosity and importance to determine), whether the
uncommonly severe winters of Europe and Asia have
also been the same in North-America*.

  One of the greatest  desiderata in the history  of the
meteorology of our country, is a comparative view of the
climates of the two great  regions (J the United-States,
that between the Atlantic  and the Alleghany-mountains,
and that between this great chain and the Missisippi,
and from  thence to the first  great ranges of mountains
westward.   How  far has the eastern wind advanced
westward   since the  first settlement  of the  States  of
Ohio, Kentucky,  and  Tenessee?  What  is  the right
theory of  the fact, that  the  southern  trees  and shrubs
are  very generally  found considerably  farther north in
the  western than in the eastern tract? What is the ex-
planation of the fact,  that of the species of  trees  which
are  common to the two districts, just mentioned, those
which grow in the western do not attain  to as great an
age, and begin to  rot, or decay, the  soonest?

  Whatever relates to the Diseases of our country is
more or less intimately connected with the history of our
climate. But I forbear to add any thing particular on this
subject, as the inquiries  connected with it more inti-
mately belong to the College of Physicians, the Medical
Society, and other institutions,  expressly  established
for  the promotion of medical knowledge.   You will not,
however,  I hope,  lose sight of this  most interesting
inquiry, to which the  philosophical  physicians  of all
countries and ages have  paid attention,  but to which the
* See Note U. 
65
physicians of our country, until within the last fifteen
or eighteen years, have been unpardonably inattentive.

   Such, Gentlemen, are some of the numerous subjects
to which I would wish to see the members of this Soci-
ety turning their  attention.  The field, you will readily
perceive,  is an ample one.  It will afford a rich harvest
to many,  both of the present and of future ages.  For
the bounds of natural history will, for ever,  be enlarg-
ing.—It is much to be wished,  and I flatter myself, that
our  wish will be gratified, that every member of the
Society will consider himself pledged to add  something
to the stock of our knowledge of the natural history of
the country.  Some of you may find leisure to furnish
us with regular essays, or memoirs.  These, or extracts
from them, I shall hope to see published,  at some future
period,  in the transactions  of the Society.   Others
of you,  to whom the cultivation of mere  natural history
may be less interesting, or who may not possess suffi-
cient leisure for the purpose, may contribute individual
facts,  or experiments, which, if they be collected or
made with care, may form a most important part of bur
objects.   These facts  might be digested and arranged
into regular order, and published in the Society's trans-
actions, or copied, by the secretaries,  into a book kept
for the purpose, and allowed to be used by every mem-
ber, in  any way he may think proper.

   As there is no science which is more disgraced by
what are called facts  than natural history; and as it
should be the object  of every real philosopher, to dimin-
ish,  to the utmost of his power, the quantity of error.
            (  M 
66
 and to prevent the accumulation and extension of idle
 tales, so it is to be wished that every member,  or per-
 son, who may transmit to us notices concerning our
 animals, our vegetables, and  minerals, or any  of the
 other objects of  the  institution, would always be  care-
 ful to distinguish between what is certain or well ascer-
 tained,  and what is probable or conjectural.   I  say no-
 thing of the necessity of a solemn and religious adher-
 ance to  truth.   I say nothing of that  playfulness  with
 science (if I may so express  myself), which digraced
 the character of one of the Presidents* of the Royal So-
 ciety of London; and has disgraced the character of
 other cultivators of natural  history.   But I must not
 omit to say a few words on the subject of credulity.

   Credulity is one of the most injurious features in
 the character of the naturalist,  as well as of the histo-
 rian.   Its influence, in one individual,  is often felt and
 propagated  through many ages.   Unfortunately,  too,
 it has been  the vice of naturalists, or  those  who  have
 touched on questions relative to natural history, in  all
ages.  It was his credulity,  more than any thing  else,
 which  soiled the immortal work of Pliny on Natural
 History: a work, though often erroneous, and deform-
 ed by anile stories, above all praise: a work upon which,
 if  we possessed no  other materials for the purpose, one
 might construct a successful  defence  of the knowledge
 of the Romans  in the time of Vespasian.—How much
 do  we feel for  Tacitus, the  manly  and the energetic

 * Martin Folkes, Esq.—See Mr. Pennant's Outlines of the Globe,  vol. i.
p. 23,7. 
67
Tacitus, when he seriously tells us,  in his Annals, that
" in the Consulship of Paulus Fabius, and Lucius  Vi-
tellius,  after a long vicissitude  of ages,  the  Phoenix
arrived  in Egypt"; when he goes on to collect together
the most extravagant stories relative to the life and the
habits of this miraculous bird:  some of which, indeed,
his judgment leads him to reject; observing, " that in
the account of the Phoenix there is no doubt a mixture
of fable";  (' but that this bird (says the great historian),
from  time to time, appeared in Egypt,  seems to be a
point sufficiently ascertained*".  It is to be regretted,
that on other subjects,  relative to  natural history, the
Roman Historian has exhibited some marks of his credu-
lity ; I will not willingly say, of  his ignorancef. Indeed,
few are the writers of civil history who have  not sullied
their  works,  when they have had occasion to  treat of,
or touch upon, points  of natural history.   With great
pleasure, however, do I mention, as an exception to this
position, the vast work  of Mr. Gibbon  on the Decline
and Fall of the  Roman  Empire: a work from which
even the student of natural history may collect many
facts and much information;  and this, too, so  correctly
and so cautiously related,  that I do  not recollect a single
instance in which the fidelity of Gibbon,  as a naturalist,
can be  called in question.  How unlike his  friend Dr.
Robertson, who, with stronger and with better lights to
guide him,  has  deformed his History of America with
the most palpable falsehoods and errors,  concerning the
physical condition of this continent, and of its inhabi-

          * See Note X. '
\ See the Germania of Tacitus. 
68
tants*!.----We blush for Sir Walter Raleigh, whose
learning, and talents, and taste,  enabled him to write a
stupendous and elegant work on the history of the world,
when we read his account of whole nations of Ameri-
can Indians,  who were entirely destitute of necfest.----
What shall we  think of  the learned Spanish historio-
grapher, Herrera,  who tells us, that " the Trochilus, or
Humming-bird,  feeds like a bee on  flowers, and the
dew that lies on them, and when the  rains cease,  and
the  dry season  comes  on, clings to  the trees by  its
beak, and dies:  but again returns to life, the following
year, upon the  return  of the rainy season J".  These
(some of them,  at least)  are fit subjects for the rich
genius  and the warm  imagination of  a poet at his
ease, amid the  spicy groves or the flowery meades of
Iran, or of Hindustan.  Others of them,  again, might,
without the aid  of much  imagination, be employed as
new subjects in  the work  of some future Ovid.   All of
them must be rejected  by the  Naturalist: he  will
even reject them with a species of disdain;  and, indeed,
it is not without  some difficulty, that we can prevail
upon ourselves to attach an high  authority,  in any thing,
to men who were capable  of believing, and of publish-
ing, such  fables as I have mentioned.

   There  is, however, some  apology for credulity in
matters  of natural history.  The works and  ways of
cob  are, indeed,  wonderful,  and many things appa-
rently fabulous,  are strictly true.  Perhaps, there is no
         * See Note Y.
         f See Note Z.                    *
         t See Note A*. 
69
fable in natural history which has not arisen, very natu-
rally I was going to say,  out of some obvious and well
authenticated fact.   The  beautiful fable of  the Phoenix
may have taken its rise from the history of the periodi-
cal returns of  a Comet,  and the theory of the learned
of Egypt, or some  other region, concerning the nature
of these bodies.—The fable of Herrera is supported by
the fact, that the Trochilus, like many other birds,  is
susceptible of, and  actually does  sometimes pass into,
the torpid state: a state,  in many animals, extremely
similar to that of  complete death: for who, but the
most keen-eyed physiologist, can mark,  in many  in-
stances at least, the line between life merely interrupted,
and life finished, or at an end?

  With such difficulties in the investigations of natu-
ral history,  surrounded  by truths  which  pass, by the
slightest and most imperceptible shades, into fables, it
should be the constant aim of the  naturalist to  describe
and paint nature  as she is.   The addition of one solitary
tint, whether added by the  suggestion of fancy or urged
by  credulity, may render the picture unworthy of atten-
tion.   " Historia Naturalis (I use the words of a
very respectable naturalist,  who is treating of the history
of an animal, concerning which the  most  extravagant
fables  had been  related), " Historia Naturalis non bene
digesta  abit in  Fabulam;   pfaejudicia vero  et nimia
Credulitas Veritatem, etsi cominus satis cognitam, lon-
gissime  aliquando propellunt*."

  * Jacobus Theodorus Klein. See  his curious account of the Mus Alpi-
nus, or Marmot,  in the Philosophical Transactions. Numb. 486, p. 180, &c,
for- the year 1748. 
70
  Yqu will observe, Gentlemen, that I speak  of the
printing of our Transactions.  I do not suppose, that this
is a step which can be taken immediately.   But if the
Society continue to be conducted in the manner I hope
to see it conducted;  if it be supported  by the  talents
and the zeal of the members  who now  compose it;  I
cannot entertain a doubt, that in less than three years
from the present  period, we may be in possession of
materials for an  original,  and  interesting volume;  a
volume which  shall reflect honour  upon the Society,
extend the  empire of natural  history,  and  teach  our
countrymen the real utility and importance of a science
to which they have just, as it were,  begun to pay  any
attention: a science which may be  said to date its
origin, in Pennsylvania, if not  in the  United-States,
from the year one thousand, seven hundred and eighty-
nine,

  I do not dispair  of seeing the Society in  possession
of a room of its  own.  I hope to see its members in
possession of   a  good and  even extensive   library.
The latter may be formed without much difficulty,  and
at a  very moderate  expence,  whenever the Society
shall  show,  by its transactions or proceedings,  that  it
is all  worthy of the name which it bears.  I  think that
some of your attention should  be directed towards the
formation of a museum,  or  collection  of natural obT
jects, particularly such as belong to  the American con-
tinent.  I neither wish nor expect to see the Society
engaged very extensively in this business,  as there  is
already established  among  us, a  museum of great
value;  and which  does honour to its  founder,  and 
71
even to the United-States:  a museum  to which every
American citizen should endeavour to contribute his
mite of support.  There are,  however, two classes of
objects  which we ought to  labour  to  collect; I mean
specimens of our indigenous Plants; and specimens of
our Minerals.   Indeed,  I will  flatter myself,  that every
member of the Society will  feel it a kind  of duty in-
cumbent upon  him,  to furnish us with such rare and
curious vegetables or minerals as he may  be able to
collect,  in different parts of the country.  In this  way
alone, a great  accession may, in the course of a very
few years, be  made  to the  stock  of  our knowledge of
the botany and mineralogy  of the United-States.

                    *  *  *   *  * *

                        *   *

   You  have agreed, Gentlemen, to denominate your
association the  Philadelphia  linnean  society.
In making choice of  this name, in preference to every
other, you have gratefully  rendered  homage to one of
the most illustrious cultivators of science the world has,
hitherto, produced.   Certainly no other man, neither in
ancient nor in modern times, has contributed  so much to
extend  our acquaintance with the  external characters
of the living  works of nature, on  this globe, as has
Linnaeus. Endowed, by a  benificent Creator, with an
uncommon portion of genius; warmed by an imagination
of the richest kind;   which,  however, his correct judg-
ment generally  restrained within proper limits; blessed
with the most persevering and virtuous  industry,  which 
72
enabled him to accomplish whatever  schemes of use*
fulness  or glory his sanguine mind  may  have devi-
sed; which enabled him to triumph over poverty,  and
over the active malevolence  of  his  enemies; thrice
happy in an ardent and well-directed ambition,  with-
out which the  energies  of mind  are  oftentimes of
little avail;  the Naturalist of Sweden has  assumed
one of the highest  stations in the throne of  intellec-
tual glory.  I  am  far from being a  blind idolater at
the shrine of Linnaeus.   I am  not  ignorant of  the
imperfections  of his systems,  or  of the   errors  into
which he has often fallen.  But  these errors,  when
we consider the vast compass  of sciences—medicine
and  all   the  branches  of  natural  history,—which
the bold and  fertile genius of Linnaeus embraced;—
these  errors, I say, must be acknowledged to be  few
in number.—And  in  regard  to his  Systems, should
they all  (as   some  of  them,  unquestionably, will)
crumble  into  dust, or share  the fate  of other   sys-
tems,  neglect,—the  world, a thousand years  hence,
will  continue  to  regard,  with   veneration and  with
wonder,  those  powerful  and successful efforts, which
called Natural  History  from  an  embryo and   mis-
hapen  state  into form,  into  regularity,  and beauty,
and even placed it in  one of the  most  elevated sta-
tions among the sciences which   have attracted  the
notice  of  mankind, during the  whole of the  eigh-
teenth, and the first years of the  nineteenth,  century.

   Let  us follow,  then, with zeal,  with industry  and
care, as far as our  talents, and the more pressing pur-
suits and duties of our life, will permit us to follow; 
73
 let us follow, I say,  the  footsteps of the great modern
 architect of natural history.  With him as our guide;
 With only a portion of his talents and his warm zeal;—in
 these  regions of America, where God has  displayed to
 his children of Liberty and Comforts, the immeasurable
 variety and usefulness of his works, for their study, and
 contemplation,  and happiness; in this peaceful empire,
 extending widely westward  from the shores of thC At-
 lantic  to the vast regions that are washed by the  Missi-
 sippi,  the Missouri,  and their streams;  and southward
 from the confines of Superior, and Ontario,  to the bord-
 ers of the countries of the people of Florida and Anahuac;
 —how vast, how new,  how felicitous*  is the field for
 observation!!  O let us  not supinely pass our time,
 without calling  into view the treasures of this world!
 And excuse my selfishness, if I urge you to make haste,
 that I, before my  course is run, may  know, through
 your labours, at least a part of what is to be learned  of
 the natural  history of these regions: that I may know,
 that my fire  is not too weak to animate  some of you  to
 these glorious pursuits of intelligence.

   I  call upon you, again, to labour for the support,
 the respectability, and  the  importance,  of our infant
 institution.   Some of you are soon to fix yourselves  in
 the most opposite  regions  of North-America: while
 others  of you are called  by your profession, or urged
by your intrepid zeal, into the distant countries of China,
 of Java,  or  of  Hindustan.  Remember,  wherever you
may be, the Philadelphia  Linnean Society.  Remem-
 ber this  seat of  your intellectual happiness.   In answer
            ( 10 ) 
74
to those  who  may  whisper to you,  that the  study of
natural history is incompatable with the  regular pursuit
of your  profession, tell them,  and tell them again, that
in all countries, some of the greatest  naturalists have
been physicians; and not merely physicians,  but some
of  the  most  eminent clinical practitioners.   Need  I
mention  the names of Withering and Darwin? as proofs
of t^is assertion.

  As to  myself, Gentlemen, I have to assure you, that
in all my studies, I shall have a constant eye to this in-
stitution, and to the promotion of its  various useful ob-
jects.  The indispensable calls  of my profession;  the
necessity I, at  length,  find myself under, of devoting a
larger portion of my time to the  arrangement of those
materials, relative to the natural history and the ancient
state of our country,  in the collection of which I have
been engaged  for  near  seventeen years,  may,  for  a
time, prevent me from devoting much of my attention
to the current business of the institution.  But viewing,
as I do,  the foundation of this Society with  much sa-
tisfaction; and believing that its complete establishment
will be an event of the highest interest and consequence
in the literary history of our country, I cannot but feel
proud of associating myself with you: of attaching my-
self more firmly to those studies in the pursuit of which
I have  passed the happiest hours of my life; and of
connecting myself, by still more endearing ties, to those
of you,  whom I have been so fortunate as to conduct
to  the first  threshold of the  study  of Medicine, and
of Nature. 
75
  Permit me to close  this feeble and imperfect  ad-
dress, by assuring you,  how sensible I am of the ho-
nour you  have conferred upon me,  by electing me to
the place of the  first  president of the Society. 
 
APPENDIX,
CONTAINING
NOTES 6?  ILLUSTRATIONS.
Note A.—Page 17.
    " I Believe my reader will be  of my opinion, that from one
end of America to another, the red people are the same nation
and draw their origin from a different source, than either Europeans,
Chinese, Negroes,  Moors, Indians, or any other different species
of the  human genus, of which I think there are many species, as
well as among most other animals; and that they are not a variety
occasioned by a commixture of any of the above species must also ap-
pear."__« The above account will perhaps, raise a conjecture, that I
believe the red men are not come from the westward out of the
east of Asia;  I do not believe it; I am firmly of opinion, that God
created an original man and woman in this part of the Globe, of
different species from any in the other parts, and if per chance in
the Russian  dominions, there are a people of similar make and
manners, is it not more natural to think they were colonies from
the numerous nations on the continent of America, than to imagine,
that from the small comparative number of those Russian subjects,
such a vast country should have been so numerously peopled, and
by what we know from the geographical  discoveries that have been
made  within this  century, it was undoubtedly easier for these 
APPENDIX.
people to have crossed out of America into Asia, than it was for
the white people we find in  Labrador to come from Lapland; yet
who will deny that  a Laplander and  Eskimaux are of the same
original stock?"   A Concise Natural History of East and West-Flo-
rida, &c. &c.   By Captain Bernard Romans.  Pages  38, 39. New-
York: 1776. ..
                      Note B.—.Page 17.
  Mr. Jefferson, the writer to whom I allude, says, " imperfect
as is our knowledge of the  tongues spoken in America, it suffices
to discover the following remarkable fact.   Arranging them under
the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced, and doing the
same by those of the red men of Asia, there will  be found  probably
twenty in America, for one in Asia, of those radical languages, so
called because,  if they were ever the  same, they have  lost all re-
semblance to one another.   A separation into  dialects may be  the
work of  a few ages only, but for two  dialects to recede from  one
another till  they have lost  all vestiges  of their common  origin,
must require an immense  course  of  time; perhaps not less than
many people give to  the age of the earth.  A  greater number of
those radical changes  of language  having taken place among the
red men  of America,  proves them of greater  antiquity than those
of Asia."  Notes on the State of Virginia ; written in  the year 1781,
somewhat corrected and enlarged  in the winter of 1782, ifc.  The
original edition. Pages 181,  182.

  In my New  Views, Preliminary Discourse, pages 72,  89, Sec.*, I
have controverted, I hope with some success, the opinion of Mr. Jef-
ferson concerning the great  number of radical languages in North-
America.  I reserve a more ample and finished view of  the argu-
ments in support of  my own  opinions, for a new  edition of my
work, and for  other  inquiries  in  which  I  have long  been en-
gaged.   Meanwhile,  although I  do not here contend, that there
pre  not  several  radical  Indian  languages, within the  limits of
North-America,  I assert,  without  the  fear of contradiction,  that

  * See,  -ilso, the Vocabularies; and the Appendix, pages 18, 19, &c &c. 
APPENDIX.
79
the languages which have lost all  affinity to each other are hard-
ly to be met with  in  America;  and that the ingenious author of
the Notes on the State of Virginia,  when he published that work,  had
no good  reason for supposing, or asserting, that there were  many
such  radical languages in this  continent.   The language of the
Iroquois, or Six-nations, is unquestionably the same  as that of the
Cheerake,  the Creeks, the Chikkasah, the Osages, and the Sioux.
And the result of an extensive  and cautious inquiry will  be,  that
the dialects of the  Delaware-stock  are  not radically different from
those of the Hurbns, and  Six-nations, however  different they may,
at first sight, seem  from each other.
                       Note C—Page 22.
   Among  various other species of birds,  the Mexicans, as  we are
told by Clavigero and other writers,  domesticated " turkeys, quails,
geese, ducks, and  other kinds of fowl*".  The Quail here  alluded
to was not, indeed, any of those species which  are to be met with
in Pennsylvania, and other middle and northern parts of the United-
States ; but, in all probability, the species called Tetrao  Mexicanus.
I cannot learn  that any species  of Tetrao was domesticated by the
tribes to the north of Mexico.  Some of these  tribes domesticated
the Turkey, and  perhaps various other birds, whose names  and
properties may have escaped our attention.
                       Note D.—Page 26.
   The rattle-snake is, without doubt,  an animal possessed of a
considerable  share  of intelligence.  He, certainly, distinguishes his
keeper, or feeder, in confinement  from other persons, and when he
has been  so  far domesticated as to cease menacing the former, he
will manifest every disposition to  attack and injure the latter; par-
ticularly if they be  entire  strangers.   This horrid reptile might, I
am persuaded,  be domesticated, and rendered, in a great measure,
harmless; and that without  the experiment of drawing his fioisonoils

  * The History of Mexico, &c  vol, 1.  page 380.   English translation.
London: 17*7 
80
APPENDIX.
fangs.  A very large rattle-snake,  after I had had it in my pos-
 session for some months, showed not any disposition to injure any
 person who approached its cage ; and when it had actually, on one
 occasion, nearly made its  escape from the cage, it  suffered me to
 replace it with a pair of tongs, without showing the  least disposition
 to injure me, or indeed without exhibiting any marks of irritation.
 I have assisted, by near approach, a rattle-snake in the process of
 drawing off its skin, which had, before, been tedious  and difficult
 to it.  It  approached the instrument of assistance, which I  laid
 upon the floor,  and soon convinced me, that  it well knew for what
 purpose  I had placed the instrument there.—In the  Supplement  to a
 Memoir*, &c, the reader will find  some facts in proof of the me-
 mory, or reminiscence, of the  rattle-snake.
                      Note E.—Page 29.
  Some  persons, with whom I have conversed on the subject, have
assured me, that the  salmon has never been seen or caught in any
part of the Niagara-river: but this, I believe, is not a correct state-
ment.—«Fish, of  various kinds, are much  affected by  accidental
changes  or impregnation of the water in which they reside.  After
the sinking of the SolwayMoss, in 1772, the salmons left the Esk,
for  some weeks, owing no doubt to the river having been " rendered
black as  ink  by the mixture of the mossf."  It has been observed,
that fish of various kinds have become less numerous in the Meher-
rin-river, in Virginia, since that river (owing, it is supposed, to the
clearings which have been made upon its banks)  has become more
muddy.  On the  contrary, however,  Catfish (Siluri), which delight
in muddy  water,  have increased in  number in  the Meherrim
These facts are well calculated  to show, that fish are very sensible
of the changes,  from foreign  impregnations,  which  occasionally
take place in  rivers,  and other waters:  and such  impregnations are,
doubtless, one of the  causes of the well-known fact, that fishes are
often observed to  leave the waters which they have been accustomed
to frequent for  ages.—But reverting to the Salmon of Ontario,  I

  *  Page  31.

  f  Philosophical Transactions, vol. 62, for the year  1772.  Page 123. 
APPENDIX.                      81
think it most probable, that  it is the  noise of the  cataract  of Ni-
agara which  deters them from passing up the river as far  as that
bound,  beyond .which they could not  pass.  This subject, how-
ever, is worthy  of  farther inquiry.
                      Note F.—Page 31.
   The heat of the river Trout of Britain  has been stated to be  64
degrees of Farenheit's  thermometer.   Mr. Jonathan Williams did
not find the heat of several Cod-fish and Hallabot, which he examin-
ed, to be greater  than 39 degrees, when the thermometer in the air
was at  57,  and the water on the surface at 52.   In other experi-
ments,  " the thermometer was put into three Codfish and one H:J-
labot successively, the  instant they  were hauled up. and the in-
strument marked 37, in every rase.   The air was at 57, ai.c1 the
water at the  surf.ce was  53."   Mr. Williams concludes, from his
experiments, "that in all the instances the avinw beat of the fish
was about 16 degrees colder than the water at the surface*."  These
experiments appear to have been made with care: but.they should
be repeated, under a great variety of circumstances,  before it would
be prudent to assume it as a point completely established, that the
heat of the Cod (Gadus Marhua) and the H Jlabot (Pleurcnectes
Hippoglossus) is precisely what our author has stated it to be.

                      Note G—Page 35.
   I have presented to the American  Philosophical Society,  an ex-
tensive  memoir concerning a considerable number of the pernicious
insects of the United-States.  This memoir, which will be published
in the Society's Transactions, involves both the natural history (prop-
erly so  called) of the insects, and the  means of preventing  and of
curing the evils which they inflict.

                      Note H.—Page 37.
  For  some interesting  notices concerning the Tettigonia Septen-
decim, I beg leave to  refer the reader to the Philadelphia Medical and

  * See  Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,  vol. 3. pa-^
ges 98, 99.
              ( n  ) 
82
appendix:
Physical Journal,  vol. 1. parti, articles xv. and xvi; and to the
Second  Supplement to the same work, articles  xi &  xiii.   It is my
intention to digest all the numerous materials, which I already pos-
sess, concerning this singular animal,  into an extensive memoir (il-
lustrated with plates), for the completion of which I hereby invite the
communication of facts  and  remarks.  I  cannot promise " a well-
written  history" of this insect:  but I  hope  to be able  to communi-
cate much new information, concerning its structure, functions, and
manners; the result of many years attention to the subject.
                       Note I.—Page 41.
  The western parts of North-America, beyond the Missisippi, are
daily presenting us with some of their animal productions.  Among
these we have already recognised so many of the quadrupeds of the
northern and eastern parts of Asia, that there is every reason to be-
lieve that we shall soon find our Fauna very rich in many of those
animals,  which have, hitherto, been supposed to be excluded, as in-
digenous, from  America.  It is now  ascertained,  that the Taye  of
certain nations of California is the  Ovis Ammon  of Linnaeus; the
Jingali of the Asiatics, which first makes its appearance  in Asia,  as
we travel east towards America, in the neighbourhood of the great
river Jenisseia.   In western America, we  have, also, recently dis-
covered  the  Arctomys Citillus*, the Sorex minutissimust) one  of
the smallest of quadrupeds; not to mention several  others,  which
Asia has long been  known  to' possess.   These discoveries  are
highly interesting to  the Zoologist;  and they  cannot fail to appear
valuable  to the Geologist,  as they serve to give additional strength
to that  most probable opinion, that  America  and Asia  were once
united to each other\.


                       Note K.—Page 45.
   Three  distinct species  of Zizania are described by Mr. Mi-
 chaux^ Two  of these species, Zizania miliacea and  Z.  clavulosa of

            * Earless Marmot.
            \ Pigmy Shrew of Pennant.
            + See page 43.
            § Flora Boreali-Amaricana. torn. i. p. 74, 75. 
APPENDIX.
83
this author, are very common in many parts of North-America. Zi-
zania clavulosa is the Z. aquatica of Linnaeus, who, however, has
confounded this species with the plant described and figured by Sir
Hans Sloane,  1. p.  110, t.  167.  It is, also, the plant of which  Mr.
Aylmer  Bourke Lambert has lately favoured us with an excellent
figure.  This writer has shown, that the Zizania aquatica of the Spe-
cies Plantarum, p. 1408, and the Zizania palustris of the Mantissa, 2.
p. 295, are one and the same plant*.  The Zizania miliacea of Mi-
chaux is, however, a very distinct species, and both of the species are
eaten by the Indians of the countries adjacent to the lakes, and by
various species of water-fowls,  which are observed to fatten upon
them very speedily.  In the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, and  in
other parts of the  United-States, the seed of Zizania  clavulosa  (I
prefer  the name imposed by Michaux, for they are  both aquatic
plants) are  the favourite food  of the  Reed-Bird  (Emberiza Ory-
zivora),  and of different species of  Rallus, or Railf.   I  am not
yet prepared  to say any thing positive concerning the  comparative
nutritious quality  of the two plants, both  of which  have an ex-
tensive  range  in North-America.  Zizania  clavulosa  is known  to
grow and ripen its seed as  far north in America, as the latitude of
50°: a most  encouraging fact  for the  inhabitants of many of the
northern parts of Europe, who might reap the benefit of this plant's
seed as high as the latitude of sixty degrees,
                       Note L.—Page 48.
  The Indians about Piladelphia have long been acquainted with the
esculent quality of the bulb of Sagittaria; and from them,  no doubt,
the Whites learned to eat it. Many of the latter still retain some of
the Indian names  of  this vegetable.   The bulb of Sagittaria is said
to be a very important article of traffic among the Indian nations in
the western parts of North-America, especially upon Columbia-river.
Whether any of the  Americans cultivate this plant, as the Chinese

  *  The  Transactions of the  Linnean Society of London.  Vol. vii.
pages 264, 265.
  f See Fragments of  the Natural History of Pennsylvania. Part First.
Tables. 
84
APPENDIX.
are known to do, I have not learned.   The rude tribes upon the
Delaware and its waters, did not cultivate it.  They found it in suf»
ficient quantity, prepared by the hands of nature.
                      Note M.—Page 49.
  I am not certain whether the Buffaloe-clover is a species distinct
from the White Clover, or Trifolium repens. On the Ohio, where
I have  seen it, this plant grows to a great size, on which account,
and because it constitutes so large a share of the food of the Buffa-
loe (Bos Americanus) it has received its name  of Buffaloe-clover,
                      Note N.—Page 51.
  This is but a small list of the known native  die vegetables of the
United-States.  It might  be important  to  collect,  into one  view,
what  is already known of the properties of  these  plants.   Much
valuable information on the subject might be collected from  the
inhabitants, especially perhaps the women, of our country, who are
in the habit of employing many of our plants as dies.  But from the
Indians, if I do not mistake, much more information is to be obtained.
Thedatter were not unacquainted with the use and value of mordants,
long before they  had any intercourse with the  Whites.  Besides
alum  and other mineral mordants, they  employed the  acid berries
of some species of Sumach (Rhus glabrum, &c), and the astringent
juice  of vegetables, especially that of the fruit of  the  Crab-apple
(Pyrus  coronaria).  Is  it not probable, that, in some  instances, such
vegetable mordants are to be preferred to those of the mineral kind?
                      Note O.—Page 53.
  This wall, which for a long time had been deemed artificial, and
which was accordingly adduced as a proof of the existence of a state
of society and of population in  North-America, much more improv-
ed and extensive than that of the Indian inhabitants whom  the Euro-
peans  found  in the countries north of Mexico, is in the county of
Rowan, at the distance of about fourteen miles from the city of Salis- 
APPENDIX.                      85
bury.  As early as the year 1796, I had an opportunity of examining
some specimens of the stone of this supposed building of the ancient
Indians, and immediately perceived, that they were naturally figured
basaltes;  and that the whiter covering of the stones,  which had
been very confidently considered as the calcareous cement, or mortar,
was  nothing more than the  stone  itself in a decomposed  state.
I believe this opinion is at present very generally  admitted, though
there are not wanting some persons who still contend, that the wall
is artificial,  even admitting, that the stones may have been shaped
by nature in the forms in which we  find them.
                       Note P.—Page 54.
 ■ Some of the most curious American petrefactions, or impressions,
that I have seen, are those of the beaks of Cuttlefish (Sepiae), very
similar to those of which Professor Blumenbach has given an account,
in his Archaelogia telluris, 8cc*.  The American specimens were not
found in the great valley of Berkeley (where, however, it is probable
they do exist), but in a more narrow calcareous valley, running parallel
with this,  and separated from it by the North-Mountain, in Virginia.
—It is  my intention to publish an account, with  representations, of
thc.se and other American petrefactions,  &c, either in the View of
my  Travels through different parts of the United-States,  or in some
other shape.
                       Note Q.—-Page 57.
   I  have made some mention of this porcelain in the Philadelphia
Medical and Physical Journal^, and have transmitted  specimens of
it to Mr. Vauquelin, at Paris.  There are immense quantities of a
similar earth in the country of the Cheerake-Indians: and specimens,
,0f an inferior quality, have been brought from  the country west of
Hhe  Missisippi.  These latter, as well as the former, were supposed

   * Specimen Archaeologiae  telluris  terrarumque inprimis Hannoverana-
irum, &c. in Commentationes Societatis Regiae Scientiarum GottingenSis.
A*ol. xv. class. Phys. p. 150. tab. 11. fig. 5,
f Vol. i. Part First, page 163. 
86                       APPENDIX.

to be Chalk.  It will be  very  interesting  to pursue the veins of
porcelana through our continent, as this pursuit will point out to us
the old granite and gneise strata of the continent.
                      Note R.—-Page 58.
  Professor Gronovius is my principal authority for the assertion,
that Tin was  found in Pennsylvania.    In his  Index  Supellectilis
Lapidex, published at Leyden in 1740, this learned writer mentions
a " Stannum  polyhedron regulare  purpurascens, Pensilvanicum."
Gronovius corresponded with John Bartram, Colden, Clayton,  and
other ingenious men in North-America, from some of whom, pro-
bably from Bartram, he received the specimen which he describes.
If I do not greatly mistake, there  were specimens  of Tin in  the
fine collection of North-American  minerals, which  was made  by
my Father, near forty years ago, at a time when he paid more atten-
tion to this part of natural history, than, so far as I know, any other
person  in the  (then) Colonies.  The  greater part of my  father's
collection was  sent  to England; but falling into the hands of those
who knew little of its value, it has never been heard of,  or mentioned
in any of the printed accounts of minerals, that I have seen.—Tin
was well known to  the- ancient Mexicans; and, if  I mistake not, to
the  people of Florida.  Gronovius, in the work already referred  to,
mentions three specimens of Zinc from Pennsylvania: " Zincum
sterile micaceum;" " Z. sterile micaceum squamis saxo cotaceo im-
mixtis:" " Z. sterile micaceum squamis s^xo rufescenti immixtis*."
                       Note S.—Page 60.
  The remains of at least two large elephants (of that species which
has been denominated  Elephas Americanusf) have been discovered
in the neighbourhood of Newburgh. The bones were found beneath
a vast  quantity of marl, intermixed, in some  places, with the ro-

  *  Index Supellectilis, &c. p. 9, io.

  f  See the First and Second Supplements to the Philadelphia Medical and
Physical Journal.  Articles vi & x. 
APPENDIX.
87
mains, or impressions, of marine testacea, of various kinds.  Bones
of the same species of the genus elephas have been discovered in
other parts of the country along the  Hudson-river, as at the town
of Troy, at Claverack, Sec.—I  am far from imagining, that all the
elephantine bones, which are discovered in different parts of North*
America, are proofs of the existence of a general or partial deluge. If
dependence may be placed  upon the  accuracy of the  facts which  I
communicated to Mr. Cuvier, of  Paris*, it would seem highly pro-
bable, that many of the American elephants have perished indepen-
dently on any such catastrophe  as is  here alluded to.  Many others,
it is  possible, have  been destroyed by the  ancient inhabitants of
America,  to whom these animals may have been formidable, as are
the elephants of the present day to the  inhabitants of some parts of
Asia and Africa.
                      Note T.—Page 63.
  As Mr. Lawson's work is not  very easily met with, I shall here
quote, at large, the passage to which I have referred.  After remark-
ing that the Indians by means of their records,  " which are a Parcel
of Reeds, of different lengths,  with  several distinct  marks, known
to none but themselves; by which they seem to guess, very exact-
ly,  at accidents that happined many  years  ago;  nay two or three
ages or more ;" he proceeds:  " the reason I have to believe what
they tell me, on this account, is,  because I have been at the meet-
ings of  several Indian Nations;  and they agreed  in relating  the
same circumstances, as to Time, very exactly;  as, for example, they
say, there  was so  hard a  winter in  Carolina,  105  years ago, that
the great Sound Was frozen over,  and the Wild Geese came into th»
woods to eat Acorns, and that they were so tame, (I suppose, through
want) that they kill'd abundance in the woods, by knocking them on
the head with sticks."  A New  Voyage to  Carolina, &c. p. 181.  Lon-
don:  1709.  It is to be regretted, that Lawson does not inform us of
the exact year in which he  heard this tradition related.   But it is
easy to arrive, within a very  short  period, at the  time.  Lawson
came into North-Carolina in the  beginning of the year  1701, and
•  See Second Supplement, &c.  Art. x. pages 172, 173. 
68
APPENDIX.
he remained in the country eight years.  Of course,  the tradition
relates to some winter either in the very last years of the reign of
Elizabeth, or the first years of the  reign of her weak successor.—*
Since this period, viz. in the year  1779—1780, the  great  Sound
has been frozen over.
                       Note U.—Page 64.

  Linnjeus, by examining an Oak tree, was able to distinguish, with
great certainty, the hard wintqfs  of  1578,  1687* and  1709.  The
circles formed in these years were  narrower (thinner) than those of
the other years.   By an attention to some of the vast  forest-trees,
especially in the western parts of the United-States, our knowledge
in regard to the state- of our climate, might be carried much farther
back.  Oaks and other trees, not less than four hundred years old,
are,  or were a very few years  since, growing  upon the old earthen
fortifications near the junction of the rivers Ohio and Muskingum*.
                       Note X.—Page 67.
  11 PAtJixo fabio, L. Vitellio Coss. Post longum saeculorum ambit-
um, avis Phoenix in iEgyptum venit; praebuitque materiem doxtissi-
mis  indigenarum, &  Graecorum, multa  super eo miraculo  disser-
endi."  8cc. &c.  C. Cornelii  Taciti Annalium  lib. vi.  The curious
reader, who wishes  to  amuse himself with what  has  been said of
the Phoenix by other writers, may consult the writings of Herodotus
(in Euterpe), Martial (lib. 5), Pliny (lib. x. cap. 2),  Solinus (cap. 46),
Ovid (Metamorph.  15),  Philostratus {de  vita  Apollonii, lib. 3),  P.
Mela (lib. 3. s. 9), Mariana,  the  Spanish historian (lib. 4. cap. l.)j
and an hundred others.  It has been observed, by one of the transla-
tors of the works of Tacitus, that " the accounts given by the ancients
of this wonderful bird,  if collected together,  would swell into a vo-
lume."   A well-written, and not too  voluminous,  dissertation,  or
memoir, on the subject is, so far as I  know,  a work which is still
desiderated.

  * See Elements of Botany.   Part ii. pages  18, 19 
APPENDIX.
89
                      Note Y.—Page 68.
  I hope I shall be able to show, in my Strictures on Dr. Robertson's
History of  America,  that what I have here  said of that work is
neither unjust nor  too severe.
                      Note Z.—Page 68.
  Sir Walter Raleigh's account of headless men, with eyes in their
breasts, is  contained  in the history of his voyage in  search of El
Dorado. In justice to Raleigh,  it must be mentioned,  that he does
not pretend to have seen these extraordinary men: but says he gave
credit to the account of their existence on the authority of persons
who  said they had seen such  men.  On such ground, we are not
permitted to tax the veracity of the great but unfortunate English-
man. And who would wish to  find in such a man as Raleigh, the
" blandae mendacia linguae." I wish  he  had said nothing about the
Armadillo: or, at least that he had omitted the story of the " white
horn growing in his hinder parts, as big as a great hunting hom,
which they use to wind instead of a trumpet." It is  certain that the
Armadillo has no such apparatus as this.—It is a curious circum-
stance,  but it is a fact, that the most substantial ( charges that have
been brought against the  veracity (I will not say the morality)  of
Sir Walter Raleigh, are founded on the  marvellous stories which I
have mentioned.   This ought to be a lesson to great men not to be
too pliant in their belief, or rather their  credulity;  and not to sport
with the  public,  in their  accounts of the productions  of  nature,
however seemingly inconsiderable they may be.  I know not how to
explain the  story of the  Armadillo.  I will not consent to believe,
that the relator told a wilful falsehood.
                       Note A*.—Page 68.
  I have not now an opportunity of consulting the original work of
Herrera.  It is possible that Stevens's translation, the only one I had
at hand, may have led me to think rather unfavourably of the Span.
ish writer, in this  respect.  Perhaps,  Herrera does not say,, that the
Trochilus dies, but merely that it passes into a very  profound sleep.
It is certain* that others of the Spanish writers allude to the tor- 
90
APPENDIX.
pidity,  and not the death, of the little bird.  De Laet has collected
the sentiments bf one  or more of these writers, in the  following
words.  " Inter volatilia merito laudatur, avicula longe minima, instar
papilionis oblongo  rostro & incredibili  plumarum subtilitate atque
elegantia: (e quibus componuntur singulari industria  imagines,  haud
secus quam si coloribus essent pictae) rore tantum, qui floribus insi-
det, instar apum victitans."—" Huitzitzil appellari, scribit Fr.  Xim-
enez, & floribus marcescentibus,  arborum  truncis rostrum infigere,
atque ita immobilem instar mortuae illis adhaerescere per sex menses,
donee pluviis redeuntibus Flora rursus campos vestiat*."  As it is a
fact, that the Trochilus  is  susceptible of the torpid state, and has
even  been found torpid in Pennsylvania, Maryland,  &c, it is wor-
thy of the attention of naturalists to institute a  set of experiments
to  ascertain the laws  of this  torpidity.   And  such experiments
might be made without much difficulty.  I  have no  doubt, that the
greater  number of the Humming-birds,  which are seen about Phila-
delphia, and in other northern parts of the United-States, migrate
to us from the southward; from Mexico,  the West-India islands,
&c.  But it is highly probable,  that a few of these birds have slept
away  the winter among us;  and are  not  completely roused  from
their  death-like slumbers,  until the season of inflorescence returns.


  * Novus Orbis seu Descriptions India Occidentalis Libri xviii.  Authore
Joanne de Laet, Antwerp, lib. v. cap. xvii. p. 256.  Lugd. Batav. 1633.
THE END 
 
 
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