[261a]. Said to be Dr. Caldwell, of Philadelphia. See the Port Folio.
[261b]. Casper Wister, M. D. Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the University of Pennsylvania, was, for some years before the death of Dr. Shippen, his adjunct professor in the same chair; to which station, this eminent teacher in those branches of medicine was appointed by the trustees of the university, at the request of his late colleague.
[262]. William Shippen, jun. M. D. just mentioned, was the professor of anatomy; Adam Kuhn, M. D. a distinguished pupil of the celebrated Linnæus, was professor of botany, united with the materia medica; Benjamin Rush, M. D. a learned and able professor of the theory and practice of physick, then held the chemical chair; and Dr. Thomas Bond, an ingenious and eminent physician, gave clynical lectures in the Pennsylvania Hospital. In the year 1789, the trustees of the College of Philadelphia instituted a professorship of natural history and botany; which was then conferred on Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D. Dr. Kuhn had formerly delivered several courses of lectures on botany, in the College of Philadelphia; but natural history had never before been taught there. On the union of the College with the University, in the year 1791, Dr. Barton’s former appointment was confirmed by the trustees of the united institution; and in the year 1796, he was further appointed by them to the professorship of materia medica; that chair having been then vacated by the resignation of the late professor of that branch of medical science.
The other chairs, in the Medical Department of the University, are filled as follows; viz. that of Anatomy, by Casper Wister, M. D.—of the Theory and Practice of Physick, by Benjamin Rush, M. D.[[262a]]—of Chemistry, by John Redman Coxe, M. D.—of Materia Medica, Botany and Natural History, by Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D.—of Surgery, by Philip Syng Physick, M. D. and John S. Dorsey, M. D.—and of Midwifery, by Thomas Chalkley James, M. D.
Among these collegiate-chairs in medicine, appertaining to the University of Pennsylvania, the only one which appears to be deficient in a suitable appendage to its institution—and this, too, such an appendage as may be considered almost indispensably necessary to it—is the Professorship of Botany. To this chair, a Botanical Garden ought to be appurtenant: and accordingly we find, that this requisite for rendering a Botanical Professorship complete, in most Universities, is the establishment of such a Garden, for the use of the Teacher and his Pupils.
The importance that is attached to institutions of this kind, in foreign seminaries of learning, will be perceived from the following sketches of those in three of the most celebrated universities of Europe.
The Botanical Garden (called the “Physick Garden”) of the university of Oxford, contains five acres of ground. It is surrounded by a noble wall, with portals in the rustic style, at proper distances. The passage to the grand entrance is through a small court: this principal portal is of the Doric order, ornamented with rustic work, and adorned with a bust of Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby, the founder; besides statues of the kings Charles I. and II.
The ground is divided into four quarters. On each side of the entrance, is a neat and convenient green-house, stocked with a great variety of exotics. The quarters are filled with indigenous plants, properly classed; and without the walls is an admirable hot-house, filled with various plants, the production of warm climates.
These fine and spacious gardens were instituted by Lord Danby, so early as the year 1632; and this nobleman having supplied them with the necessary plants, for the use of the students of Botany in the university, endowed the establishment with an annual revenue, for its support. The Gardens were afterwards much improved by Dr. Sherrard, who assigned a fund of 3000l. sterling, for the maintenance of a professor of Botany. Over the grand entrance into the Gardens is this inscription: “Gloriæ Dei Optimi, maximi honori Caroli I. Regis, in usum Academieœ et Reipublicæ, Henricus Comes Danby, anno 1632.”
The Botanic Garden, at Cambridge, consists of nearly five acres, well watered. The ground, with a large house for the use of the governors and officers of the Garden, was purchased at the expense of about 1600l. sterling, by Dr. Richard Walker.