[263a]. Towards the incorporation of either one or the other of these institutions with the present establishment of the Pennsylvania Hospital, the managers possess, also, sixteen shares of stock in the Bank of Pennsylvania, bestowed by the First Troop of Cavalry in Philadelphia. The product of this noble and very valuable donation, and which is considered as being equivalent to a capital stock of $8503.33, will, most probably, be wholly applied to the support of a Lying-in Hospital, as part of the great institution.
[263b]. Thirty pounds a year were payable to Mrs. Abington, a daughter of Dr. Chovet, during her life, on account of this purchase. That annuity has very recently been extinguished, by the death of the annuitant.
[263c]. See the Port Folio, for January, 1810.
[263d]. When this Academy was first established, the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson was appointed ‘Professor of Ancient Literature’ in the institution; an office merely honorary.
[264]. Of these, Francis Alison, D. D. a learned and worthy presbyterian clergyman, was vice-provost, and professor of moral philosophy; the Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley, M. A. an eminent electrician and an amiable man, was professor of English and oratory; John Beveridge, M. A. an excellent scholar in the learned languages (some of whose Latin epistolary writings, in metrical language, after the manner of Horace, possess a considerable portion of merit and discover much classical purity of style,) was professor of languages; and Hugh Williamson, M. A. (now M. D.) a gentleman of distinguished talents, was professor of mathematics.
The last mentioned of these eminently meritorious characters is yet living. He enjoys the respect and esteem due to a man who, in the course of a long life, devoted much of his time and talents to the promotion of learning, useful knowledge, and the welfare of his country. Of the other three, who have, long since, passed on to “that bourn from which no traveller returns,” the following circumstances are worthy of being preserved in remembrance, by those who shall hereafter record the history of literature and science, in this country.
Dr. Alison was one of the first persons in the middle colonies, who, foreseeing the ignorance into which this part of the country seemed inclined to fall, set up a regular school of education here. He was long employed in the education of youth at New-London Cross-roads, in Pennsylvania, before his appointment to the vice-provostship of the college of Philadelphia; and many persons, who afterwards made a distinguished figure in this country, were bred under his tuition. The University of Glasgow, being well informed of the pious and faithful labours of this valuable man, in propagating useful knowledge in these then untutored parts of the world, created him a Doctor of Divinity: He was honoured with this degree, without any solicitation whatever on his part.
Mr. Kinnersley possessed great merit, in the estimation of the learned world, “in being the chief inventor of the Electrical Apparatus, as well as author of a considerable part of those discoveries in Electricity, published by Mr. Franklin, to whom he communicated them. Indeed Mr. Franklin himself mentions his name with honour; though he has not been careful enough to distinguish between their particular discoveries. This, perhaps, he may have thought needless, as they were known to act in concert. But, though that circumstance was known here, it was not so in remote parts of the world, to which the fame of these discoveries has extended.” The passage here quoted, is copied from an account of the college and academy of Philadelphia, published in October, 1758.
Dr. Franklin’s experiment with the electrical kite—which established the theory on which the metallic conductors of lightning were introduced, for the security of buildings, and those within them, from injury by that element—was made in June, 1752; and his letter, giving an account of it, is dated the 19th of October following. But Mr. de Romas, a Frenchman, to whom his countryman the Abbé Bertholon ascribes the honour of the experiment with the kite, made his first attempt on the 14th of May, 1753: he did not succeed, until the 7th of the next month; a year after Dr. Franklin had completed his experiments, and then generally known in Europe. It is noticed by the late ingenious Dr. Stuber, of Philadelphia, in his continuation of the Life of Franklin, that “his (Dr. Franklin’s) friend, Mr. Kinnersley, communicated to him a discovery of” (what Dr. Stuber terms) “the different kinds of electricity, excited by rubbing glass and sulphur.” This, it is said, was first observed by Mr. Du Faye; though afterwards not attended to, for many years. It seems, however, that the electricians of Europe, with Du Faye himself, had conceived a mistaken notion on this subject; and that Franklin had, at first, adopted their doctrine. “But,” says the continuator of his Life, “upon repeating the experiments, he perceived that Mr. Kinnersley was right; and the vitreous and the resinous electricity of Du Faye were nothing more than the positive and negative states which he had before observed; that the glass globe charged positively, or encreased the quantity of electricity on the prime conductor,—whilst the globe of sulphur diminished its natural quantity, or charged negatively.”
Mr. Beveridge, who was appointed by the trustees of the college and academy of Philadelphia, in June, 1758, professor of languages in that institution, was one of the ablest masters of the Latin tongue; and wrote many poetical pieces in that language, in a style of superior purity and elegance. This excellent Latin scholar originally taught a grammar-school in Edinburgh, under the patronage of the celebrated Mr. Ruddiman. While in that station, he taught the Latin to Mr. Thomas Blacklock, the well-known blind poet; and it was during this time, that Blacklock wrote his fine paraphrase of Psalm CIV. which his friend Beveridge afterwards rendered into Latin verse. A collection of Mr. Beveridge’s poetical pieces, under the title of Epistolæ Familiares et alia quædam miscellanea, was published at Philadelphia, in the year 1765.