from which to most readers they cal inaccuracies. His materials appear will derive no inconsiderable accession to be complete, and he has abundantly of interest, we have been debarred fortified himself with documents. Some from entering into a minute investiga- of these are equally novel and curious. tion of their merits. We cannot, how- A part of them were preserved by his ever, conclude our brief and cursory own vigilance; but for a considerable notice of this work without recoin- proportion of the more important pamending it, if due allowance be made pers relating to the revolutionary war, for the prejudices under which it was he is indebted to the New-York evidently written, as a copious source Historical Society, who allowed him both of information and amusement. If every facility of access to their valuthe first volume were republished, separately, a considerable edition of it might readily be sold. General Wilkinson's style is bold and fluent, but marred by many grammati able collections, although the General, with an ingratitude he would not have failed to condemn in another, has omitted an acknowledgment of this courtesy. ART. 8. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE. Account and Proceedings of the New-York Historical Society. AMONG the literary institutions poses, the Society, on the 11th of March Saml. L. Mitchill, M. D. on Zoology and Geology. which do honour to this city, (of last, resolved to establish lectureships all of which we propose, as opportunity on the various branches of Natural Iliswill admit, to publish an account.) the tory, and appointed the following genHistorical Society, especially since the tlemen lecturers: extension of its plan, occupies a distinguished rank. Its utility is sufficiently evinced by the volumes of its collec tions already given to the world-in embracing the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms within the range of its researches, we may expect from its investigations results proportionably important to the wider scope indulged to inquiry. This Society was incorporated in the year 1804. The objects of the association, as defined in the charter, are the collection and preservation of what ever may relate to the natural, civil, literary, and ecclesiastical history of the United States, and of this State in particular. To carry into effect these pur David Hosack, M. D. on Botany and Vegetable Physiology. George Gibbs, Esq. on Mineralogy. Mr. John Griscom, on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. The reports made to the Society by the Committees, to whose consideration these several subjects were referred, are subjoined. They will serve to exhibit the spirit in which the Society propose to prosecute their design, and will, we trust, excite a correspondent zeal in the public. The reports are accompanied by circular letters from the Chairmen of the respective Committees, intended to be addressed to gentlemen who might probably be able to contribute specimens to their cabinets, or facts to their archives. REPORT ON ZOOLOGY. Pursuant to a resolve of the Historical Society, at the meeting held in the New York Institution, on the 11th day of March. 1817, the Committee on Zoology offered a Report concerning the means of promoting that Department of Natural Science. FOR carrying into effect the design of the Society, measures ought to be adopted to form a cabinet of Zoology. Some of the leading objects are comprehended in the following summary; from which it will appear, that the collection of facts, specimens, draw ings, and books, may be commenced immediately; that all the citizens may be solicited to exert themselves, and that much may be accomplished with very little cost. From the class of Polypes, inhabiting the depths of the ocean, are derived the productions called Zoophytes and Lithophytes.Every article belonging to the Gorgonias and Corals, to the Madrepores and Flustras, and to each of the kindred families, is worthy of a place in the Museum. The Radiary animals furnish productions no less interesting. In particular, the Asterias with its constellation of sea-stars, and the Echinus with its brood of sea-urchins, will furnish many species, easy to be gather ed, transmitted, and preserved. So little has hitherto been done in relation to our Insects, that almost the whole field of ENTOMOLOGY remains to be cultivated. In an effort to form a collection of these numer. ons swarms, all hands may be employed. There being no particular difficulty either in procuring and preserving these creatures, it may be expected, that in a few years, all the larger animals of this class may be possessed by the Society, and disposed according to the most approved of the imodern systems. on a board, it is desirable that at least all new species should be brought forward for examination and description. Important additions may has be made to our ICHTHYOLO GY. To a people, who already consider their FISHERIES of the utmost importance, both to the States, and to the nation, no additional recommendation is necessary, farther than to ask of our fellow-citizens all manner of communications. Among the amphibious orders, tortoises, frogs, serpents, and lizards, are so easily preserved, that individuals of this kind are solicited from such persons as feel a generous ardour to favour the views of the Society. Contributions towards the history of the Almost Mammalia, may be expected from the fur merchants, furriers, and hunters. every thing known under the titles of FURS and PELIRIES, passes through our city, or is contained within it By application to the proper sources of intelligence, there is a confident expectation of a rich return of all the matters comprised in their respective provinces. It is not generally understood, what extensive and important knowledge, on these subjects, is in store within a great city, ready to be imparted to those who will seek it. Anatomy is the basis of improved Zoolo gy. The classification of animals is founded upon their organization. This can be ascer tained only by dissection. The use of the knife is recommended for the purpose of acquiring acquaintance with the structure of animals. It is proposed, that the members avail themselves of all opportunities to cultivate COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, and to communicate the result of their labours and researches to the Society. There is, perhaps, no department of the science more replete with novelty and instruction, and with the means of conferring wide and lasting reputation to those who skilfully engage in it. To exhibit and perpetuate the researches of the gentlemen who undertake the arduous task of anatomical examination, the accomThe Crustaceous class will also furnish plishment of SKETCHING and DRAWING is an specimens, easy to be preserved and trans- indispensable qualification. Beyond the reported. From the extensive families of Crabs, presentation of internal appearances, wheLobsters, and their congeners, a becoming ther healthy or morbid, this art applies to all outward forms that stand in need of delineadiligence will gather abundant supplies. Molluscous animals make important and tion. It is recommended to the members to elegant contributions to Naturalists. Their procure plates and pictures of natural obunivalve, bivalve, and mutivalve shells, jects, and bring them for safe keeping and commonly survive their authors. Their ar- popular utility, to be placed in the portfolios rangement into genera and species, forms the of the Society. There would be an inexcusable omission science of CONCHOLOGY. It is recommended that early and persevering pains be bestowed in passing over unnoticed, the VETERINARY upon this subject, and that these beautiful ART OF PROFESSION. The diseases of domesproductions be methodized after the most tie animals are deeply and intimately conexcellent of the plans that have been propos- nected with the property and comfort of man. Every thing that can illustrate or cure the ed. distempers of sheep, neat cattle, horses, swine, dogs, poultry, and of quadrupeds and Considering the facility with which fishes may be preserved, by drying their half skins birds generally, will be highly acceptable. This valuable branch of knowledge, known by the name of Epizootic, deserves more particular cultivation than it has hitherto received among us. Books on the various branches of Natural History, are eminently desirable. They will constitute the Library which the Society in tends to form. There can be no doubt that many important volumes from Aristotle up to Lamarck, might be collected from their scattered sources, if proper pains were taken. It is recommended, that every exertion be made to effectuate this object. Proprietors and authors may frequently be found, will ing to be liberal, as soon as they are satisfied that a worthy occasion presents FOSSILS ought to be collected with particular care. The organic remains of vegetables and animals, imbedded in stone, or buried in the other strata of the earth, are frequent in our region. Some of them resemble living species; while others are not known, at present, to be inhabitants of this globe. From the Ocean to the Lakes, they present themselves to the eye of the Geologist Let them be gathered into one body. Let the Mastodons, Crocodiles, Encrinites, Pectinites, Ammo. nites, Belemnites, and other reliques of the extinct races, be assembled and classed, and then let the philosopher survey the whole, and draw wise and pious conclusions. The city of New-York may be considered as a centre surrounded by wonders of this sort; and the great Lakes, with their tributary streams, exhibit testimonials no less surprising and characteristic. Zoological research is promoted in several ways by foreign commerce. Living animals are frequently imported; and these, when ever circumstances are favourable, ought to be examined, and if necessary to be described and figured. Cargoes, and even ballast, often contain excellent specimens, both of the animal and fossil kind. Peculiar creatures are known to inhabit the outer bottoms of vessels, where they may be seen before they are disturbed for the purpose of cleaning and repairing. Sometimes, too, fishes, not usually visiters of our harbours, follow the track of ships from the Ocean, and offer themselves to the curiosity of the Naturalist. All these sources of knowledge deserve to be carefully explored Persons who favour the Society with donations, will be honourably noticed and remembered: their offerings shall be duly registered and labelled. As. from its act of incorporation, it possesses succession and perpetuity, the contributions of public spirited individuals are exempted from the fate too often incidental to private establishments. They will endure for a great length of years, and descend to future generations. > Remarks on the more elaborate and expen. sive preparations of Zoology, are reserved for a future report. In the mean time, it is supposed the matters herein suggested, will, for a season, occupy all the industry of the members and their friends. The Committee, however, cannot close, without an earnest recommendation to the study of MAN. The migrations of human beings from Tartary, Scandinavia, and Polynesia, to the north-western, north-eastern, and south-western regions of America, merit extraordinary attention. There is nothing extravagant in the belief, that colonies, or bands of adventurers, by the way of the Aleutian Islands, the shores of Greenland, and the Pacific Ocean, penetrated our Continent at an early day; and that their descendants settled, by bloodshed and exterminating wars, their respective claims to the country situa ted south of the middle Lakes, four or five hundred years before the voyage of Columbus. All which is respectfully submitted. SAMUEL L. MITCHILL, Chairman. New-York, 11th March, 1817. REPORT ON BOTANY AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY, Read at a Meeting of the Historical Society, held at the New-York Institution, on the 8th day of April, 1817. THE Committee, to whom these subjects have been referred by the Historical Society, report That they have given the necessary directions to have the apartments, assigned them for the branches of Natural History committed to their care. fitted up in such a manner as will be best calculated to display to advantage the various vegetable productions which they may be enabled to collect. That, pursuant to the resolutions passed at the last meeting of the Society, an application has been made to the Governors of the New-York Hospital, soliciting the use of the Herbarium in their possession, and to have the same placed in the apartments of the Historical Society, as a basis upon which to erect a similar cabinet in this Institution. The Committee have great pleasure in acknowledging the promptitude and liberality with which the governors of the Hospital have complied with the request of this Society. The Committee also, with great satisfaction, observe, that the Hortus Siccus referred to, consists of several thousand plants in a very good state of preservation, and well calculated to illustrate both the generic and specific characters of the plants which it contains. Some of these, too, they perceive, have been preserved and designated by the hands of the illustrious Swede himself, being duplicates taken from the original collection now in the eminent station in the cultivation of this depossession of Sir James Edward Smith, by partment of Natural History: looking too. to whom they were presented to the Chairman our climate and the advantages of our local of this Committee. Others again, were col situation as peculiarly favourable to the lected and preserved by the late celebrated cultivation of this branch of knowledge, Professor Vahl, of Copenhagen, and are they have most liberally sent us large colnamed by the hand of that Prince of Bota- lections of seeds, particularly of such plants as nists. Some of his original letters accom- they conceived would be most useful, either pany the plants, which he from time to time as articles employed in the healing art, which transmitted. Since his death, his successor, enter into the diet of mankind, are cultivated Professor Hornemann. and Mr Hoffman as food for cattle, or are made use of in agriBang, of that city, have kindly continued culture, or in the various arts and manufactheir correspondence and contributions of tures which contribute to the comfort of man. dried plants. The Committee acknowledge, with great Another valuable part of this Herbarium, pleasure, the reception of a large collection more especially consisting of the gramineous of seeds from Monsieur Thouin, the Proand herbaceous plants growing in the neigh- fessor of Agriculture and Botany at the Jarbourhood of London, has been communica- din des Plantes. of Paris, and another from ted by the late Mr. William Curtis, the au- our learned countryman, Mr. Jefferson, as thor of the Flora Londinensis. lately received by him from his European correspondents. Those seeds have all been conveyed to the Botanic Garden, where, in the hands of the present curator, Mr Andrew Gentle, they will doubtless be cultivated with great care and fidelity. Mr. James Dickson, the celebrated British Cryptogamist, has also enriched this collection by a most valuable assemblage of the Musci, and some of the other orders of the Cryptogamous class. The collection of the plants of Scotland, made by the President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of this city, Doctor Samuel Bard, when a student at the University of Edinburgh, and for which he received the honorary medal conferred by Professor Hope, constitutes a part of our cabinet. Many of the plants of this and the neighbouring states, preserved and arranged by Cadwallader Colden, formerly Lieutenant Governor of New York, have also been recently added by his grandson, Cadwallader D. Colden, Esq. of this city. Much also has been done in collecting the vegetable products of this island, more parti. cularly those plants which grow in the vicinity of this city. The names of our learned coadjutor, Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, the Professor of Natural History, Frederick Pursh, the author of the North American Flora, lately published, Mr. Andrew Michaux, the historian of the American woods, Caspar Wistar Eddy, M. D. John Le Conte, Esq. Dr. Rafineau Alire Delile, the learned editor of the Flora of Egypt, and who, while finish ing his course of education at the Medical School of this city, industriously collected the native plants of our island, frequently appear as the contributors to this collection. The Committee also take this occasion to observe, that since the purchase made of the Elgin Botanic Garden has become extensively known, many persons distinguished for their knowledge and love of botanical science, have directed their attention to the State of New-York, as taking a decided and pre See Life of Mr William Smellie, by Robert Kerr, F.R.S. Ed. vol. I. p. 94. The Committee cannot conclude this report without earnestly expressing the hope, that the Legislature may extend to this infant establishment a portion of that unexampled munificence and liberality with which they have fostered most of the literary institutions of this State. A small annual appropriation added to the present proceeds of the Garden, and judiciously expended under the direction of the Historical Society or of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, it is confidently believed would, in a few years, render the Botanic Garden one of the most useful establishments, at the same time that it would prove one of the most distinguished ornaments of our State and country: for, in the language of a late British writer",-"No region of the earth seems more appropriate to the improvement of botany, by the collecting and cultivating of plants, than that where the Elgin Botanic Garden is seated. Nearly midway between the northern and southern extremities of the vast American continent, and not more than forty degrees to the north of the equator, it commands resources of incalculable extent; and the European botanist will look to it for additions to his catalogue of the highest in terest. "The indigenous botany of America possess most important qualities, and to that we trust the cultivators of this science will par ticularly turn their attention. It can hardly be considered as an act of the imagination, (so far does what has already been discovered countenance the most sanguine expectations,) * See the London Medical and Physical Jour nal. to conjecture, that in the unexplored wilderness of mountain, forest, and marsh, which composes so much of the Western World, lie hidden plants of extraordinary forms and potent qualities. All which is respectfully submitted. DAVID HOSACK, Chairman. REPORT ON MINERALOGY. THE Mineralogical Committee of the New-York Historical Society, having by their order prepared an apartment for the purpose of receiving and displaying a collection of the minerals and fossils of the United States, beg leave to communicate to the public the arrangements that have been made, and the further claims of the Society to the patronage of the friends of science. They beg leave also to state, that it would be extremely useful to the Society to have the exact localitics of the minerals determined, and such further information of the neighbouring country, as the donor can procure. By order of the Mineralogical Committee, GEORGE GIBBS, Chairman. FOREIGN LITERATURE. A SELECTION of Biblical Criticisms on the Books of the Old Testament, Translations from the Sacred Songs, with notes, from the papers of the late Bishop HORSLEY, is preparing for publication. Corrections and Additions to Rees' CyclopeAIR CHURCHILL is preparing for the press, dia, which will extend to the whole of that The Memoirs of the Life and Writings of DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, comprising his pri printed from the original manuscripts be vate and familiar correspondence, now first queathed to his grandson Wm. Temple Franklin, Esq. have been issued from the press. We understand that a series of letters is Preparing for publication, written by the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield to Mr. Arthur Stanhope, relative to the education of his son Philip, the late Earl. The progress of the science of mineralogy in the United States has been very satisfactory Voluminous work, and be printed in the same to its friends in this country, and the labours size and type, so as to form a proper and neof American min ralogists have met with cessary companion to it. great applause in Europe. Several new species, and many varieties of minerals, have been discovered here, and the increasing attention to this science promises many interesting and valuable discoveries. But in a country so vast and so recently settled as the United States, we can hardly expect to find many who have visited, for mineralogical objects, any very large portion of its territory. The researches of most of them have been limited to their own state or the district in which they live. A great number of valuable specimens remain in the hands of persons who, either ignorant of their value, preserve them only for temporary gratification, or, who having no object in making a collection, would be very happy to place them where they would become useful, in a public Institution. "To collect these scattered materials of our natural history, to display the riches of the mineral kingdom of each of our states; to inform the scientific traveller and citizen; to encourage the growing taste of this science in our country; to communicate discoveries and invite researches; are objects so useful, so important, that it would be impossible to doubt of the public favour being shown to this undertaking. Dr. Mason, of New York, who is now in titled, A Plea for Catholic Communion, in this country, has published a new work, enone vol. 8vo. This has already reached a second edition. Walter Scott, Esq. has announced a new History of Scotland, from the earliest records to the year 1745, in 3 vols. 8vo. A new novel may soon be expected from the pen of Mr. Godwin, under the title of Mandeville, a domestic story of the seventeenth century. A History of the late war in Spain and FRANCE. Literary and Philosophical Institution. et á Genes, which Mr. Millen, Keeper of the The Voyage en Savoie, en Piemont, à Nice Royal Cabinet of Medals and Antiques, has just published, in 2 vols. 8vo. forming the first ticulars respecting the antiquities of the cities part of his Tour in Italy, contains many parvisited by the Author. The Corporation of the city of New-York having, with characteristic liberality, accommodated the Historical Society with a suite of apartments for this purpose, they have now been fitted up with cases with glass doors, one case being devoted to each state, after the manner adopted in the national collection at the Ecole des Mines at Paris. The Committee beg leave, therefore, to request donations of minerals and fossils for their collection, from the scientific and patriotic in every part of the Union. They will be received with grateful acknowledg- the academy of sciences, ordered the erecThe King of Bavaria has, in a rescript to mments, and displayed to the best advantage. tion of a new observatory, for which he has, GERMANY. |