William Paul Crillon Barton

“ Not, gentlemen, that I would hazard the vain, the empty, nay, the untrue assertion, that science has no votaries left in this country,—but, that her genius and talents exist at this epoch of our history, in the younger portion of our scientifick population, is a position I feel neither the fear of contradiction in advancing, nor the apprehension of disappointment, in cherishing with the warmest enthusiasm. ”

“ I have, however, the satisfaction of observing, that these sciences are making some, nay, even great, advances among us; and I still flatter myself, that the directors of our principal American universities, or other seminaries of learning, but, in particular, the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, (in which all the branches of medicine are taught much more extensively than in any other part of the United States) will see the propriety and even necessity, of giving more substantial encouragement for the extension of natural history among us. ”

“ Three days before his death he wrote a memoir on a new genus of plants, named in honour of him, and requested me to make a drawing of one of the species to accompany it. This I did, and at the next meeting of the Philosophical Society, I read this memoir for him. It will of course make its appearance in the next printed volume of that society's transactions, and must always be viewed as a memento of his wonderful activity of mind, which continued its operations for the elucidation of science even to the last day or two of his life—and this too in the midst of disease, of pain, and of sorrow. ”

“ Nature was not equal to the task imposed on her. And as she ever, returns in sickness and in disease the hours which are purloined by active minds, from her customary and necessary rest, Dr. Barton soon perceived the pernicious consequences of his midnight and injudicious toils. That his efforts to support the reputation of the university curtailed his existence I firmly believe. He had delivered but two courses of lectures in the practical chair, when his increasing ill health forced him to have recourse to the last resort to renovate his constitution: I mean a sea voyage. ”

“ These frank confessions of faults do honour to a young author, more especially, to one who afterwards acquired so much literary fame as the late Professor Barton. They are introduced on this occasion, as a laudable example of candour, in a man of great intellectual powers—as one worthy of being imitated by all young authors too tenacious of their own opinions. ”

“ He upheld the value of skepticism in his lectures—and in one of his publications he thus expresses himself: "Credulity is the most injurious feature in the character of the naturalist, as well as of the historian. 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."
The genius of Dr. Barton was of the highest grade: it was rapid, comprehensive, and brilliant in the extreme. ”

“ During this span of time, it has been my fate to see four [1] of five professors, who were my teachers when I entered the university, pay the debt of nature. And though two [2] of these were, in the paths whither their peculiar talents directed their labours and their zeal, the brightest figures in the history of our country's science—yet I cannot add, that the spirit of the comments I have given on the words of Mark Antony, has been either conceived or applied in relation to their memories. ”

“ The energy and fervour he had once shown in teaching those branches, he believed himself no longer capable of, neither did he wish to substitute for the necessary perambulatory excursions with his botanical class (which had been always frequent) the tame and uninstructive lectures of an old, and, what is an inevitable consequence, of a closet teacher.—He well knew that demonstrative branches, like those of natural history, could neither be faithfully taught nor properly elucidated by a man whose age naturally made him prone to the more inactive pursuits of life. ”

“ Rittenhouse, who early perceived and acknowledged the talents of his young relative, procured for him this important situation—important, as it gave the first impulse to that spirit of inquiry and research into the history of our Indians, which has resulted in an accumulation of so many curious materials relative to their origin and the affinities of their language.
This learned man continued to Dr. Barton, through life, a firm and a constant, as he was an illustrious friend. ”

“ On such occasions, the great body of society possesses an interest in having the deserts of such of its members as have distinguished themselves by eminent attainments, and useful pursuits, duly appreciated:—literary and professional men, and the votaries of science, are more particularly interested in commemorating, with suitable demonstrations of honour and respect, the names of those, who, by their learning, their abilities, and their zealous exertions, have contributed largely to augment the mass of useful knowledge, and, consequently, to confer proportionable benefits upon mankind. ”

“ Barton did not despise these adventitious aids of science, and he often declared it as his opinion, that no man could become a nice, discriminating, and eminent botanist, without possessing that acumen in perception of proportion, colour, harmony of design, and obscure differences in the objects of the vegetable world, which alone belong to the eye of a painter. ”

“ As a physician, he discovered a mind quick in discriminating diseases, skilful in the application of appropriate remedies, though he certainly was a very cautious if not timid practitioner. No man read more extensively on the subject of diseases—in fact he was deeply versed in pathological knowledge, derived from books. As however his medical practice was never very extensive, his practical observations delivered in his lectures were strikingly marked with the evidences of overweening caution. Hence he recommended to his pupils, and always employed himself, unusually small doses of medicine. ”

“ I beg leave in relating the benefits to natural science that resulted from the labours of the late industrious Professor, to quote what I have published on this point in the preface of my Prodromus of a Flora Philadelphica. "During this period Professor Barton delivered twenty-five courses of lectures on botany, in which he inculcated a high sense of the real benefits of the pursuit, in a medical point of view, with an enthusiasm that gave unequivocal evidence of his attachment to the interests of the science and the honour of the university. ”

“ Does it not whisper to the moral ear this truth—that humanity is frail? And how artfully does it not insinuate, that if Cæsar had faults, his funeral dirge ought not to be the vehicle of their publicity, but contrived rather as a sacred seal, to preserve them from the eye of malice, or the finger of scorn. ”

“ In undertaking this task, however, I feel myself agitated by mingled emotions of sorrow and complacency; as friends of science, you, gentlemen, will more especially participate in those regrets, which the community in general ever suffers, from a privation of the usefulness and example of an eminent citizen; while good and enlightened men universally, derive a pleasing gratification from recognising merit, and doing honour to the memory of departed worth. ”

“ He manifested too, very early in life, a vivid fancy for drawing; and in the execution of his designs with the pencil, at an immature age, he discovered that taste and genius in the art, which he afterwards cultivated with much success, and practised, in occasional hours of leisure, with great accuracy. This was a talent that he often rendered subservient to his pursuits in natural history and botany; [5] branches of science which are greatly assisted in their acquisition by the investigator possessing, himself, a facility in copying the subjects appertaining to them. ”

“ Death extinguishes that spirit of jealousy and envy, which too often assails the fair fame of eminent men, during their lives, and thus affords an opportunity to all—even to the invidious themselves—to contemplate the character of a great man dispassionately, and to form a just estimate of its value. ”

“ When we compare the conduct of this intelligent Dane in relation to the points just hinted at, with the disgustful vanity of their own, and unqualified anathemas of the genius of our country, so continually exhibited by the herd of poverty-stricken and needy foreigners which swarms around us—who abuse while they receive their bread from us—and poison our reputation while they would starve but for our charity—we cannot fail to draw conclusions highly in his favour. ”

“ Unable, from his professional engagements, to travel himself, and search out these curious spoils, he employed the talents of others, whom taste may have qualified, while their circumstances incapacitated them for such pursuits. To these he afforded, liberally, the requisite funds, and necessary information. The only remuneration Dr. Barton received for these unequivocal demonstrations of his love for science, were the acquisition to Himself and others, of useful and novel information, and the thanks and acknowledgments of those who were the subjects of his liberality. ”

“ Barton was translated from the chair of materia medica to the practical chair, relative to which it is necessary to make a few remarks. From the preceding sketch of Dr. Barton's character, you will not be long in concluding that he was a man of high ambition. The fact is so. He possessed this passion in relation to matters of literary reputation and science, in a most exalted degree. He had long viewed the splendour of professor Rush's deserved elevation in the paths of medical science, with emotions that could not but stimulate him to more vigorous and Continued exertions to equal his fame. ”

“ Barton, introduced him speedily into notice, and soon after he began to get into some practice as a physician. By his reputation, too, for attainments in natural science, he acquired literary and academick honours, at a period of life when, in ordinary cases, the conferring of such would be deemed premature; for soon after his return to America, [12] he was chosen a member of the American Philosophical Society in this city, of which he became on the 1st of Jan. 1802, one of the vice-presidents, an office he continued to hold till the day of his death. ”

“ He always spoke with extreme impatience of the arrogance of pretending foreigners of the literary grade, too many of whom resort to our country, being nothing in their own, and perpetually insult us by their vain and insufferable denunciations of our claims to national genius, talents and learning. ”

“ Pederson, minister from the king of Denmark to the United States; a gentleman to whom this country is indebted not only for an extensive portion of good will and high estimation, but for the meritorious exertions he has, ever since he came among us, been in the habit of making, to circulate our scientifick works among the literati of his own country—exertions which his diplomatick situation and praiseworthy intentions, afford him great facilities of performing in a manner highly creditable to our reputation for national talent and learning. ”

“ It is my object to collect materials for a history of these extinct animals and vegetables, the remains or impressions of which are daily discovered in the rapid progress of American population and improvement. I can hardly flatter myself that my time, devoted as it must be to other, and to me more important pursuits, will ever permit me to prosecute these archaeological inquiries very far ”

“ His publick lectures, and his various works, the rich harvest of his meritorious exertions, soon relieved him from the pressure of indigence, and the mental uneasiness, nay, sometimes distraction, that supervenes upon it. He whose mental exertions survive such a fate, and who perseveres through it, is not, believe me, a common man! ”

“ The authors of these tracts were scattered annually through different sections of the United States; many of them cherished the love for botanick pursuits which they had imbibed here—they became botanists—and thus have the exertions of the Professor been seen and felt beyond the precincts of the university. In addition to these facts, it may be mentioned, that many years ago Dr. Barton successfully applied himself to the production of an elementary work on the principles of botany, of acknowledged excellence. ”

“ Barton in medicine. To the important lectures on this subject, continued by him till the period when the loss of one of the great pillars of this medical school afforded him an opportunity of a translation to the vacant chair of the practice of physick, is entirely attributable the present conspicuous elevation of the materia medica professorship in this university. Those who have attended the lectures of the late professor on this point of medical science, can bear honourable and powerful testimony in favour of their importance, their learning, their usefulness ”

“ Benjamin Smith Barton, professor of botany, &c. in the university of Pennsylvania, &c. whose industrious researches in all the different branches of natural history are so well known to the literary world. He likewise, for some time previous, had been collecting specimens for an American flora. ”

“ I believe the disease commenced before he left this country. From his account it appeared to be mitigated during his voyage to France, and while he resided in that country, but increased a short time before he left England. There was a continued succession of storms during the homeward voyage, and he soon became so ill that he could not bear the recumbent posture, and therefore did not lie down during almost the whole of the time he was on board the ship. His sufferings were such that he wished for death. ”