William Jay Youmans

“ He soon became the family physician to these distinguished persons. In 1795 he was appointed Professor of Botany in Columbia College, for which position his diligent application to this science in London had admirably fitted him. At the end of his first course he published a syllabus of his lectures, afterward inserted in his Medical Essays. In 1795, also, the yellow fever reached New York, and the violence of the epidemic afforded ample opportunity to young medical men to distinguish themselves. ”

“ Hosack took him into his family and educated him as a physician. He returned to France and became eminent as a botanist. This was Prof. Delile, who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt as the botanist of his corps de savants, and was afterward superintendent of the Jardin des Plantes at Montpellier. Among Dr. Hosack's regular pupils at the College of Physicians and Surgeons was John Torrey, and many other students who heard his lectures at the medical school or at Columbia College had whatever of inclination toward botany they possessed greatly quickened by the enthusiasm and eloquence of Dr. ”

“ On many occasions, when disease suspected to be yellow fever broke out, he was called upon by the Board of Health of New York for a report as to its real nature, for if the fears of his fellow citizens were groundless his statement would be sure to allay them. ”

“ The various species of Hosackia, of which there are some thirty, are herbs and shrubs growing in the Southern and Southwestern States and in Mexico.
His second wife having died, Dr. Hosack married Mrs. Magdalena Coster, widow of the Holland merchant, Henry A. Coster. Some time after this event he retired from his profession and spent the rest of his life, except the winter months, on the beautiful estate at Hyde Park, on the banks of the Hudson, which he had owned for a number of years. Here he devoted himself to agriculture and to growing plants of botanical interest. ”

“ Many a distinguished American and many a foreign visitor, coming with a letter from some European friend of Hosack, has left on record his delightful experience in a visit to the doctor, either at his city house or his place in the country. ”

“ He was also instrumental in founding an art society, was prominent in various scientific, literary, and humane undertakings, and, if his lead had been followed, New York would have today a botanic garden equal to any in a European metropolis. ”

“ McWhorter, David was transferred to his academy in 1785. The next year he entered Columbia College, remaining in that institution until the middle of his junior year. He had also private tutors in the classics and the French language. In the beginning of the junior year, finding his time not fully occupied, he took up the study of medicine as a private pupil under Dr. ”

“ There was then no institution in New York empowered to grant the degree in medicine, the medical faculty of Columbia, formerly King's College, having been broken up by the Revolution. So after a year of private study Hosack proceeded to Philadelphia and enrol1ed at the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, where Drs. ”