MITCHILL
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MITCHILL
tions on the phosphoresconcc of the
waters of the ocean, on the fecundity of
fish, on the decortication of fruit trees, on
the anatomy and physiology of the shark,
swelled the mystery of his diversifieti
knowledge. His corresi)ondence with
Priestly is an example of the delicious
manner in which argument can be con-
ducted in philosophical discussion. His
elaborate account of the fishes of our
fresh and salt waters adjacent to New
York, comprising 166 species, afterwards
enlarged, invoked the plaudits of Cuvier.
Reflections on somnium — the case of
Rachel Baker — evinced psychological
views of original combination, while the
numerous papers on natural history
enriched the annals of the Lyceum, of
which he was long president. Researches
on the ethnological characteristics of the
red man of America betrayed the benev-
olence of his nature and his generous
spirit. The fanciful article, "Fredonia,"
intended for a new and more appropriate
geographical designation for the United
States, was at one period a topic which
enlisted a voluminous correspondence,
now printed in the proceedings of the
New York Historical Society.
He increased our knowledge of the vegetable materia medica of the United States, and wrote largely on the subject to Barton of Philadelphia, Cutler of Massachusetts, Darlington of Pennsyl- vania, and Ramsay of South Carolina. He introduced into practice the. scssaww//; orientale. With Percival, of Manchester, and other philosophers in Europe, he corresponded lengthily on noxious agents, also seconded the views of Judge Peters on gypsum as a fertilizer. He cheered Fulton when he was dejected; encouraged Livingston in appropriation; awakened new zeal in Wilson, when Tompkins, the governor of the state, had nigh paralyzed him by his frigid and unfeeling reception; and with John Pintard, Cadwallader D. Colden, and Thomas Eddy, was a zealous promoter of that system of internal improvement which has stamped immor- tality on the name of De Witt Clinton. Jonathan Williams had his co-operation in
furtherance of th(> Military Academy at
West Point; and, for a long series of years,
he was an important professor of agri-
culture and chemistry in Columbia Col-
lege, and of natural history, botany, and
materia medica in the College of Physi-
cians and Surgeons of New York. His
letters to Tilloch, of London, on the
progress of his mind in the investigation
of septic acid — oxygenated azote — are
curious as a physiological document.
Many of his papers are in the " London
Philosophical Magazine" and in the " New
York Medical Repository," a journal of
wide renown, which he established with
Miller and Smith; yet he wrote in the
"American Medical and Philosophical
Register," the "New York Medical and
Physical Journal," the "American Miner-
alogical Journal," of Bruce, the "Trans-
actions of the Philosophical Society
of Philadelphia," and supplied several
other periodicals, both abroad and at
home, with the results of his cogitations.
He accompanied Fulton on his first
voyage in a steamboat, in August, 1807;
and, with Williamson and Hosack, he
organized the Literary and Philosophical
Society of New York in 1814. Griscom,
Eddy, Colden, Gerard, and Wood found
him zealous in the establishment, with
them, of the Institution for the Deaf and
Dumb. Mitchill's translations of our
Indian War Songs gave him increased
celebrity; and I believe he was admitted,
for this generous service, an associate
of their tribes. The Mohawks had
received him into their fraternity at the
time when he was with the commission
at the treaty of Fort Stanwix.
As a physician of the New York Hos- pital, he never omitted to employ the results of his investigations for clinical appliances. The simplicity of his pre- scriptions often provoked a smile on the part of his students, while he was ac- knowledged a sound physician at the bed.side.
His first course of lectures on natural history, including geology, mineralogy, zoology, ichthyology, and botany, was delivered, in extenso, in the College of
