A statement of facts relative to the establishment and progress of the Elgin Botanic Garden, and the subsequent disposal of the same to the State of New-York / [David Hosack].

  • David Hosack
Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A statement of facts relative to the establishment and progress of the Elgin Botanic Garden, and the subsequent disposal of the same to the State of New-York / [David Hosack]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A STATEMENT, Sjc. WHATEVER difference of opinion may exist, relative to the utility of a botanic garden, as a necessary appendage to a medical establishment, certain it is, that the judgment of scientific men has been uniformly concurrent on this subject. The exam¬ ple of the schools of medicine, in almost every great city of Eu¬ rope, is sufficiently conclusive on this head, as scarcely one of them is without an extensive botanic garden; and their practice* it is presumed, must be the result of experience of their utility* At an early period, in our own country, also, there were men of distinguished acquirements, who strenuously maintained the necessity of institutions of this kind. Among these may be men¬ tioned the late Lieutenant Governor Golden, justly celebra¬ ted lor his many and valuable contributions to American bota¬ ny, and the learned Dr. Peter Middleton, late professor of medi¬ cine in King’s College, in this city. The following observations, delivered by the latter gentleman, upon the opening of the medi¬ cal school, in New-York, in 1769, contain his opinion on this subject, and will show, that even at that early date, the founders of the medical college looked forward with an ardent desire to an establishment of this sort, as necessary and important to a com¬ plete system of medical education. “ By botany, we are instructed in the natural history and distinguishing1 characters of plants This, pursued as a science, or branch of medical study, presents to us a fund of knowledge, both valuable and ornamental. As this continent yields most of the medical plants now in use, and abounds also with a variety of others, whose qualities we are as yet but little acquainted with, or entire strangers to ; may we not hope, that among the future literary insti¬ tutions in this place, a teacher of botany will soon be appointed, and a botanical garden laid out, and properly furnished ? This would open an extensive field for further discoveries in# and for large acquisitions to the materia medica^ I
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