Eulogy on the life and character of the Hon. Samuel Latham Mitchill, M.D : delivered at the request of the New-York City and County Medical Society, in the Superior Court Room, City Hall, October 15th, 1831 / by Felix Pascalis.

  • Pascalis Ouviere, Felix, 1762-1833.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eulogy on the life and character of the Hon. Samuel Latham Mitchill, M.D : delivered at the request of the New-York City and County Medical Society, in the Superior Court Room, City Hall, October 15th, 1831 / by Felix Pascalis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    far from New-York. His childhood was therefore contemporary with the horrors and distresses of the revolutionary war, which were seriously felt in the vicinity of the city, and must have been still more severe upon the family in which he was born and rear- ed, the members of which were Quakers. His father was a res- pectable farmer, with six sons and two daughters. Samuel, the fourth child, was apparently intended by nature for a higher des- tination ; but it would have been difficult or dangerous to have placed him at a distance for the sake of better schools and masters than those of his village. The problem of his early advantages begins to be solved only when we are informed that Mitchill had been blessed with the observant eye and affectionate guidance of a maternal uncle, Doctor Samuel Latham, of Hempstead, who, ca- pable of appreciating the latent powers of his nephew, determined to cherish and foster them, by regulating and directing his educa- tion. With this aim, having no family, he adopted him as a son, and appropriated a liberal legacy to the exclusive purpose of young Mitchill's education. In accordance with these plans, dictated by the purest and finest feelings, Samuel Latham Mitchill was placed under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Cutting, and others, from whom he could derive the best classical scholarship, to be found in the district undisturbed by the war. Ye parents, here present, blessed with the means of advancing the education of your children ; and you who are members of a rising and active generation, with the command of your time, and still able to correct the errors, if such there be, of the education you have received, permit me to warn you to beware of an opinion, now too common and gaining ground, against classical studies pre- paratory to employments in life that seem not to demand or require intimacy with the ancient languages. This error has found en- couragement in a population, which, in its origin, was by the force of circumstances, necessarily devoted unsparingly to agricultural, commercial, and mechanical pursuits. But within half a century, that population has become a great nation, wanting and calling for