Her heart-I'll seek some sunny spot-- Be mine the task to teach you love!" He found too late, he'd formed a Prude! Medical College, at Richmond, Va. museum, and, as far as an unprofessional spectator could judge, the completeness and excellence of the chemical apparatus. That however which must give peculiar value to the institution, is the presence of an infirmary within the walls of the building, in which the patients are provided with airy and comfortable rooms, attentive nurses, and constant medical attendance. The opportunity which is thus afforded for instruction at the bed-side of the sick, by an easy and convenient transit from the lecture room, cannot it seems to us be too highly appreciated. The diseases, moreover, which are here daily presented, being many of them peculiar to the South, must unquestionably afford an advantage to southern students which it would be unwise to disre gard-and the facilities for obtaining subjects for dis southern patronage especially--it is altogether idle to reason from facts; or, what would be no less extraordinary, it would be in vain to expect enlightened communities to be governed by their own obvious interests. We want a great southern medical school, and such a one cannot more surely prosper than in a city which is rapidly increasing in population and resources-where living is comparatively cheap-where society is intelligent and polished, and the position of which, with respect to climate, is the happy medium between northern and southern extremes. This institution, which is a branch of Hampden Sid-section cannot be surpassed, we apprehend, in any other ney College, has been in operation but little exceeding city in the Union. Upon the whole, if the Medical Cola year, and has already realized the sanguine expecta-lege at Richmond does not grow up and flourish—if it tions of its friends. We had the pleasure of attending does not attract a large portion of patronage, and the introductory lectures of the professors at the close of the last month, and believe that we speak the general voice in declaring our high admiration of the eloquence, ability and learning which enchained listening crowds to the lecture room throughout the week. The whole, without exception, consisted of a series of discourses of a cast sufficiently popular to interest the unprofessional hearer, and yet distinguished by profound and philosophical views-a familiar acquaintance with the history and progress of medical science, and of its many illustrious triumphs over human prejudice and error. Nor were the lectures exclusively Although the second course of lectures has but just confined to scientific details or historical research, but commenced, we understand that there are already wandered occasionally into the pleasant fields of classi-between sixty and seventy matriculates in college. cal lore, where some of the choicest flowers were culled, and some of the richest poetical gems selected to delight the audience. In truth, we do not recollect to have heard the philosophy of life and disease—the startling story of the "many ills which flesh is heir to"-the unwelcome revelation of man's frail yet wonderful structure—the marvellous tie which links his mortality and weakness to an immortal nature,--so attractively and tastefully illustrated. What wonder, that, when admiring the graceful drapery which fancy could throw around the sternest realities, the words of Milton should have flashed on our memory "How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose, And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, When it is recollected that this college has suddenly sprung into existence unaided by public endowment, too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the individual enterprise, perseverance and energy, which have already achieved for it a character of stability and usefulness not surpassed by older institutions. The spacious and elegant building which it occupies, could not have been better adapted to its various uses, if originally designed exclusively for such objects. The general lecture room has been fitted up in a style of superior taste, and is large enough, we should judge, to contain with ease two hundred students. There are, besides, two other lecture rooms for the chemical and anatomical classes, and we confess we were very agreeably surprised at the extent of the anatomical the number should advance in the same ratio of increase This is a considerable gain over the last year, and if hereafter, it will require but little aid from arithmetic to predict the speedy establishment of the school upon a firm and durable foundation. But the question here naturally arises, shall the institution be left to the unaided resources and efforts of a few gentlemen, however distinguished for their zeal, energy and resolution? Is not the public also-we speak not only of the city but of the state at large-deeply interested in its success? We are aware that a tempest has recently passed over the money and commercial affairs of the country, as blighting in its effects as an eastern sirocco-but may we not hope that the hour is fast approaching when reason shall resume its empire over the passions, and the inglorious struggles of party shall be yielded to the common good-when the calm of prosperity and peace will enable our statesmen and patriots to perceive, that the real happiness of a nation consists not in the vindictive squabbles of politicans, but in the diffusion of light and knowledge and virtue among men. When that halcyon period arrives-and may it come speedily-we must carry on in our own Ancient Commonwealth, a noble rivalry with our sister states in the works of benevolence, utility and science. Our own metropolitan city, especially when extricated from her now heavy pecuniary engagements, must put forth her strength in aid of an institution which will greatly redound to her interests-provide a professional education for her rising offspring--elevate the standard of medical science within the range of her influence, and add greatly to her own reputation abroad. To our numerous friends and subscribers in the southern and south-western states we beg leave to remark, that in the notice which we have here taken of the Medical School in Richmond we have consulted and proclaimed our own thoughts and convictions--unbiassed by any feeling or sentiment, either personal or local. We have done it upon our own responsibility, and in the conscientious discharge of our duty, and we do not think it necessary to give pledges either for the sincerity of our motives or the veracity of our statements. If in our desire to advance the general cause of science we can also serve our own city and state, we think ourselves not only authorised but absolutely bound to do so; and we doubt whether the severest censor could reasonably find fault with this simple view of the subject. So, when to mine the wintry Snow-berry THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE, B. [The time is rapidly approaching when the Congress of the United States will be compelled, by considerations too strong to be resisted, to give effect to the munificent bequest of Mr. Smithson, by the establishment of an Institute at the Seat of the National Government, for the "diffusion of knowledge among men." In view of this im We had intended, at the commencement of this article, to present from some of our random notes, a more detailed notice of the several introductory lectures delivered by the professors-but partly from inability to do justice to the subject, and because it was our misfortune not to have heard the first of the series, which the public have unanimously commended for its eloquence and beauty, we think it best to decline the task. Where all were excellent though various in character and style, it would be unnecessary if not invidious to discriminate. We will observe, in conclu-portant movement, and feeling a deep interest in the suc sion, that three of the faculty have been not undistinguished professors at other institutions-and of the remainder, one has been long physician to state and city institutions, and all enjoy the confidence and patronage of the public. We subjoin a list of the faculty from a pamphlet lying on our table. Addressed to a young lady by an old gentleman to whom she Yes! flowers have a language, and to him To Youth and Age alike that lesson speaks: cessful accomplishment of a scheme which promises so MR. TH: W. WHITE, LETTER. My Dear Sir, I received your letter duly, and reply, with much pleasure, at the earliest opportunity. The character of the late Mr. Smithson, is certainly very much misunderstood among us. That a man of a philosophic turn of mind, of few wants and a retired habit of life, should in process of time acquire a com petent fortune, is not at all strange. As to the way to which he thought fit to dispose of his property, the very act itself bears the mark of a most noble generosity, and is a public token of the opinions of a learned foreigner on our institutions and government. The first duty of an executor, is to perform faithfully the wishes of the testator-as far as he can understand them. His acceptance of the trust is his own act. But once having undertaken that task, he is bound by the laws of all societies to proceed to its completion. The UNITED STATES can do nothing in this matter, | misprint for F. R. S., or not, I have not now the means except what is dictated by the loftiest principles of ho- of knowing. It struck me, at the time, that it must have nor. There is that sensitiveness among us, originating been an error, for I have never heard that he had been in a feeling of national pride, which shrinks from any President of the Royal Society. He was however a thing having even the remotest appearance of a mis- fellow of it, and very often had communications read appropriation for self-aggrandisement. We are an ex- before it. Some of your readers who have access to the ceedingly wealthy people,-we need not foreign eleemo- transactions of the Royal Society, might easily deter synary aid, to equip Exploring expeditions, or erect an mine this interesting point. Astronomical observatory. Our General Government has undertaken an important duty. It has received from the hands of an European philosopher a certain sum of money, binding itself to apply it, in conformity to his wishes, for the diffusion of useful knowledge. A spectacle so singular has not perhaps been exhibited before. We have undertaken to perform a great duty for our fellow men and for posterity. The eyes of the learned in all parts of the world are upon us; it is a point on which national integrity and national honor are concerned,-a point on which party feeling must not bear. We all know, that some doubts have been raised as to the propriety, or even the power of government, to do what it has. But what is done, is irrevocable:-it must not be written in American history, that when this republic was called upon to aid in the cause of the diffusion of knowledge and virture among mankind, it made the attempt, and failed from incompetency. With the late Mr. Smithson I was never acquainted. He spent much of his time on the continent, and it is said was a man of reserved habits. You know already that he cultivated with much assiduity Chemical pursuits; but very few are aware, that he wrote to some extent on these topics. An idea of his feelings and turn of mind may be gathered from these papers. His passion for chemistry appears to have commenced early in life, and continued to its close. He seems to have been on terms of familiar acquaintance with Dr. Black, and some of the leading members of the old Scottish school. There is extant a letter from the former gentleman to him, dated 1790; its conclusion runs "We have no chemical news,-I am employed in examining the Iceland waters, but have often been interrupted, I never heard before of the quartz-like crystals of barytes aerata, nor of the sand and new earth from New Holland. Indistinct reports of new metals have reached us, but no particulars. Some further account of these things from you, will therefore be very agreeable. Dr. Hutton joins me in compliments to you, and wishing you all good things, and "I am, dear Sir, "Your faithful, humble servant, "JOSEPH BLACK." The Dr. Hutton here mentioned, was the same philosopher who made so distinguished a figure in Geology, as the antagonist of the celebrated German, Werner. You have asked me, to tell you any particulars in reference to his philosophical or other opinions. That he was a man of much acumen in these matters, a paper read before the Society in 1813 may serve to shew. It is stated, that when he was in Italy in 1794, a substance that had been ejected from Vesuvius was given to him for examination, and he ascertained, after some trials, that it consisted chiefly of sulphate of potash; on reexamining it with more accuracy, he determined it to be a very complex saline compound. By way of introduction to his paper, he gives a view of his ideas about the origin of the earth. In his opinion, it was either a sun or a comet, and was brought into the state in which it now is, by undergoing combustion on its surface. The volcanoes are relics of this original combustion, and the materials were the metallic bases of which the primitive strata are composed. As a proof that these primitive strata have been formed by combustion, he mentions that "garnets, hornblende, and other crystals found in them, contain no water; and that little or no water is to be found in the primitive strata themselves." This paper is in the Transactions for 1813. So you see, he had come, by chemical reasoning, to a conclusion similar to that which FOURIER was contemporaneously publishing in France, as the result of mathematical investigation, that the earth is nothing more than an encrusted star. Sometime after this, he commenced an investigation into the nature of the colors of vegetables and insects,he noticed that the red color of flowers, is occasionally produced by the union of carbonic acid with a blue sub stance. In a letter written at Rome, in 1819, and which was published in the Annals of Philosophy the same year, respecting a remarkable mineral of lead, he makes allusion to one of the ablest of his contemporary chemists: "The first discovery of the composition of this singular substance, belongs however to my illustrious and unfor tunate friend, and indeed distant relative, the late Smithson Tennant." This gentleman was professor of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge,-he was the son of a Yorkshire clergyman,-was early in life deprived of his father; his mother was killed by being thrown from her horse, whilst riding beside him. He himself, by a similar accident, had his collar bone broken, many years after; and by a third remarkable coincidence, lost his life. But the story is singular ;-I will tell it you. Mr. Tennant and Baron Bulow, a German officer, after the peace in 1814, had been travelling on the continent, and arrived at Calais, with a view of crossing the At the commencement of the present century, there used to be published in London a monthly scientific journal, known under the name of Nicholson's Magazine; it afterwards gave way to the Annals of Philosophy, commenced about 1813 by Dr. Thomas Thom-channel to Dover; they were, however, detained several To the pages of both these works, Mr. Smithson was a contributor. I remember formerly to have seen, in a No. of Nicholson for 1803, an account of the analysis of a mineral performed by him,-the signature to it is James Smithson, Esq. P. R. S. Whether this is a son. VOL. V.-105 days by the inclemency of the weather. They attempted to get to Boulogne, to try the chance of a passage from there, but the vessel in which they embarked was forced to put back. To pass time, they agreed to take horses, look around the country and view a fort "Accordingly, this is what was done as soon as any desire to account for these appearances on the earth became felt. The success however was not such as to obtain the general assent of the learned, and the attempt fell into neglect and oblivion. "Able hands have lately undertaken the revival of this system. Mr. Penn has endeavored to reconcile it with the facts of the Kirkdale cave, which appeared to be strongly inimical to it. near Bonaparte's pillar. At the entrance of this fort | was a deep fosse, which was approached over a fixed bridge, and then over a drawbridge, that turned upon a pivot; the end nearest them was commonly fastened by a bolt, but it happened that this had been stolen a fortnight before, and had not been replaced. They did not discover this:-As the bridge was too narrow for both to ride abreast, the Baron went first, but perceiving that the bridge was sinking, he attempted to gallop over, and called to his friend to go back. It was too late; both were precipitated into the fosse, and though his companion was hardly hurt, Professor Tennant was taken up from under his horse, and died a few hours after. The following is a list of the different papers published by Mr. Smithson, which are in my library. Be-perusal of the above mentioned slender abstract. side these, there are many others in English and foreign journals, that I have not seen. "Acquainted with Mr. Penn's opinions only from the Analysis of the Supplement to the Comparative Estimate,' in the Journal of the Royal Institution, * * I have hesitated long about communicating the present observations, which presented themselves during the "I have yielded to a sense of the importance of the subject in more than one respect, and of the uncertainty 1. A few remarks relative to the coloring matter of when I shall acquire ampler information at more volusome vegetables and insects. minous sources-to a conviction that it is in his knowledge, 2. Analysis of a saline substance, ejected from Mount that man has found his greatness and his happiness, the Vesuvius. 3. On a substance from the elm tree, called ulmin. 4. On native hydrous aluminate of lead, or plomb. gomme. high superiority which he holds over the other animals which inhabit the earth with him, and consequently that no ignorance is probably without loss to him, no error without evil-and that it is therefore preferable to urge unwar 5. On a native compound of sulphuret of lead and ranted doubts, which can only occasion additional light arsenic. 6. On a fibrous metallic copper. to become elicited, than to risk by silence to let a question settle to rest, while any unsupported assumptions 7. On a native combination of sulphate of barium and are involved in it." fluoride of calcium. 8. On some capillary metallic tin. [I have taken the liberty of italicizing here, to call to your attention how deeply impressed was the mind of 9. On the detection of very minute quantities of ar- this man with the importance of the diffusion of USEFUL senic and mercury. 10. Some improvements in common lamps. 11. On the crystalline form of ice. 12. On the means of discriminating between the sulphates of barium and strontium. 13. On the discovery of acids in mineral substances. | 18. An examination of some Egyptian colors. PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE. A few years after, he leaves his whole fortune, to carry out the sentiment he here expresses.] "The waters of the deluge had not surely either a duration or power to obtain the matter of this supposed layer of mud. "No shores any longer existing, shells could not be pulverized by the beat of the wave, for it is not under deep water that such destruction is effected; nor, was it so, would the short period of a year have been sufficient to produce the material of all the secondary limestones 19. Some observations on Mr. Penn's theory, con- of the earth. cerning the formation of the Kirkdale cave. 20. Remarks on a balance. The paper on Egyptian colors, contains some curious facts in reference to the pigments used by that ancient people for staining glass and painting generally. His observations on Penn's theory, would be read with some interest,-they shew the author's physicotheological opinions on some contested points. The following are extracts "No observer of the earth can doubt that it has undergone very considerable changes. Its strata are everywhere broken and disordered, and in many of them are enclosed the remains of innumerable beings which once had life, and these beings appear to have been strangers to the climates, in which their remains now exist. "In a book, held by a large portion of mankind to have been written from divine inspiration, an universal deluge is recorded. It was natural for the believers in this deluge, to refer to its action all or many of the phenomena in question, and the more so as they seemed to find in them a corroboration of the event. "To have harrowed up this matter from the depths of the ocean, would have required an agitation of the waters which nothing warrants us in giving to them, which every thing denies their having had. "No hurricanes, no tempestuous winds, no swollen billows are recorded. To drown mankind they were superfluous. A wind having arisen at the termination of the calamity, tells that none existed before; and this wind must have been a most gentle one, a very zephyr. A vessel bulky beyond all the efforts of imagination to figure-so laden, so manned-could not have lived in any agitated sea, least in one which out-topped the Andes and the Alps, and was able to resist all that curb its fury and could mitigate its violence. "Had the ark not foundered, which is impossible, what yet had become of the millions which its sides enclosed? Few had survived to repair the effects of divine wrath. "The waters must have been at rest, when the ark continued stationary for many months on the mountains of Ararat. "Nor do the agitations of a sea, extend far below its surface. What navigator has told of the storm, in things to their use, would remain. Every limestone quarry should daily present us with some of these most precious of all antiquities, before which those of Italy and Egypt would shrink to nothing. "How greatly must we regret that this is not the case-that we must relinquish the delightful hope, of some day finding in the body of a calcareous mountain, the city of Enoch built by Cain, at the very origin of the world. With what awful sentiments had not present looked upon by eyes which had seen the Divinity. "If the waters of the deluge placed a bed of calca-generations contemplated objects, which had once been reous matter all over England and Germany, they must have done so over the entire earth. It must have been an universal stratum. "Yet so total was the deficiency of it at Botany bay, that the first settlers for the very little lime which a few structures of immediate necessity required, were compelled, though spare as were the hands, and much as they were wanted for other purposes, laboriously and tediously to collect shells along the beach. Where a limestone nodule was so anxiously sought, and could not be found, great strata could not be near. "But the sediment of the deluge waters, would not be mere calcareous matter. It must have consisted of every thing they could receive, suspend and deposit. "If over the whole earth, were spread such a layer of mire, Noah and the animals could not have landed upon it. Or, had they not sunk into it and been smothered, where yet had the weak found refuge from the voracious? where had the herbivorous found food? "What a time must have elapsed before Noah could cultivate the vine! Nor is it from such a soil that the wine would have intoxicated the holy patriarch. Had things so been, Ham had never offended, nor Canaan incurred the fatal curse. Of the Deluge. "The other great fact which forcibly militates against the diluvian hypothesis, is that the fossil animals are not those which existed at the time of the deluge. The diluvian species must have been the same as the present. The multifarious wonders of the ark had, for sole object, their preservation; while of the fossil kinds not perhaps one, or quadruped, or bird, or fish, or shell, or insect, or plant is now alive. "Amazing proofs of inundations at high levels, are appealed to. Had they being of the deluge, they could at most speak but of its existence of its influence in the contested cases they would be silent-but it appears that this stupendous prodigy, "Like the baseless fabric of a vision, Left not a wreck behind." "Of the occurrence of marine deposites at great altitudes, the elevation of the stratum by volcanic efforts furnishes a far more easy solution than the elevation of the sea; as it refers the phenomenon to a natural cause, and does not require the immediate interposition of the Divine hand; and the ruptured state and erect position of the strata on all these occasions, testify strongly in favor of the simpler supposition. "To collate the Revered Volume with the Great Book of Nature, and show in their agreement One Author in both, was an undertaking worthy of the union of piety and science. If the result has not been what was antici "Should every argument which has been adduced to establish that the animals were not brought from remote regions by water-that they lived and died in the coun-pated--if we look in vain over the face of our globe for tries in which their remains now lie-have appeared to be insufficient for the purpose; yet that it is not to the Mosaical flood that their existence where they now are; is to be referred, two great facts appear to placebeyond controversy. "One is, the total absence in the fossil world of all human remains, of every vestige of man himself and of his arts. those mighty impressions of an universal deluge which reason tells us it must have produced and left behind itself-to some cause as out of the natural order of things as was that event, must this doubtless be attributed. "By his entering into a covenant with man and brute animals, and having forever set his bow in the cloud, as a token that the direful scene should never be renewed, the Creator appears to have repined at the severity of his justice. "The magnitude of the chastisement, the order of nature subverted to produce it, proclaim the multitudes "The spectacle of a desolated world,-of fertility laid of the criminal. Human bodies by millions, must have waste,-of the painful works of industry and genius covered the waters; they must have formed a material overthrown,-of infantine innocence involved in indispart, if not the principal one, of every group, and human criminate misery with the hardened offender,--of brute bones be now consequently met with every where blend-nature, whose want of reason precluded it from the posed with those of animals. "Objects of human industry and skill, must likewise continually occur among the bones. Of the miserable victims of the disaster, numbers would be clothed and have on their persons articles of the most imperishable materials, and the dog would retain his collar, the horse his bit and harness, the ox his yoke. To men who wrought iron and bronze, who manufactured harps and organs, these things must have been familiar. "But more embalmed within the substance of the diluvian mud, entire cities with their monuments, with a great part of their inhabitants, with an infinity of sibility of all offence, made to share in the forfeit of human depravity,-may be supposed to have touched his heart. "Under the impression of these paternal feelings, to obliterate every trace of the frightful scourge, remove every remnant of the dreadful havoc, seem the natural effects of his benevolence and power. As a lesson to the races which were to issue from the loins of the few who had been spared,--races, which were to be wicked indeed as those who preceded them, but which were promised exemption from a like punishment,-to have preserved any memento of them would have been useless. |