on the Malignant Fever, which prevailed in New York in 1741-2. His "Principles of Action in Matter," evinced great acumen, and was a production of high repute. His History of the Five Nations is universally known. Colden was remarkably skilled in botanical knowledge; and from the Linnæan correspondence, recently published by Sir James Edward Smith, we find that it was Colden himself, and not his distinguished daughter, who received the high compliment of having a plant of the tetandrous class, named Coldentia. Colden was the first American expositor of the Linnæan system in the New World. This classification he taught on the banks of the Hudson, almost immediately after its announcement by the illustrious Swede. Kalm, the traveller, the Professor at Abo, a pupil of Linnæus, with whom Colden became personally acquainted, might have given him the first intimations of the artificial system, as it is known that its principles were expounded in America before they were recognised in Great Britain. Indeed, Hudson first naturalized the sexual system by adapting it to English plants, in 1762.

"About a century ago, Dr. Johnson, of Perth Amboy, in New Jersey, was sedulously devoted to Flora, and maintained a correspondence on subjects of natural history with the philosophers of Europe. In one of his letters, he says, he thinks the information he imparts will be found profitable to an inquirer of like facts, one Mr. Linnæus. I have not yet satisfied myself whether Johnson was not a practitioner in New York at that early date. In 1740, Isaac Dubois took his degree of Doctor of Medicine at Leyden, at which time he published a dissertation on the use and abuse of blood-letting. He, doubtless, had listened to the instructions of Boerhaave. He exercised the art in New York. Contemporary with Dubois, was a physician of note, of the name of John Nicoll, he was imprisoned by Leisler, and subsequently presided as judge on the trial of the accused Governor. Dr. John Bard, long a distinguished clinical practitioner in New York, published several papers on the yellow fever, and an essay on the nature and cause of the malignant pleurisy, which proved so fatal to the inhabitants of Long Island in the winter of 1749. He further added to the usefulness of a life of great toil, by private instruction in practical medicine. I at present remember but one of his immediate pupils, Dr. Henry Mott, who exercised for many years the art, both on Long Island, where he was born, and also in this metropolis, and where he, in 1840, died at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Dr. Mott was a promoter of the mercurial practice in the sore throat distemper, and other diseases, and was much associated during his professional career with Dr. Ogden and Dr. Muirson; but he will be long remembered in our annals as the father of Valentine Mott, the great chirurgeon of our times, the improver of the art, and the introductor of surgical anatomy and pathology in our schools of medical science. Dr. Peter Middleton's Historical Inquiry, on the ancient and present state of medicine,

delivered twenty years after, 1769, was a most effective essay. Middleton was learned, acute, and practical; in manner singularly refined, and of a generous nature. He arrived in this country with Dr. Wm. Hunter, of Scotland, who came to Rhode Island in 1752, and who was rendered famous by his anatomical lectures there. Middleton also wrote an excellent paper on croup, and was the first professor of the practice of physic in the newly-organized medical school connected with Columbia College. Middleton died in New York, in 1781. He was a man of rare excellence, widely known, and admired by all.

"Dr. John Jones, ever to be remembered as a physician to Washington, and the surgeon to Franklin, was a native of Long Island: he completed his education abroad, at London, Leyden, and Paris. As surgeon, he held the first rank among practitioners of the art in that day. In 1768, he was chosen an associate in the same school with Middleton. His volume on wounds and fractures, published in 1776, and subsequently reprinted, attests his great qualifications. Percival Pott and William Hunter are to be enumerated among his scientific friends. Dr. Samuel Bard, the associate of Middleton, Clossy, Smith, Tennant and Jones, as the founder of our first medical school, was conspicuous for his classical and general knowledge and his great practical skill in medicine. He was first professor of natural philosophy, and subsequently of clinical medicine, and was long Dean of the Faculty in Columbia College. In his later years, he was the President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New York, upon its re-organization in 1811. His acquirements while at Edinburg secured him the Hope medal for Botany, and Haller commended his thesis for the doctorate, "De Viribus Opii." To Dr. Bard, clinical medicine and humanity at large are greatly indebted for his successful efforts in laying the foundation of that important institution, the New York Hospital. Few surpassed Bard in all the best and noble qualities which constitute intellectual and moral excellence. His memory is still cherished with the most grateful associations by the few of our venerable citizens who still abide with us.

"In 1781, Dr. Richard Bayley, of this city, published his letters addressed to Dr. William Hunter, of London, on Angina Trachealis, a tract of singular merit, and from which we are justified in giving to him the merit of being the first writer who understood the nature and treatment of croup. He wrote a volume, of deep interest, on the yellow fever of New York, as it prevailed in 1795: and in which work he attempted to give distinctiveness to the terms contagion and infection. As Health Physician to the Port of New York, he addressed a series of letters to the New York Common Council on that subject, which more than any other for a long time engrossed his attention, the origin of the yellow fever, and the nature and expediency of quarantine laws. Too much cannot be said in behalf of the exertions he made to establish our Lazaretto, and the state regulations which originally existed, to lessen the evils of pestilential miasmas.

"The first medical degree conferred in this city, was that of Bachelor of Medicine, in 1769, upon two candidates, Samuel Kissam and Robert Tucker; and in 1770, that of Doctor of Medicine, upon Samuel Kissam, the first named of these gentlemen. I must trespass a moment concerning this Kissam. The first graduated Doctor of Medicine in the Western Hemisphere calls for a word or two. The family of Kissams, early left England and embarked for America. A part of them emigrated to Long Island, where Samuel was born, at Madnan, now Great Neck, about the year 1745. His father, John, had five sons, of whom the most eminent was Benjamin Kissam, eminently distinguished as a lawyer at our bar, and the preceptor of the late venerable statesman, John Jay. He was also the father of the late prominent surgeon, Dr. Richard S. Kissam.

EARLY LAW BOOKS.\

It is very curious to remark that we have no distinct data of the precise period at which any ancient Law Treatise was written. If we may credit the sanguine testimony of some old chronologers,* about 441 years B. C. Mulumnius Dunvallo, or M. Dovebant, wrote two books upon the laws of the Britons,-1. "Municipalia;" 2. "Leges Judiciariæ." 356 years B. C., Mercia Proba, Queen and wife of King Gwintelim, composed a treatise upon the laws of England, in the British tongue, termed "Merchenleg." 872 years A. D., Alfred, King of the West Saxons, compiled a work called, "Breviarium quoddam, quod composuit ex diversis legibus Trojanorum Græcorum, Britannorum, Saxonum, et Dacorum." 635 years A. D., Sigabert or Sigesbert, Orientalium Angloram Rex, wrote, termed "Legum Instituta;" and King Edward the Confessor (who begun his reign A. D. 1051,) composed a work entitled, "Ex immensa legum congerie, quos Britanni, Romani-Angli, et Daci condiderunt, optima quæque selegit, ac in unam coëgit, quam vocari voluit legem communem.

After the Conquest, Henry II. compiled a treatise on the common law, and "Statutes" of England, divided into two tomes, and entitled, 1. "Pro Republicâ Leges;" 2. "Statuta Regalia." The next works that we have are in the reign of Henry III. 1. Bracton's Tractate. 2. Glanville de Legibus. And we have a few other treatises before the Year Books, which commence in the reign of Edward III., some of

1

* Gildas Gervasius, Tilburiensis, Galf of Monmouth, William of Malmesbury, Polidore Vergil, Harding, Caxton, Fabian, Balæus, Sir Edward Coke, Preface, Rep. termed, xar' oxy, The Reports.

† In the Red Book in the Exchequer.

which, though broken, yet of the best kind are in the library of Lincoln's Inn.

The first law book was Littleton's Tenures,* probably published by the learned judge himself, at the press of J. Letton and W. Machlinia, Anno 1481,† regno Edw. IV. This edition has no title, numerals or catch-words. The type is barbarous and broken; and the text is crowded with abbreviations. Of this edition there are supposed to be five copies; 1. In the public library at Cambridge; 2. In the library of the Inner Temple; 3. In Earl Spencer's library; 4. In the possession of Mr. Johnes; 5. In the library of the Right Honourable Thomas Greenville. There is a fine copy in the King's library at the British Museum, and which was undoubtedly printed at London by Letton and Machlinia, as will be seen upon a reference to a note subscribed at the end.

The next edition was probably that of Machlinia, who was then living at Fleet Bridge, according to a note at the end. The letter in this edition is less rude, and more like the modern English black-letter than the letter used in the former edition. The different chapters of sections commence with a blank space for the illumination of the capital letter, which is printed in a small character at one corner. It has no numerals or catch-words.

The editions of Pynson are five in number,-1st. folio, 1516; 2d. duodecimo, 1525; 3d. sextodecimo; 4th and 5th, folio and without dates.

Sir Edward Coke, Dugdale,‡ and Bishop Nicolson, conjecture that the first edition was printed"at Rouen in Normandy, by William de Tollier ad instantiam Ricardi Pinson, the printer of Henry VIII.;" and that it was first printed about the twenty-fourth year of Henry VIII., Anno 1533. But the fact of the former edition being printed by Letton and Machlinia, who were printers in the reign of Edward IV., fully shows the precedence, in point of time, to be due to their joint impression.

It is important to remark, that there are, at the public library, two ancient manuscripts of the Tenures extant in the University of Cambridge. The first is imperfect at the beginning, and in the chapter on warranty. It is written on vellum. The second is on paper, and only the second leaf is torn. This M. S. has the following passage:-Iste liber emptus fuit, in cœmeteria S'ti Pauli, London, 27th die Julii, anno regis E. 4ti, 20mo., 10s. 6d., i. e., temp. Littleton, July 20, Edward IV., Anno, 1481. The year before his death.

"The origin of Printing," 39-40. Ame's Hist. Typography. † Dr. Middleton's Account of Printing in England.

+ Original. Judiciales.

THE CLERGY OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

BY BISHOP POTTER.

THE onward flow of time has brought us to a position, unlike any occupied by our predecessors in the sacred office. We live when, with the many, there is more of intelligence and thoughtfulness; but not perhaps when, with the few, there is more of high sagacity, or farreaching faith. We live when industry has vindicated for itself a new and more commanding place, among the powers that direct the legislation and opinion of the world; but not when the toiling millions it employs are always admitted to a corresponding elevation. We live when there is great activity, and in some sense great and almost universal earnestness; but not when that activity is always tempered by forecast, nor that earnestness duly subdued by religious feeling. We live when there is more of Christian faith than there was in the eighteenth century, and more of Christian toleration than there was in the sixteenth; but alas! it does not become us to boast that even now a practical and life-transforming faith or sincere toleration in the heart is very abundant. We live when despotism of every kind, civil and religious, has much to fear; but not when legitimate authority, be it the authority of law, or the moral sway that belongs to age, wisdom, or parental power has every thing to hope. Practical and all-embracing charity is more active than it once was; but it is not always more wise, or more patient. Institutions, usages, opinions, all are arraigned with a free and bold hand, and to all is applied the salutary test "by their fruits ye shall know them;" but the trial is not always conducted with caution or discrimination; and there is too little care to conserve the good, while we eradicate the ill.

Such, I conceive, are some of the features of the age in which we live. Besides those which affect all classes of men, there are some that bear, with peculiar effect, upon our own profession. The clergy are no longer the peculiar guardians and dispensers of knowledge. They are no longer clothed with the exclusive privilege of legislating for the Church, nor even of teaching it. They are no longer an independent corporation, sovereign over the law, or exempt in good part from its jurisdiction. There was a time, when they owned hardly any but an eccle

* These remarks, characterized by an elevated tone and by the true spirit of Christian philanthropy, are extracted from a late charge of the learned and eloquent divine, whose name is affixed.

They will command the respectful attention and consideration of the enlightened and sincere of every religious sect.