Green, Jacob (1790–1841)
Jacob Green, physician and scientist, was born in Philadelphia, July 26, 1790, son of Ashbel Green, D. D., LL. D., president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton College), and later a trustee of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.
From boyhood he was interested in science, his first work being in botany. He made a large collection of plants, and when twenty-four years of age published "An Address on the Botany of the United States . . . to which is added a Catalogue of Plants Indigenous to the State of New York." Later he extended his studies to mineralogy, conchology, chemistry, electricity and galvanism, and zoology in general.
In 1807 he graduated A. B. from the University of Pennsylvania and soon after, in connection with a friend, wrote a "Treatise on Electricity" which gave him a reputation, although yet a boy. In 1812 he graduated from Rutgers College; Rutgers and Princeton gave him an A. M. in 1815 and Jefferson an M. D. and LL. D. in 1835. He studied law and practised in Philadelphia, but in 1818 he accepted a professorship in chemistry, experimental philosophy and natural history in Princeton. Four years later he resigned, moved to Philadelphia and was given the chair of chemistry when the Jefferson Medical College was established, holding this position until his death.
He wrote a "Text-book of Chemical Philosophy on the Basis of Dr. Turner's Elements of Chemistry," 616 pp., Philadelphia, 1829. He was a frequent contributor to Silliman's Journal. Yale University gave Dr. Green an honorary A. M. in 1827.
Green died on February 1, 1841.