country. From his account it appeared to be mitigated during his voyage to France, and while he resided in that country, but increased a short time before he left England. There was a continued succession of storms during the homeward voyage, and he soon became so ill that he could not bear the recumbent posture, and therefore did not lie down during almost the whole of the time he was on board the ship. His sufferings were such that he wished for death. He used the dried squill as a diuretic, during the voyage, but it did not produce the desired effect. After he landed, a greater diuresis was effected, and he was considerably relieved. His death, although not expected at the time when it occurred, was similar to what I have known in at least half a dozen instances of hydrothorax. One of my patients died within five minutes after her return from riding. Another died as he was walking in a wood. Dr. Kuhn, the elder, was found dead in his chair. The late Mr. Milnor, of Trenton, I have been informed, died at his desk.
"Thursday, Feb. 15th, 1816."
Such was the event that has bereaved the cause of American science of its ablest, its truest, and its most substantial advocate—its most substantial, for reasons I shall now state. Dr. Barton, in the commencement of his career, was not only indigent, but oppressed. He continued his exertions, however, undismayed by poverty, and unintimidated by enemies. And to those who know more intimately than it would be proper to state in this memoir, the struggles he made in early life through the most discouraging, nay appalling influence of want, added to the direful ravages of disease,—his subsequent elevation appears astonishing. His publick lectures, and his various works, the rich harvest of his meritorious exertions, soon relieved him from the pressure of indigence, and the mental uneasiness, nay, sometimes distraction, that supervenes upon it. He whose mental exertions survive such a fate, and who perseveres through it, is not, believe me, a common man!
Among the first objects of his attention, when he obtained the means of realizing it, was exploring the extensive wilds of our
