name with honour, though he has not been careful enough to distinguish between their particular discoveries. This, perhaps, he may have thought needless, as they were known to act in concert. But though that circumstance was known here, it was not so in the remote parts of the world to which the fame of these discoveries has extended." Coming, as this account probably does, from one so closely associated with the subject of it as the provost of the College must have been with one of the professors, it may be received as the statement of Mr. Kinnersley himself. It must, however, be confessed, that Franklin, in his Memoirs, has admitted no claim of this or any other person to a participation in the discoveries which he made and announced; but merely states that he resorted to the assistance of Mr. Kinnersley, as a neighbour and man of leisure, in the performance of his experiments. The electrical apparatus collected by Mr. Kinnersley must have been extensive; for, after his death, it was purchased by the trustees of the college, according to a valuation made

by impartial and well qualified judges, for the sum of five hundred pounds.* Mr. Kinnersley was introduced into the institution in the year 1753, as the successor of David James Dove, who was the first teacher of the English school. In 1772, the state of his health rendering a voyage to a warm climate advisable, he resigned his station, after having performed his duties for the space of nineteen years.

The professorship of the languages was originally filled by Paul Jackson, who, in the year 1758, left the institution on account of ill health, and was succeeded by John Beveridge. This gentleman had, when young, taught a grammar school in Edinburgh, under the patronage of the celebrated Ruddiman, from whom, as well as from other men of note, he brought with him to this country strong testimonials both of his ability and good conduct. When invited to connect himself with the Philadel

* It is proper to state that this estimate was made during the revolution, at a period when the legal currency had very much depreciated.

phia College, he was residing at Hartford, in Connecticut, where he had for some time been conducting a private Latin school with great success. As a classical scholar

he was thought to be inferior to none in the colonies. Some of his compositions in Latin are still extant in our older magazines, and evince a familiarity with that language, which, with his long habit of teaching, must have well qualified him for his station in the College. Upon his death in 1767, James Davidson, who had previously kept a school in Newark, was appointed to the professorship.

Of the earliest mathematical professor, very little seems to be known. His name was Theophilus Grew, and it would appear, from a slight notice contained in an article of the American Magazine before alluded to, that he had "long been an approved teacher of mathematics and astronomy" in Philadelphia. He was attached to the in

* In 1751 he calculated the Barbadoes Almanac for 1752, which was published by Franklin, and in 1753 wrote "The Description and Use of the Globes, Celestial and Terrestrial, etc. Chiefly Designed for the

stitution at its origin, and continued so till his death in 1759. Hugh Williamson, a graduate of the school, succeeded to his station.*

This brief account of the early professors will not be thought misplaced by those who feel an interest in the spread of learning, science, and the arts of civilization in a young country, and are willing to do justice to those who made the promotion of this object the business of their lives.

Instruction of the Young Gentlemen at the Academy in Philadelphia, etc. Printed by Christopher Sower." -Note to the present edition.

* The subsequent career of Hugh Williamson is so well known that it is only necessary to say that he was the same individual who represented North Carolina in the Federal Convention of 1787.-Note to the present edition.

CHAPTER IV.

ORIGIN OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.

THOUGH the College of Philadelphia was later in its origin than some similar institutions in the older settlements, it may nevertheless boast the honour of having established a medical school, the first in point of time, as it has always been the greatest in merit and success of all upon this continent. It does not come within the design of the present sketch, to give even a very general account of the rise, progress, and ultimate prosperity of this department of the College, which of itself affords a subject so distinct and copious, as well to deserve a separate and minute consideration.* We may, however, be

* It is scarcely necessary to say, that this want has been recently supplied by a History of the Medical Department of the University, written with great fulness