and very finely executed, placed as a frontispiece, shows the perspective of the garden, its noble green-houses, and what we call here the orangery. These buildings are an hundred and eighty feet in front; the whole garden like that of Ghent, and also, with the exception of the part appropriated to display the plants in their Linnean order, seems to resemble the rustic style of Kent, rather than the more monotonous regularity of Le Notre.

You will be pleased to learn that, in the same manner that our garden continues to be the particular object of municipal solicitude, that of Elgin also is under the superintendance of the state of New York, which purchased the establishment in 1810, and endowed it with great liberality. Its founder has had, as we have, the rare good fortune to find a gardener not less intelligent than active and zealous. Mr. Frederick Pursh has been to Mr. Hosack what Mr. I. H. Mussche is to us.

I lay these two works upon the table; but you will permit me, on this occasion to make a remark, which occurred to me in searching for the Azalea in the Elgin garden. Would you think it? I found but three species-the nudiflora, the pontica (for this is also described as indigenous there), and the viscosa; all the others are called so many varieties merely-the glauca, for instance, the odorata, and the vitata of the Azalea viscosa; the calendulacea of the Azalea pontica, the alba, the bicolor, the carnea, the coccinea, the cutilans of the Azalea nudiflora.

Am I not authorized to infer, from this example, that many among us are accustomed to multiply too far what we call the species of exotic plants? I conceive that culture, other climates, and new habitudes, change or modify the colour and form of a flower, and the stature even of the plant; but I cannot believe that the art of the botanist can create a new species, if I rightly understand that word.

But little initiated in the science, and therefore the less able to express my idea with clearness, I perhaps advance an opinion that may appear unfounded and easily refutable. Yet at least let me once more rejoice in the happiness of our little corner of the world, to be richer than America herself in American plants.

Among the other works which Mr. Professor Hosack sent to the society, you will find the first volume of Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York,' instituted by an act of the legislature of that province, in 1814.

This volume, in large quarto, printed with a magnificence of typography equal to the most correct and most elegant specimens that we have in Europe, is perhaps the only copy on this continent: it is but lately printed, and contains the proceedings of 1815. We find in it nothing particularly relative to botany or agriculture, but it includes memoirs on zoology, ichthyology, and ornithology, which are of the greatest interest. The future volumes will, without doubt, contain some which will enter the sphere of our researches and our studies, and which it will be desirable to collect.

By an order of the faculty of Columbia college, it is directed that at appointed times each professor shall give an analysis of his course of lectures. This analysis, in a very lucid form, is here added, entitled 'Syllabus of the Course of Lectures on Botany, &c. by Dr. Hosack.'

Some other works, appertaining more to medicine and surgery, Mr. Hosack seems to have chosen, because they are of a recent date. Among these you will distinguish a very interesting treatise, called Observations on the Laws governing the Communication of Contagious Diseases,' &c., as well as a description and method of cure of a singular case of anthrax.

You will observe also a Treatise on Mineralogy,' by Dr. John Murray, printed last June, at New York.

These books are probably as yet unknown in Europe; and perhaps you will think fit to agree to the proposal which I make to you, of referring them either to Mr. professor Veerbeeck, your secretary, or to Drs. Van Rotterdam and F. Vander Woestyne, for them to examine whether these writings do not contain some novel observations, some truths hitherto unperceived, which it would be useful to make known in Europe, by means of the journals devoted to medical and chirurgical discoveries.

Finally, as you have already accepted a copy of a splendid work on the American war of independence, given to me by Mr. Paine Todd, stepson of the president, Mr. Madison, and secretary of Mr. Gallatin, at the congress of Ghent, I pray you to receive a collection of numbers of a journal of knowledge and literature, published at Philadelphia, under the title of the Analectic Magazine.' The set is not complete; but that very circumstance is not without interest, since the death alone of Mr. Bayard, from whom I received them, prevented his sending me the remaining numbers.

I pray you, gentlemen, to deposit these American productions in the library of the society. Inhabitants of a province so agricultural as Flanders, and of a town so distinguished among commercial and manufacturing cities, you can never receive with indifference any thing which draws you closer to a free and enlightened nation, that, like you, aims to found her prosperity on the improvement of her agriculture, the freedom of her commerce, and the development of her industry-a nation on which Providence seems also to intend, at some day, to bestow the empire of the seas-an empire from which she will exclude all other nations, if the spirit of ambition, that sure precursor of national decay, lead her astray, but which she will share with all, if principles of equity and moderation continue to direct her in the path of her true interest.

I conclude this report, gentlemen, with requesting the vice-president to submit to you for deliberation,

1. Whether it is not expedient that the president be instructed to render, in the name of the society, our thanks to his excellency Mr. Albert Gallatin, ambassador from the United States at the court of France, and, through him, to Mr. David Hosack, professor of botany and materia medica at New York.

2. Whether it is not expedient, since the number of our members is not limited by rule, to associate with us some in that part of the world, as well for the sake of repairing our losses as to extend our botanical and agricultural relations.

You will see more clearly the fitness and utility of this measure, when you recollect that among the Americans collected at the congress of Ghent, the majority were not familiar with the study of botany, perhaps because, by taste, or the habit of different studies, they had acquired a preference for other sciences, whether of literature, or history, or the fine arts; perhaps because the elevated stations which they are called to fill impose on them other cares and duties, claiming more seriously their attention.

We have therefore need to associate with us new correspondents, who may be initiated in the principles of the science, or who culti vate it with intelligence and con amore. It would be useful also to choose such, whose abodes are separated by great distance. Figure to yourselves the vast extent of the United States, which, in their different latitudes, possess all the various temperatures of our continent. The Andromeda rhomboidalis, which you expect from Florida, cannot be sent to you by the botanists inhabiting the shores of Ontario: the distance is equal to that from Spain to the north of Europe, The season is so much later in some of the provinces than in others, that the author of the Catalogue of American Plants' takes care to observe, that the same species of Muhlenbergia flowers in Georgia during the month of March, and in Philadelphia not until June.

It follows, therefore, I conceive, that in selecting correspondents in certain parts of the United States of America, more or less distant from each other, we should be governed by the same rule as in making such a choice at Paris, London, Edinburgh, Berlin, and places separated from us by more considerable distances.

The partiality natural to Americans towards a town which received their ministers with so much affection, and where was concluded a pacification that they regard as the honourable recompense of their firmness and courage; this partiality will facilitate our communications; and I dare confidently to assure you, that, in these vast and rich domains of Flora, where so many flowers and plants, yet unknown, await both their Linnean appellation and (if I may use the expression) the sacrament of their classification-where each nymph, each dryad, which animates them, awaits her worshippers, the friends of the goddess will hasten to reciprocate our prayers. Are not our religion, our rites the same? Are not the dogmas of the immortal Swede propagated by his apostles and their neophytes, unanimously received? And Flora, on the summit of the Alps, and of the Pyrenees, as among the anfractuosities of the Cordilleras and of Caucasus, in the plains watered by the Escaut, as on the borders of the Thames, at Geneva as at Rome, is she not every where the object of the same universal adoration, which unites all who profess it in the same communion?

If you adopt my propositions, I will have the honour to place before you a list of a number of American botanists and amateurs, who have deserved well of science. I have more particularly designated five, among whom I propose as an honorary member,

Mr. Jefferson, already admitted to many learned societies in Europe, formerly president of the United States, and now cultivating his estate at Monticello:

And as corresponding members,

1. Mr. Stephen Elliot, president of the Literary and Philosophical Society of North Carolina. The Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg records the services received by him from Mr. Elliot, in his botanical researches.

2. Mr. William Bartram, a relation, perhaps son, of Mr. John Bartram, to whom we owe certain botanical observations, during a journey which he made to the lakes of Canada. Mr. W. Bartram is himself a very distinguished botanist.

3. Mr. Frederick Pursh, the gardener at the Elgin establishment, who in that quality has the best opportunity to know and appreciate the respective wants of the two gardens, a learned man besides, and well skilled in the knowledge of American plants.

4. Mr. Gaspard Wistar Eddy, nephew of Professor Hosack, who, although still young, has gained a name among the pupils of that professor, by discoveries recently made in his botanical researches.

If, according to the rule, you receive as candidates the botanists or friends to the science, whom I have just named, I beg my fellow-members to support my proposition, and to submit the nominations, in the usual form, to the first general meeting which shall take place.

N. CORNELISSEN.

The meeting adopted the above report, and the question being put on the propositions with which it concludes, they were referred to the first general meeting of the society, and the proceedings ordered to be printed.

F. VERBEECK, Perpetual Secretary.

There follows a note, containing a list of Americans, whom Mr. Cornelissen recommends as worthy of being elected members of the society. We find the names of

Dr. Benjamin S. Barton, professor at Philadelphia, William Bartram, author of several botanical works at Philadelphia, Peter Billy, of Virginia, Zaccheus Collins, of Philadelphia, Dr. Manasses Cutler, of Massachusetts, Gustavus Dallman, of South Carolina, the Rev. Christian Danke, of Nazareth and Canada, Stephen Elliott, of Beaufort, S. C. Dr. Frederick Kampman, of Pennsylvania, Matthias Kin, the Rev. Samuel Kramsch, of South Carolina, John Lyon, Bernard M'Mahon, Dr. James Mease, of Philadelphia, Dr. S. L. Mitchell, of New York, Christopher Muller, of the western part of Pennsylvania, Henry Moore, of Tennessee, P. E. Muhlenberg, of New York, Frederick Pursh, of New York, the Rev. Jacob Van Vleck, of Pennsylvania.

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ART. VI.-Medical Jurisprudence. Foderé Médicine lérale, 8vo. 6 vols. Paris, 1813. Orfila Toxocologie générale considéré, sous les Rapports de la Physiologie, de la Pathologie, et de la Médicine légale, Paris, 1815.-From the Journal of Science and the Arts.

OUR

UR attention has been directed to the science of Medical Jurisprudence or State Medicine, as it is termed in Germany, by some recent publications of considerable merit. As a science it is not known in this country, nor does it form any part of the necessary studies of the medical practitioner. In the present paper, we shall point out what we consider to be its leading branches; and we are so convinced of the benefit which would result to mankind from a more general attention to this science, that we shall not apologise for having entered on a subject which may probably be considered not to be immediately within the limits of our journal. The science of Medical Jurisprudence comprehends the evidence and opinions necessary to be given in courts of justice, by practitioners, on all subjects relating to their profession: according to the English laws, the testimony or the opinions of medical men are not directly required, though it is usual in certain cases, to require their evidence on professional subjects: public attention has been of late called to the laws now in force relating to coroner's inquests, and the mode in which they are administered. This subject is intimately connected with Medical Jurisprudence. Without wishing to discuss the propriety of the laws for the punishment of suicide, so far as they relate to the forfeiture of property, and the giving publicity to the offence; there can be little question but that the exposure of the body of the suicide is not consonant to the feelings of the present age; and yet it cannot be forgotten, that within a short period the body of an unfortunate wretch was, in open day, dragged in procession along the public way, headed by the civil power. Very slight evidence, or rather no evidence at all, but merely the discretion of the coroner, is sufficient to procure a verdict of lunacy; and that such verdicts are often corruptly procured, no person who has attended to the proceedings of coroners' inquests, can have any doubt. It may be questioned whether an ignominious burial has any direct tendency to the prevention of suicide; and unless it is clearly established that it has, in an enlightened age like the present, so barbarous and disgusting a law should be abolished, or at least why should not the very fact of suicide be considered in all cases, as affording evidence of insanity? It is of the utmost importance to the due administration of justice that the evidence before the coroner should be complete and correct. To insure this, it will be requisite that enactments should be made, at once regulating the mode of producing such evidence, and the class of persons by whom it is to be given. Several instances of the grossest neglect and irregularity in the evidence of medical persons have come to our knowledge; the following is one of the most flagrant:-a servant had died in consequence of poison; it was supposed she had taken it purposely, though she