BARTON
55
BARTON
received several honors, the member-
ship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
and also from that society an honorary
premium for his dissertation on " Hyo-
scyamus Niger. " This was the Harveian
prize, consisting of a superb quarto edi-
tion of the works of William Harvey.
While living in London he published
a tract entitled "Observations on Some
Parts of Natural History," to which is
prefixed an account of some considerable
vestiges of an ancient date which have
been discovered in different parts of
North America. This little book he
afterwards characterized as "premature
work" and regretted many deficiencies
in it. Both Hunter and Lettsom were
good friends to him and appear to have
appreciated his scientific merits.
Dr. Barton returned to Philadelphia and practised medicine in 1789, being in the same year appointed professor of natural history and botany in the College of Philadelphia, a position held after the union of the College of Phila- delphia with the University of the state of Pennsylvania in 1791. On the resignation of Dr. Griffith from the chair of materia medica in Pennsylvania Uni- versity, Dr. Barton was appointed. When Benjamin Rush died he was ap- pointed professor of the theory and practice of medicine, continuing to hold also the chair of natural history. His published works include "The Elements of Zoology and Botany," "Elements of Botany, or Outlines of the Natural History of Vegetables;" "Col- lections for an Essay towards the Materia Medica of the United States;" "Frag- ments of the Natural History of Penn- sylvania;" "Essay on the Fascinating Power Ascribed to Serpents, etc.," " Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America."
In 1S05 he started publishing the "Medical and Physical .Journal" and also wrote many short articles on topics connected with medicine, history and archaeology, much of his work appear- ing in the "Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. "
During his early years he was much
afflicted with hemorrhages and gout.
He had only given two courses as the
successor of Rush, when he had to seek
relief by a sea voyage. He sailed for
France in 1815 returning by way of
England, disheartened. At New York
he was afflicted with hydrothorax.
Finally reaching home, very ill, he became
rapidly worse and was found dead in
bed on the morning of December 19,
1815. Feverishly anxious to work, three
days before his death he wrote a paper
concerning a genus of plants named in
his honor by Nuttall, a young English
botanist whom Barton had financed for
a scientific tour in the Southern States.
The plants were of the class "Icosandria
monogynia. " found in hilly districts
between the Platte and the Andes and
named Bartonia polypetala and Bartonia
superba.
He was a member of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow; the Danish Royal Society of Sciences; the Linnaen Society of London; and of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland. Barton married, in 1797, a daughter of Edward Pennington of Philadelphia, and named his eldest son after Pennant, the English naturalist. F. R. P.
Bull, of the Lloyd Library. Reproduction Series No. 1, 1900, Cincinnati. Thacher's American Medical Biography. An account of the Life of B. S. Barton, by W. P. C. Barton, the Portfolio, vol. i, No. iv, April, 1816.
Barton, William Paul Crillon (1783-1856). William Paul Crillon Barton, a navy surgeon, was descended from a distin- guished family of physicians of Phila- delphia. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1808 and entered the navy as assistant surgeon in the follow- ing year. A man of untiring energy, with a high sense of duty, the Medical Department of the Navy owes to him some most valuable reforms. He \\ as also a writer of ability and a noted bota- nist. Among his more valuable writings may be mentioned: "A Treatise con- taining a Plan for the Organization and
