the tendencies to particular diseases, which might, | until 1715, when he returned to England. While under different circumstances, have been rendered he was in London, he was introduced to that eminugatory, now acquire a fearful force. In this way nent philosopher, Dr. Edmund Halley, who formed has been brought about the degeneracy and even idiocy of some of the noble and royal families of so favourable an opinion of a paper on animal secreSpain and Portugal, from marrying nieces and other tion, written by Dr. Colden some years before, that near relations. From a similar cause proceeded the he read it at the Royal society, the notice of which visible feebleness of character of so many of the old it greatly attracted. At this time he formed an acFrench noblesse. They had become, to make use of the language of a distinguished medical writer of quaintance with some of the most distinguished littheir own nation, rickety, consumptive, and insane. erary and scientifick characters, with whom he ever The revolution, he adds, brought forward another after maintained a regular correspondence. From race with better hopes. London he went to Scotland and married a young lady of a respectable Scotch family, by the name of Alice Christie, with whom he returned to America in 1716

Among other examples is one of a noble family; four successive generations of which were affected with aneurism or morbid enlargement of the heart. Testimony equally strong, and to the same effect, is borne by the most experienced writers on insanity. Dr. Burrows states that hereditary predisposition to this disease could be distinctly ascertained in six sevenths of his patients. He asserts that the frequency of transmission is greater by a third on the part of the mother than of the father. We find then in this inheritance and family community of disease, reasons of a very imperative nature, distinct from moral and social considerations, why laws have been so generally promulgated, from Moses down to the present time, against persons within certain limits of consanguinity intermarrying. Love may be blind to laws which are firmly based on nature; and, while condemning, we must often pity its wanderings but no such toleration ought to be extended to the union between members of the same family, brought about by heartless avarice or ambition, for the purpose of retaining wealth, or preserving a title and the consequences of which are often the transmission, into another generation, of infirmities in an aggravated shape, which a more natural and honourable course might have entirely prevented or at least greatly mitigated.

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BIOGRAPHY.

Jour. of Health.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CADWALLADER COLDEN, Formerly Lieutenant-Governour of New York. THIS truly eminent and worthy character, who united in himself the several qualities we are accustomed to admire in the physician, philanthropist, and philosopher, was the son of the Reverend Alexander Colden, of Dunse, in Scotland, and was born on the seventeenth day of February, 1688. After he had laid the foundation of a liberal education under the immediate inspection of his father, he went to the university of Edinburgh, where in 1705 he completed his course of collegiate studies. He now devoted his attention to medicine and mathematical science until the year 1708, when being allured by the fame of William Penn's colony, he came over to Pennsylvania about two years after, where he practised physick with no small share of reputation

In 1718 he settled in the city of New York; but soon after relinquished the practice of physick and became a publick character: he held in succession the office of surveyor-general of the province, master in chancery, member of the council at the instance of Governour Burnet, and lieutenant-governour. Previously to his acceptance of this last station he obtained a patent for a tract of land by the name of Coldenham, near Newburgh, on the Hudson, at which place he retired about the year 1756, where he spent a great part of his life. Here he appears to have been occupied, (with occasional interruption on account of publick affairs connected with his station of lieutenant-governour,) in the pursuit of general knowledge, but particularly in botanical and mathematical studies, at the same time that he continued his correspondence with learned men in Europe and America.

In July 1760, upon the death of James De Lancy, Mr. Colden was appointed lieutenant-governour of New York, which commission he held until the time of his decease, the administration of the government repeatedly falling on him by the death or absence of several governours-in-chief. His political character, ardent in the cause of the king, was rendered very conspicuous by the firmness of his conduct during the violent commotions which preceded the revolution. His administration is also memorable, among other circumstances, for several charters of incorporation for useful and benevolent purposes. Among these may be stated the act of incorporation for the relief of distressed seamen, called the Marine Society; that of the Chamber of Commerce, which has lately been revived by John Pintard, and is now prominent among the most effective organizations for commercial purposes in the city of New York, and one for the relief of widows and children of clergymen. After the return of Governour Tryon in 1775 he was relieved from the care of government. He then retired to a seat on Long Island, where a recollection of his former studies and a few select friends ever welcomed by a

social and hospitable disposition, cheered him in his | created much alarm. From the slight evidence in last days. He died in the eighty-ninth year of his age, on the memorable 28th of September, 1776, a few hours before the city of New York was in flames, retaining his senses to the last, and expiring without a groan.

Smith's New York and other sources, it seems to have been similar to the malignant pestilence which has occurred of latter years. Two hundred and seventeen persons died of a population of seven or eight thousand. He communicated his thoughts Dr. Colden began at an early period of his life to to the publick on the most probable method of treatpay great attention to the vegetable productions of ing the disease, in a small treatise on the occasion, America, in which delightful study his daughter enriched with much learning, in which he enlarged afterward became distinguished; and it has generally on the pernicious effects of marshy exhalations, been asserted that this eminent female botanist re- moist air, damp cellars, filthy stores, and dirty streets: ceived from Linnæus the high compliment of having showed how much these nuisances prevailed in a plant of the tetrandous class named Coldenia, in many parts of the city, and pointed out the remehonour of her merits. The Linnæan correspond- dies. The corporation of the city presented him ence, however, recently published by Sir James their thanks and established a plan for draining and Edward Smith, removes all doubt on the subject; clearing the city, which was attended with the most the genus was so denominated as a tribute due to salutary effects. This important paper may also be Dr. Colden himself. For it deserves to be recol- found in the Register just referred to, as well as his lected that Dr. Colden was the first American ex- Observations on the Climate and Diseases of New positor of the Linnæan system in the new world. York. An opinion of Dr. Colden, set forth in this This he taught on the banks of the Hudson almost last-named essay, that the climate of the city of immediately after its announcement by the illustrious New York, he doubts not, will in time become one of Swede.* That Linnæus contemplated a like honour the most agreeable and healthy on the face of the to the distinguished daughter of Colden, there is earth, has created some animadversion. He publittle doubt. His correspondent Peter Collinson, re-lished a short treatise on the cure of cancer, and peatedly referred in his letters to Miss Colden's botan- another on the virtues of the "Great Water Dock;" ical disquisitions. In a letter of May, 1756, he remarks: "I have lately heard from Dr. Colden. He is well but what is marvellous, his daughter is perhaps the first lady that has so perfectly studied your system. She deserves to be celebrated:" and in another letter of April, 1757, Collinson again writes to Linnæus: "In the second volume of Edinburgh Essays, is published a botanick dissertation by Miss Colden: perhaps the only lady that makes profession of the Linnæan system, of which you may be proud." Other testimonials in behalf of the high botanical attainments of Dr. Colden and his daughter, are recorded in the same work.

Dr. Colden was attentive to the physical constitution of the country, in which as a physician, he had for some time held a conspicuous rank, and he has left a long course of diurnal observations on the thermometer, barometer, and winds. He wrote a history of the prevalent diseases of the climate, which appeared many years after his death in Hosack's and Francis's American Medical and Philosophical Register, Vol. I.; and if he was not the first to recommend the cooling regimen in the cure of fevers, he was certainly one of its earliest and warmest advocates; and opposed, with earnestness, the then prevalent mode of treatment in the small-pox. In the year 1743, a fever which occasioned great mortality, prevailed in the city of New York, and

* Dr. Francis's Discourse.

this last production was the occasion of the commencement of his Linnæan correspondence; though in one of his letters to the great botanist, bearing date 1748–9, it seems evident he had already made himself favourably known to him by other studies in the classification of plants according to the method of the sexual system. In 1753, he published some observations on the epidemical sore throat which appeared in Massachusetts in 1735, and had spread over a great part of North America. These observations are to be seen in Carey's American Museum.

"When I came

Upon his becoming acquainted with the Linnæan system of botany he applied himself with new delight to that study, as might be inferred from the progress he made in the science, but we have the further evidence of his zeal in that pursuit from one of his own letters to Linnæus : into this part of the world, near forty years since," says he, "I understood only the rudiments of botany, and I found so much difficulty in applying them to the many unknown plants I met with everywhere, that I was quite discouraged, and laid aside all attempts in that way near thirty years, till I casually met with your books, which gave me such new lights that I resolved again to try what could be done with your assistance." His slight personal interviews with Kalm, the traveller, and a pupil of Linnæus, may also have given him still further aid. He felt justified, however, in attempting a scientifick de

scription of American plants, and published an account of between three and four hundred which was printed in the Acta Upsaliensia. Of this number about two hundred were for the first time noticed as new species. He published the "History of the Five Indian Nations," in two volumes, 12mo, and dedicated it to Gov. Burnet, who had distinguished himself by his wisdom and success in the management of Indian affairs. This history may be pronounced a work of great historical value, and indispensable to every writer on the important subject of our Indian tribes. Much of his knowledge was derived from actual observation and experience. But the subject which drew Dr. Colden, at one time of his life from every other pursuit, was what he first published under the title of the "Cause of Gravitation," but which being afterward much enlarged, was published in 1751, by Dodsley, of London, in one volume, 4to, entitled the" Principles of Action in Matter," to which is annexed a "Treatise on Fluxions." His friend Peter Collinson, in a letter to Linnæus, thus writes of the first edition in 1747. "The treatise on gravitation by our friend Dr. Colden, is a new system which he desires may be thoroughly examined. I wish it had been wrote in Latin, to have been more universally read. But as a great many of your learned men read English, I hope it will be acceptable to some of them." That this book cost him many years of severe study, is apparent from the nature of the subject and the extent of his researches. His desire to free it of all objections urged against it, caused him to prepare a new edition with further elucidations of particular parts, which he transmitted to Dr. Whytte, a professor in the university of Edinburgh: the fate of the volume was never known.

Though his principal attention after the year 1760, was necessarily directed from philosophical to political matters, yet he maintained with great punctuality his literary correspondence, particularly with Linnæus of Upsal, Gronovius of Leyden, Dr Porterfield and Whytte of Edinburgh, Dr. Fother gill and Mr. Collinson, F. R. S. of London. There were also several communications on mathematical and astronomical subjects between him and the Earl of Macclesfield. With most of the eminent men of America he held an almost uninterrupted correspondence. Among them may be mentioned the names of Dr. Garden, J. Bartram, Dr. Douglass, Dr. John Bard, Dr. Samuel Bard, James Alexander, With Dr. Franklin in parEsq. and Dr. Franklin. ticular, he was a constant and intimate correspondent, and they regularly communicated to each other their philosophical and physical discoveries, especially on electricity. In these letters are to be observed the first dawnings of many of those discoreries which Dr. Franklin has communicated to the world, and which so much astonished and enlightened mankind. In one of his letters Dr. Franklin gives an account of the organization of the American Philosophical Society, in which he mentions that Dr. Colden first suggested the idea and plan of that institution;* and in another letter addressed to Dr. Colden, he details the circumstances connected with his making with his own hands a cylindricalelectrical machine, probably the first apparatus of such a construction ever formed.

That Dr. Colden was a man of varied and extensive learning, of deep research and extensive observation, is fully evinced by his various writings: that in industry he had few to equal him, and that his devotion to science arose from the impulse of a generous and disinterested feeling, will be conceded by all who reflect upon the nature and amount of his

the country and the times in which he lived.

The numerous manuscript papers left by Dr. Colden at the time of his death, are now in the possession of his great grandson, David C. Colden Esq., of New York, who has kindly permitted the Franklin correspondence to be delivered to Jared Sparks Esq., in order, more effectually to enable this enlightened and able editor to complete his ample edition of Dr. Franklin's life and works now publishing at Boston.

In the American Medical and Philosophical Register, a work which has already been referred to in this article, a paper of singular value may be found, entitled a "New Method of Printing discovered by philosophical lucubrations, and the circumstances of Dr. Colden, together with an Original Letter from Dr. Franklin on the same subject." To this document is added by the editors some account of stereotyping, as now practised in Europe. From the correspondence with Colden and Franklin, the curious fact is deduced, that the stereotype process, said to have been invented by M. Herhan in Paris, and now practised by him (1810) in that city under lêtters patent of Napoleon, is precisely the same as that spoken of by Dr. Colden more than sixty years ago. How far this great improvement in the typographick art is an American invention, becomes from the testimony thus furnished, an enquiry well worth investigation. The claims of Dr. Colden to this high honour, seem to be of a no ordinary character.*

* We purpose, in some future number of the Family Magazine, to give an historical account of this great discovery, when

we shall examine with impartiality the pretensions set up for Dr. Colden, and the observations of Drs. Hosack and Francis, the editors of the Register, on the subject, as well as detail most

faithfully the leading circumstances connected with the progress of this great improvement in the art preservative.

This curious paper, the only existing document making known the origin of this society, may be seen in Hosack and Francis's American Medical and Philosophical Register already referred to in this article.

THE FROG.

THE frog (Rana,) is a genus of Batrachian reptiles,

In the neighbourhood of Smyrna, and indeed the Romans it was called the pious bird, and was throughout the whole of the Ottoman dominions, also an emblem on the medals of such Roman prinwherever the bird abides during its summer visits, ces as merited the title of Pius. it is welcomed. They call him their friend and their brother, the friend and brother exclusively of the Moslem race, entertaining a belief that wherever the influence of their religion prevailed, it would still bear them company; and it might seem that the typical genus, and the one from which the name these sagacious birds are well aware of this predi- is taken, Batrachos being the Greek name for a frog. lection for singularly enough, a recent traveller, In the Linnæan system, the genus Rana included who met with them in incredible numbers in Asia not only the frogs properly so called, but the treeMinor, observed, that although they built on the frogs (Hyla,) and the toads (Bafo;) and Cuvier, as mosques, minarets, and Turkish houses, their nests he has done in many other instances, has retained were never erected on a Christian roof. In the the Linnæan arrangement for the whole genus, or Turkish quarters they were met in all directions, rather family, but has divided it into three sub-g -genstrutting about most familiarly, mixing with the peo- era, answering to those which we have mentioned. ple in the streets, but rarely entering the parts of the The general characters of frogs are:-The body town inhabited by the Greeks or Armenians, by thick, and a little compressed, elongated, moist on whom, possibly, they may be occasionally disturbed. the surface, covered on the upper part with a few Nothing can be more interesting than the view of an small tubercles, and generally granulated on the unassemblage of their nests. Divided as they always der surface, with the exception of that of the thorax are into pairs, sometimes only the long elastick neck which is smooth. On each side of the back, just of one of them is to be seen peering from its cradle above the loins, some of the species have an anguof nestlings, the mate standing by on one of his long lar fold. The fore feet have four separate toes, or slim legs, and watching with every sign of the clo-toes without any webs, the thumb being larger than sest affection. While other couples, on the adjacent the others, and in the males undergoing a peculiar walls, are fondly entwining their pliant necks, and enlargement at the pairing-time. The hind feet mixing their long bills, the one sometimes bending her neck over her back, and burying her bill in the soft plumage, while her companion clacking his long beak with a peculiar sharp and monotonous sound, raises her head and embraces it with a quivering delight; while from the holes and crannies of the walls, below the storks' nests, thousands of little blue turtledoves flit in all directions, keeping up an incessant cooing by day and night.

are much longer, not much less than the length of the body; and they are five-toed and palmated in all the species. The upper jaw is furnished with a single row of small and finely-pointed teeth, and there is also a row of similar teeth across the palate. The tongue is short, thick, and fleshy, adhering to the sides of the under jaw, but capable of being elevated against the palate, so as completely to close the communication with the nostrils. It At another Mohammedan town, Fez, on the coast will be perceived that this structure of mouth is a of Barbary, there is a rich hospital, expressly built, simple swallowing one; and that a frog can neither and supported by large funds, for the sole purpose of bite nor masticate. This points immediately to the assisting and nursing sick cranes and storks, and of kind of food on which it must subsist, namely, food burying them when dead! This respect arises from which it can take into the stomach without any prepa strange belief, handed down from time immemo-aration; and in the taking of this food, frogs are of rial, that the storks are human beings in that form, men from some distant islands, who, at certain seasons of the year, assume the shape of these birds, that they may visit Barbary, and return at a fixed time to their own country, where they resume the human form. It has been conjectured that this tradition came originally from Egypt. By the Jews the stork was also respected, though for a different reason; they called it Chaseda-which in Hebrew, signifies piety or mercy-from the tenderness shown by the young to the older birds, who, when the latter were feeble or sick, would bring them food.

considerable service to man on the land, nd not altogether useless in the water. The different species of slugs, which are so very destructive in gardens, and to many culinary and other useful plants, form one principal article of the food of frogs; and, therefore, frogs are deserving of much encouragement, in consequence of the value of their labours; and, while their labours are thus valuable, they themselves harm nothing. They do not burrow in the earth, neither do they eat any vegetable substance so far as is known; and, therefore, while they tend to preserve vegetation in the moist places of the This affection, however, appears to be mutual, for garden, and indeed in all places of it on those damp the parent birds have a more than common degree and dewy nights in which slugs are so mischievous, of affection for their young, and have been known they are always worth protecting; and not only so, to perish rather than desert them. An attachment but it is worth while to keep a little pond for their of this sort once occasioned the death of an old aquatick amusements, nor, perhaps, is it altogether stork, at the burning of the city of Delft, in Hol- amiss to have a bit of stagnant water in some waste land. When the flames approached her nest, sit-place in which they may breed; for, though the uated on a housetop, she exerted herself to the ut- nuptial songs of the frogs are not the most melomost to save her young; but finding every effort dious in the world, there is an association of cheeruseless, she remained and perished with them. fulness with their croaking their song, such as it is, Besides the Jews, other ancient nations held these is a song of hope; it tells us that the season of birds in veneration. A law among the Greeks, growth and beauty is coming, and in the case of the obliging children to support their parents, even re- common frog, it tells this very early in the season. ceived its name from a reference to these birds. By There is another reason why some attention