tion of the church in the city of New York previous to the Revolution, to show how incompetent a colonial religious establishment would have been to educate and send abroad the clergy and missionaries required among a growing people. The apprehensions to which we have referred were by no means general among the episcopalians, who soon became sensible of the injury which their church was receiving from that source, and from a prevalent prejudice that the episcopal form of government had a peculiar affinity for monarchical institutions. The best efforts of the clergy were put in requisition to refute these prejudices, and in many of the pamphlets, written for that purpose, may be found very able arguments against a union of the church and the state, and in defence of the cardinal principle that religion is best promoted, and most fruitful of blessings, when wholly independent of the patronage and control of government.

Soon after the Revolution, all the religious denominations in the state, with one exception, had risen to ecclesiastical independence. Candidates for the clergy, for many years, obtained their theological education in the private study of some approved divine of their particular sect. But provision was early made to guard against the admission of unqualified candidates, by an open examination before the body which conferred orders. The advantages, however, which would be afforded by public institutions for theological education were too obvious to be overlooked. The "Theological Seminary of the Associate Reformed Synod of New York" was established in 1801, through the efforts of the Reverend John M. Mason, D. D., and was the first theological institution in the United States. Dr. Mason was elected the only professor of the school in 1804, and it went into actual operation in 1805. It received a valuable theological library, procured in Europe in 1802, by the personal solicitations of its founder. He relinquished his office after about fifteen years. The school was removed to Newburgh, and received a charter in 1825. It has three professors and eleven students, and a collection of 4,000 volumes. The Lutherans, in 1815, established the Hartwick Theological Seminary, at Hartwick, in Otsego county. It had two professors, some ten or twelve students, and a library of 1,000 volumes. The Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, was instituted in the city of New York in 1817. It was removed to New Haven in 1820,

but restored to New York in 1821, and was then incorporated. It has now five professors, seventy-four students, and about 7,260 volumes in its libraries. It has given to the church one hundred and eighty-six ministers. The Presbyterian Theological Seminary, at Auburn, was founded in 1821. It has four professors, sixty-nine students, and libraries containing 5,000 volumes, and has sent forth into the vineyard of Christ three hundred and forty-four laborers. The presbyterian "New York Theological Seminary," in the city of New York, was established in 1836, and has four professors, ninety students, and libraries containing 12,000 volumes. The Baptist Association have founded an academical institution at Hamilton; the Methodists a similar one at Lima; and the Catholics a like institution at Rose Hill; with a laudable purpose respectively of elevating the standard of education among their clergy.*

Although the various divisions of the church have generally observed forbearance toward each other, and a good degree of harmony has prevailed among their own communions, there has been enough of controversy to test the learning and skill of the clergy in polemic divinity. The first instance of this kind occurred in the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, and is known in its annals as the "coetus and conferentic controversy." The inconveniences of dependence upon the classis of Amsterdam, before mentioned, induced certain ministers, in 1737, to propose the plan of a coetus or assembly of ministers and elders, which should have merely powers of advice and admonition. This plan which was adopted and approved by the church in Holland, called forth the exertions of the Reverend Theodore J. Frelinghuysen. The arrangement proved inefficient, and, in 1754, the church was distracted by two parties, the one called the coetus insisting on casting off ecclesiastical connection with the classis of Amsterdam; the other, the "conferentia," which struggled to maintain that connection. The weight of learning was on the side of the latter; but zeal, industry, and more practical preaching, distinguished the former. The controversy was finally settled in 1772, chiefly through the agency of the Reverend Dr. John H. Livingston, and the Reverend Dr. Laidley of New York, and the Reverend Dr. Eilardus Westerlo of Albany, and the Reverend Dr. Theodoric Romeyn of Schenectady.

*The Universalists also have an Academy at Clinton, Oneida county.-Ed.

In 1805, Dr. William Linn commenced, in the "Albany Sentinel," a series of strictures upon a work then recently published by the Reverend John H. Hobart, afterward bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, entitled "A Companion for the Altar,” in which the peculiar claims and tenets of the Episcopal ministry, in regard to divine ordination, were set forth. Mr. Hobart's doctrines were defended with great ability by Thomas Y. How, Esq., under the signature of "A Layman of the Episcopal Church," and by the Reverend Frederick Beasly of Albany, under the name of "Cyprian." Dr. Linn rejoined, and thus drew into the controversy Bishop Moore, who assumed the name of "Cornelius;" Bishop White of Pennsylvania, under the name of "Detector," and Mr. Hobart, under the signature of "Vindex." Dr. Linn, under the signatures of "Umpire" and "Inquirer," defended himself with great ability against these new antagonists. These essays constitute a part of our theological learning. In 1806, the Reverend John M. Mason, D.D., reviewed these essays in the "Christian's Magazine." Whatever may be thought of the merit of the controversy, it is universally admitted that the review was written with extraordinary force and brilliancy, logical acumen, and point. It excited great interest, and the whole controversy is worthy of a re-perusal. Dr. Mason is remembered as a man of ardent temperament, great genius, high literary attainments, and deeply versed in all the learning of his profession, and as a fearless commentator on the tendency of passing events. He employed the whole powers of his intellect in expounding the Scriptures, and excelled in eloquence and persuasion all his contemporaries.* The Reverend Samuel Miller, D. D., in 1807, published letters on the constitution and order of the Christian ministry, which engaged him in a controversy concerning that important doctrine with Thomas Y. How, the Reverend Dr. Bowden of Columbia College, the Reverend Dr. Kemp of Maryland, and Dr. Hobart, afterward bishop. Dr. Miller's portion of this controversy is held in high estimation by that portion of the church whose views accord with his own. The "Triangle," by the Reverend Samuel Whelpley, is still remembered as a masterly performance.

In pulpit eloquence, the Reverend Dr. Mason's discourse upon the death of Hamilton, and baccalaureate addresses by the

*M. C. Patterson's Address on Primary Education.

Reverend Eliphalet Nott, D. D., president of Union College, are productions of a high order.*

A colonial writer, to whom we have before referred, describes the medical profession as worthy of very little respect, and declares "that pretenders have recommended themselves to a full practice and profitable subsistence. This," he adds, "is the less to be wondered at, as the profession is under no kind of regulation. Loud as the call is, they have no law to protect the lives of the king's subjects. Any man at his pleasure sets up for a physician, apothecary, and chirurgeon. Candidates are neither examined nor licensed, nor are they even sworn to fair practice."

Nevertheless, we find occasional notices of medical prescribers who had enjoyed the advantages of sound education at foreign universities, and who dispensed the benefits of their knowledge in this their adopted country. Megapolensis, Dupie, Dubois, Beekman, Magrath, John Bard, Middleton, Clossy, and Farquhar, were justly conspicuous. Dr. Cadwallader Colden, who was surveyor-general, and subsequently lieutenant-governor of the province, was eminent not only as a philosopher and a naturalist, but as a physician and medical writer. We are indebted to him for the first scientific account which we have of the climate and diseases of the city of New York. We have in this work satisfactory evidence, that owing to the "clearness" and purity of the atmosphere, and its vigor in the spring season, consumption of the lungs is not an endemical disease, and hence it results that the prevalence of pulmonary affections has been produced by erroneous personal and social habits. Dr. Colden's elaborate paper on the management of the fever of New York, which prevailed in 1742; his account of the plant called "water dock," and his earnest recommendation of the cooling process, in the cure of fevers, an innovation on the therapeutic measures of that age, are yet held in high estimation.†

Dr. John Bard, already mentioned, published an able essay on the nature and cause of malignant pleurisy, which proved very fatal on Long Island in 1749, and astonished his medical brethren in New York in 1795, by identifying at once the pestilence,

*Notes concerning the clergy were received from the Reverend Dr. J. N. Campbell, and the Reverend T. C. Reed.

Dr. Francis's Discourse before the New York Lyceum of Natural History.

which then ravaged the city, with the malignant yellow fever, of which not a case had occurred within his observation, since its previous visit in 1742.

His son Samuel Bard, while a student at the university of Edinburgh, received the Hope medal as an acknowledgment of his acquirements in botany, and his inaugural dissertation, de viribus opii, attracted the attention of the erudite Haller. He made other contributions to medical science, of which his "Inquiry into the nature, cause, and cure, of the Angina Suffocativa," or sore throat, a disease attended with great mortality in New York, will perhaps be longest remembered.

Dr. Jacob Ogden, of Long Island, in 1769 and 1774, addressed to the public letters on the same disease, which are worthy of reference, because they urge with boldness the mercurial practice, which, although it had been before suggested by Dr. Douglass, had not yet obtained any general favor.

Dr. Richard Bayley, in 1781, published a letter to Dr. William Hunter of London, on "Angina Trachealis," or the croup, setting forth a new mode of cure of that very alarming and too often fatal inflammation, and subsequent experience in this and other countries has confirmed the utility of the discovery.

In 1769, a medical faculty was projected and associated with the academic corps of King's, now Columbia College. This measure awakened an active spirit of inquiry into the sciences tributary to the healing art. Middleton, Bard, Smith, Tennant, Clossy, and Jones, the first professors, were eminent in their respective departments. Middleton exhibited research and learning in a comprehensive discourse on the history of medicine. Clossy had written with success on morbid anatomy. The first instance in which the degree of doctor of medicine was conferred in this state was in 1771, when Samuel Kissam received that honor. A copy of his inaugural dissertation on the anthelmintic virtue of the phaseolus zuratensis siliqua hirsuta, is preserved in the library of the New York Historical Society. The medical school connected with King's College was visited with the same misfortunes which befell that institution during the Revolutionary war. Efforts made by the regents of the university, after the return of peace, to reorganize the medical faculty, were unsuccessful. In 1792, however, the trustees announced the re-establishment of the school, and Doctors Bailey, Post, Hammersly,