Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published

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                          Transcriber’s Note:

This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.

Please consult the end notes for a discussion of the handling of textual
notes, and any other issues that arose during the preparation of this
transcription.

                                MEMOIRS

                              OF THE LIFE

                                   OF

                     DAVID RITTENHOUSE, LLD. F.R.S.

       LATE PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, &c.

                           INTERSPERSED WITH

               VARIOUS NOTICES OF MANY DISTINGUISHED MEN:

                                  WITH

                              AN APPENDIX,

                               CONTAINING

                 SUNDRY PHILOSOPHICAL AND OTHER PAPERS,

            MOST OF WHICH HAVE NOT HITHERTO BEEN PUBLISHED.

                        BY WILLIAM BARTON, M. A.

                           COUNSELLOR AT LAW;

 Member of the American Philosophical Society, the Mass. Hist. Society,
        and the Royal Economical Society of Valencia, in Spain.

                             --------------


                            _PHILADELPHIA_:

          PUBLISHED BY EDWARD PARKER, NO. 178, MARKET-STREET.

                    W. Brown, Printer, Church-Alley.

                                 1813.

DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, TO WIT:

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the ninth day of October, in the thirty-eighth
year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1813,
William Barton of the said district, hath deposited in this office the
Title of a book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words
following, to wit:

“Memoirs of the Life of David Rittenhouse, L. L. D. F.R.S, late
  President of the American Philosophical Society, &c. Interspersed with
  various notices of many distinguished men: with an Appendix,
  containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have
  not hitherto been published. By William Barton, M. A. Counsellor at
  Law; Member of the American Philosophical Society, the Mass. Hist.
  Society, and the Royal Economical Society of Valencia, in Spain.”

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States,
intituled, “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the
copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such
copies during the times therein mentioned.”—And also to the act
entitled, “An act supplementary to an act, entitled, “An act for the
encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and
books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times
therein mentioned,” and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of
designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.”

                                            D. CALDWELL,
                                  Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania.

[Illustration: Autograph notes]

                                PREFACE.


Agreeably to the plan on which the following memoirs have been
conducted, it will be perceived, that they contain a great variety of
matter; of which, some particulars have a remote, others merely an
incidental connexion, with the chief object of the work. There may
perhaps be some readers, to whom the introduction of such matters as the
_University of Pennsylvania_ and the _Medical School_ connected with it,
the _Pennsylvania Hospital_, the _Philadelphia Library_, and the like,
into the _Life of Rittenhouse_, will, on a cursory view, seem to have
little or no affinity to that object. But when it is considered, that
this work is designed to comprehend Memoirs, not only of Rittenhouse
personally, but of several literary, scientific, and other public
institutions, as well as of many eminent men, with which his individual
history and the annals of his time were in various ways associated, it
is presumed, that the slight sketches which have been taken of those
matters, in passing along, will neither prove foreign to the nature of
the present undertaking, nor uninteresting in themselves. As a citizen
of Pennsylvania; as an inestimable public and private character; as a
distinguished son of science, of great probity and extensive usefulness
in society; in all these points of view, the History of Dr. Rittenhouse
may be contemplated, as holding a relationship with almost every object
connected with science and the arts, in his day, that could in any wise
contribute to the well being of mankind in general, and his native
country in particular. Conspicuous and eminently meritorious as he was,
yet an insulated account of his talents, his virtues, and his personal
services,—a bare specification of such qualities and merits as he
possessed, abstracted from a due consideration of the state of society
and circumstances resulting from it, taken in connexion with them,
during the same period,—would not be equally intelligible and
instructive; and, consequently, must prove less useful.