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292 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
here has also been preserved a statement of the content of 
this course in moral philosophy. Professor Gross divided it into 
three parts: the first dealing with the law of nature, strictly 
so-called; i. e., the principles and “laws resulting from the nature 
of man and his natural relations to God and to his fellow- 
creatures.” The second part treated of ethics and natural juris- 
prudence, the latter topic including the whole field of civil gov- 
ernment. The third part comprised the law of nations. It is more 
than probable that the second part included the general prin- 
ciples of wealth which were usually discussed at that time in 
Great Britain under the head of civil government. 
The next step was taken in 1792, when a committee of the 
trustees reported in favor of a new professorship to deal with 
natural history, chemistry, agriculture and the other arts depend- 
ng thereon. This report was accepted and in July, 1792, a pro- 
fessorship of Economics was established, the first incumbent of 
which was Samuel Latham Mitchill. 
This is a matter of such interest that it is worth describing in 
more detail. Dr. Mitchill was a remarkable man. Born at 
North Hempstead, Long Island, in 1764, he was the third son of 
a prosperous farmer of English descent, belonging to the Society 
of Friends. After completing a classical education he studied 
medicine under his uncle and later under the renowned Dr. 
Samuel Bard. He then proceeded, in 1783, to the University of 
Edinburgh, and there secured his degree of M. D. in 1786. On 
his return to the United States, he was elected, in 1790, to the 
State legislature and thereafter continued to take an active 
interest in politics, as well as in science. In 1797 he attended, at 
Philadelphia, as a delegate to the convention for the abolition of 
slavery; in 1798, he carried through the bill to enable Livingston 
to navigate the Hudson River by steamboat. He was a member 
of Congress between 1800 and 1813, in both the House and the 
Senate and was in great demand throughout the country for 
orations on economic and political topics, as well as on natural 
science. In 1795, e. g., he delivered and published an oration on 
The Life and Exploits of Tammany the famous Indian Chief. We 
are told that in 1814 he labored “jointly with his patriotic neigh- 
bors, with mattock and shovel, in the trenches, to erect fortifica- 
tions against the enemy.” 
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