AN ABSTRACT OF THE CASES OF 1343 PATIENTS IN THE PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL, 351 Poor. Pay. Remg. in Hospital April 25th, 1829, 106 & 105 Admitted since, 455 & 677 561 & 782 Total. Of the above patients there were Natives of the U. 211 nited States 784, Ireland 384, England and Wales 56, 1132 Scotland 12, Germany 36, Sweden 16, France 14, Denmark 8, Norway 6, West Indies 6, Holland 4, Lap1343 land 3, East Indies 2, Finland 2, Prussia 2, At Sea 2, Africa 1, Brazil 1, Italy 1, Nova Scotia 1, Spain 1, Swit 1119 zerland 1.--Total 1343. Discharged 4th mo. 25th, 1829 to 4th mo. 24th, 1830, 445 & 674 The total number of Patients admitted into the Pennsylvania Hospital from its foundation to the 24th of 4th mo. 1830, was 27,355, of whom 14,090 were poor persons, maintained at the expense of the institution, and 13,265 were pay patients. Of this number have been Cured, Relieved, 16983 3279 150 986 552 2966 Kensington Incorp'd.-John Fernon. East Southwark.--John Pearce. West do.-Ebenezer Ferguson, Esq. Moyamensing & Passyunk.-Jas. M'Cann.-U.S, Gaz. We trust that every facility will be afforded, to render the census as accurate as possible. For this purpose, the intelligent part of the community, who know the object of taking the census, will do well to endeavor to remove false impressions from the minds of those, who from a belief that the enumeration is made with a view to the assessment of taxes, enrollment in the militia, or the collection of militia fines-would be disposed to conceal the truth. Norristown-In speaking of Norristown, the editor of the Herald, printed there, says, The advantages of a water navigation are but little known to those at a distance from it, and cannot be justly valued but by those who daily experience its benefits. The great quantity of boards, lumber, and shingles, of every description, which are every spring landed at this borough, has reduced the former prices when all were hauled by wagens, at least 25 per cent. and has produced a ready market for those materials at prices but little higher, if any, than the same quality could be purchased in Philadelphia. In addition to the above, several hundred logs are every year rafted to our saw-mills and sawed into timber; about two hun27355 dred tons of stone coal arrive from Mount Carbon and Susquehanna, and a large quantity of wheat, rye, corn, 27131 224 Patients admitted into Hospital in each year for 10 years. flax-seed, &c. is delivered at our mills, at prices less Whole Of whom Pregnant 1828. 1056 534 53 52 1829. 1362 756 74 98 than it could be bought from the wagons. Brick, plaster, wood, lime, stone, sand, &c, all also delivered at our landings by canal boats, and a large quantity of flour and several thousand tons of sawed marble are sent to Philadelphia by the same conveyance. These advantages we consider of great importance to our borough, and will every year greatly increase the business and prosperity of the place.' THE NEW MAUCH CHUNK COAL MINES. It is with sincere pleasure that we notice the flattering success of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in opening a number of large veins of Coal, of the very best quality, about four or five miles from Mauch Chunk landing, to which a regular ascending plane and CHARLES ROBERTS, rail road can be made. Those mines and quarries of JOHN PAUL, JOSEPH PRICE. coal have all been opened within the last six months on Room Run, which is destined by nature to be as celebrated as the Company's great Coal Mines, nine miles from this place. Our citizens are aware that they have arrived at another Lustrum-and in the course of a few weeks, the numbering of the people will take place. We have inquired at the proper source, and find that the following named gentlemen have been designated in theirness not ascertained. In addition to the above, the respective districts to assist the Marshal, who is ex-officio the censor for the Eastern District. Company have just opened a vein of coal 10 or 12 feet thick, near the top of the coal mountain and on the side of the Lehigh, less than one mile from this village.— Lehigh Pioneer. FOR THE CITY AND INCORPORATED LIBERTIES, &C. For the City of Philadelphia.-Robert Cooper, William Stephens, Samuel Read, John Hall, Joseph B. The communication signed "A reader" was duly reConard, Joseph Reynolds, Jas. Coxe, Israel J. Ash-ceived, but owing to its being mislaid and not found bridge, Thomas Porter. Spring Garden. -David Pearson. Incorporated Northern Liberties.—Saml. Foering, Dr. Joseph Thomas, Thomas Williamson, John Adelph, Henry Sparks. in time, is postponed till our next number. Printed by W. F. Geddes, 59 Locust street, near eighth THE REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA. DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE. VOL. V.-NO. 23. EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD. We were unwilling to break the connection of the interesting notice of the lamented GODMAN, although the space occupied is greater than we usually assign to one article. Our acquaintance with the deceased com menced at a late period of his protracted illness, but the impression which has been left of mental vivacity and intellectual vigour, exerted apparently without obstruction, notwithstanding the pressure of a cruel and wasting distemper, will not easily be obliterated. But that which is recurred to with most satisfaction, is the clear and settled belief on which his mind humbly but con fidently reposed, in the efficacy of that salvation which is through Jesus Christ our Lord. We may say further that his religious views were in accordance with those held by us as a religious society, to be inferred, not only from the character of the individuals whose company in the sick chamber he preferred, but also from more di rect evidence to which we have access.-The Friend. DR. JOHN D. GODMAN. The late Dr. John D Godman, was in many respects an interesting and uncommon personage. His natural endowments were great, and the success with which he cultivated them amidst very numerous obstacles and discouragements was truly admirable. He was born at Annapolis in Maryland, and had the misfortune to lose both his parents at an early age. His father, who had been wealthy, lost the greater part of his estate before his death, and the remainder was wrested from his children by the mismanagement of those to whom it was entrusted. Thrown thus upon the world with no resources but his own talents and industry, young Godman was bound apprentice to a printer in Baltimore.He remained at the business for a few years, but as he had not chosen it himself, and as his dislike towards it increased with time, he determined to abandon it. He therefore left his master in the fall of 1813, and entered as a sailor on board the Flotilla, which was then stationed in Chesapeake bay for the protection of its coasts and harbours. It was, while in this situation, that an incident occurred, which has already been related in the public prints, and to which he himself attributed much of the buoyancy and energy of his character. A raw sailor who had been sent aloft by the captain, and was busy in performing some duty which required him to stoop, was observed to falter and become dizzy,Look aloft, cried the captain,and the fainting landsman,as he instinctively obeyed the order, recovered his strength and steadiness. The young philosopher read a moral in this trifling incident which he never forgot, and which frequently animated and aroused him in the most adverse circumstances. It is not treating the subject with undue levity to add, that in the last and closing scene of his life, when the earth was receding from his view, and his failing strength admonished him of his peril, the watch word was still ringing in his ear. At that awful period he "looked aloft" to "worlds beyond the skies," and therein derived strength and hope which supported him in his passage through the narrow valley. At the close of the war, young Godman, who was then about fifteen, was allowed to follow the strong bent of his mind, and commenced the study of medicine with a physician in Lancaster, Pa. He soon removed to Baltimore, where he entered the office of a highly YOL. V. 45 NO. 127. respectable physician, and pursued his studies with such eagerness and success, and gave such promise of future eminence, that before the expiration of his term he was selected to supply for a few weeks the place of his preceptor, who was the professor of anatomy in the university of Maryland, and who was disabled, by the fracture of a limb, from completing his winter course. The youthful deputy lectured with such enthusiasm and el quence, and his illustrations were so clear and happy, that strong and unequivocal expressions of regret, it is said, were manifested by the students when he yielded up his post to his preceptor. tled as a practitioner of medicine, at the spot described Soon after receiving his diploma, Dr. Godman setwith so much truth and beauty in his Rambles of a Naturalist. He there became engaged in laborious prac tice, and devoted all his intervals of leisure to the acquirement of general and professional knowledge.Finding the sphere of action too contracted for his pow ers, he removed to Baltimore where he married, and being offered the chair of anatomy in the medical school then about to be established in Cincinnati, he was induced to emigrate thither. The school did not succeed, and after remaining there a year, Dr. Godman returned homeward, and settled in Philadelphia, as a physician and private teacher of anatomy. He was also for some time the editor of Dr. Chapman's Medical Journal. It was during his residence here that he published his Natural History of American Quadrupeds, a work which is deservedly popular. The fame of Dr. Godman as a teacher of anatomy was now widely spread and he was solicited to accept the professorship of that branch of medicine in the Rutger's Medical College at New York. He removed thither, and the clouds which had so long darkened his career, seemed at last to be breaking away. His practice soon became extensive, and the affairs of the college prosperous, when, in the midst of his second course of lectures, a severe cold settled on his lungs, accompanied by a copious hemorr hage, and compelled him to abandon his pursuits and to flee for his life to a milder region. He sailed for the island of Santa Cruz, where he passed the remainder of the winter and the spring, and returned home, cheered but not cured, by the influence of that balmy climate. After his return, Dr. Godman settled in Germantown, where for a while his disease seemed to be mitigated, and his friends flattered themselves that his life was yet to be spared to science and his country. His complaints were, however, beyond the reach of art to overcome, and he continued, though with many fluctuations, to decline in strength. He removed to this city during the autum of 1829, and after passing the following winter and spring in great weakness, and often great suffering, died on the 17th of the fourth month last, in the 32d year of his age. What he The great characteristics of Dr. Godman's mind, were his retentive memory, an unwearied industry and quick perception, and his capacity of concentrating all his powers upon any given object of pursuit. had once read or observed, he rarely, if ever, forgot.—Hence it was, that although his early education was much neglected, he became an excellent linguist, and made himself master of Latin, French, and German, be. sides acquiring a knowledge of Greek, Italian and Span ish. He had read the best works in all these languages, and wrote with facility the Latin and French. and we must turn to contemplate the character of our lamented friend in a different light. His powers of observation were quick, patient, keen It has been his misfortune that his philosophical opinand discriminating; and it was these qualities that ren- ions were formed originally in the school of the French dered him so admirable a naturalist. He came to the naturalists. Many of the most distinguished of these study of natural history as an investigator of facts, and men were avowed atheists, and a still greater number not as a pupil of the schools; and while he regarded sys- rejected absolutely the Christian revelation. Such is tems and nomenclature with perhaps too little respect, human nature! Surrounded by the most magnificent his great aim was to learn the instincts, the structure displays of Almighty wisdom, placed on a scene where and the habits of all animated beings. This science was all things speak of God and invite us to worship and his favourite pursuit, and he devoted himself to it with obey Him--a purblind philosophy may devote herself indefatigable zeal. He has been heard to say, that in in- to the study of his works, yet pass by the evidence vestigating the habits of the shrew mole, he walked they convey of his existence and his attributes, and see many hundred miles. Those parts of his natural history nothing in all this wonderful creation, more noble than in which he relates the results of his own observations, the mere relation of colour and form! The manliness are among the most interesting essays on that subject in and sincerity of Dr. Godman's character soon extricated our language. This praise is due in a still greater de-him from this "stye of Epicures." He was in all things gree to his Rambles of a Naturalist, which are not infe- a seeker of the truth, and his philosophical spirit would rior in poetical beauty and vivid and accurate descrip not rest satisfied with any superficial examination. He tion, to the celebrated Letters of Gilbert White on the applied himself to the study of the New Testament-he Natural History of Selbourne. These essays were a. went to "the fountain head, where the pure waters of mong the last productions of his pen, and were written life gush forth in silent profusion, and in their profoundin the intervals of acute pain and extreme debility.est depths exhibit neither shade nor opacity." In what They form a mere sketch of what he intended, and had temper and with what success he examined the sacred he lived to complete them, he would have left a volume, the following extracts which were written duwork and a name of enduring popularity. ring his last illnest will bear witness. There were few subjects of general literature, excepting the pure and mixed mathematics, with which Dr. Godman was not more or less familiar. Among oth-ly er pursuits to which his attention had been turned, was the study of ancient coins, of which he had acquired a critical knowleoge. His The powers of his mind were always buoyant. eagerness in the pursuit of knowledge seemed like the in pulse of gnawing hunger and unquenchable thirst. Neither adversity nor disease could allay it, and bad it pleased Providence to heal his mortal wound, and prolong his life and strength, he would have borne away the palm from all his contemporaries. f It is not meant to assert that his scientific works are aultless, or that his claims to originality were always well founded; but whatever he has written bears the stamp of great vigour and originality, and his errors were those of inexperience or of a hasty judgment, which time and study would have corrected. "Is proof wanting that these gospels are true? It is only necessary for an honest mind to read them candidEvery occurrence is stated clearto be convinced. ly, simply, and unostentatiously. The narrations are not supported by asseverations of their truth, nor by parade of witnesses: the circumstances described took place in presence of vast multitudes, and are told in that downright unpretending manner, which would have Called forth innumerable positive contradictions had they been untrue. Mysteries are stated without atsary to establish the existence of facts, however myste tempt at explanation, because explanation is not necesrious. Miracles, also, attested by the presence of vast numbers, are stated in the plainest language of narration, in which the slightest working of imagination cannot be traced. This very simplicity, this unaffected sincerity and quiet affirmation, has more force than a bitious efforts to support truth by dint of argumentation. thousand witnesses-more efficacy than volumes of am His fame however rested chiefly during his life, upon The Christian kingdom is not of this world nor in it; What motive could the evangelists have to falsify?— his success as a teacher of anatomy; and in this capacity Christianity teaches disregard of its vanities; deprecihe raised himself at once to the top of his profession.ates its honors and enjoyments,, and sternly declares He was so intent upon making his student understand that none can be Christians but those who escape from him, and he was so fully master of the subject himself, all its vices and allurements. that his clear and animated flow of eloquence never There is no call directed failed to rivit their attention, and he became wherever fice of self; the denial of all the propensities which re to ambition;no gratification proposed to vanity:the sacri he taught, the idol of his pupils. His lectures upon an- late to the gratification of passion or pride, with the atomy were real analytical experiments. The subject most humble dependence upon God, are invariably was placed before the class-tissue, and muscle, and taught and most solemnly enjoined, under penalty of blood vessel, and nerve, and bone were laid bare in turn the most awful consequences! Is it then wonderful that --their use and position and nature exemplified to the such a system should find revilers? Is it surprising that eye, and enforced by the most lively and precise de- sceptics should abound, when the slightest allowance scription, while the student was at the same time re- of belief would force them to condemn all their actions? ceiving the most valuable lessons in practical dissection. Or, is it to be wondered at, that a purity of life and conver I have never known an individual to attend one of these sation, so repugnant to human passions, and a humanity courses and not receive the most profound impression of Dr. Godman's unrivalled ability as a teacher. so offensive to human pride, should be opposed, rejected, and contemned? Such is the true secret of the opH's social and moral character was marked by the position to religion; such the cause in lucing men who same traits of force, enthusiasm, and simplicity, as his lead unchristian lives, to array the frailties, errors, weakintellectual. He was ardently devoted to his friends, ness, and vices of individuals or sects, against Christianand if his sense of injustice and wrong was too keen for ity, hoping to weaken or destroy the system, by ren his happiness, he learned in the school of adversity to dering ridiculous or contemptible those who profess to control, if not subdue it. His conversation was the un-be governed by its influence, though their conduct studied and spontaneous effusion of a mind full to over- shows them to be acting under an opposite spirit. flowing, always buoyant, imaginative and ardent, loving truth above all things else,and devoting itself as on an altar to her sacred cause. Upon all this bright attainment and brighter promise for the future the grave has closed!-Divine Providence saw fit to arrest him in the midst of unfinished labours, What is the mode in which this most extraordinary doctrine of Christianity is to be diffused? By forcetemporal power-temporal rewards-earthly triumphs? None of these. By earnest pursuasion, gentle entreaty, brotherly monition, paternal remonstrance. The dread resort of threatened punishment comes at last—exhibit. ed in sorrow, not in anger; told as a fearful truth, not denounced with vindictive exultation; while, to the last monument, the beamy shield of mercy is ready to be interposed for the saving of the endangered. Human doctrines are wavering and mutable; the doctrines of the blessed and adorable Jesus, our Saviour, are fixed and immutable. The traditions of men are dissimilar and inconsistent; the declarations of the gospel are harmonious, not only with each other, but with the acknowledged attributes of the Deity, and the well known condition of human nature. What do sceptics propose to give us in exchange for this system of Christianity, with its "hidden mysteries," "miracles," "signs and wonders"" Doubt, confusion, obscurity, annihilation! Life, without higher motives than selfishnes, death-without hope! It is for this that their zeal is so warmly displayed in proselyting? Is such the gain to accrue for the relinquishment four souls! In every deed, this is the utmost they have to propose, and we can only account for their rancorous efforts to render others like themselves, by reflecting that misery loves company." A conviction thus deeply impressed, did not spend itself in empty profession. It influenced his conduct as well as his opinions, and prepared him for that patient endurance of suffering which he exhibited during his long confinement. After his removal to Germantown, Dr. Godman's complaints soon assumed a more serious aspect, and he suffered severely from several violent attacks of disease. Yet the progress of the disorder was very gradual, and allowed him many intervals of comparative ease. He returned to his literary labours 355 these lines, to say, into thy hands I commend my spirit, for thou hast redeemed me! oh Lord! thou God of Truth!" The fine imagination and deep enthusiasm of Dr. Godman occasionally burst forth in impassioned poetry He wrote verse and prose with almost equal facility, and had he lived and enjoyed leisure to prune the exuberance of his style, and to bestow the last polish upon his labours, he would have ranked as one of the great masters of our language, both in regard to the curious felicity, and the strength and clearness of his distinction. The following specimens of his poetical compositions, are selected less for their intrinsic excellence, than for the picture which they furnish of his private meditations. A MIDNIGHT MEDITATION. Tis midnight's solemn hour! now wide unfurled heart, with his usual ardour, and wrote and translated for the press, until a few weeks of his death. Perfectly aware-Such was thy course, Eugenio, such thy hardened of the fatal character of his disorder, he watched its progress, step by step, with the coolness of an anatomist; while he submitted to it with the resignation of a Christian. His intellect was strong and undimmed to the last, and almost the only change that could be ob. served in his mind was that which belongs to a being on the verge of eternity, in whose estimate the concerns of this life are sinking, in comparison with the greater interests of that to which he is fast approaching. His principal delight was in the promises and consolations of the Bible, which was his constant companion. On one occasion, a few days before his death, while reading aloud from the New Testament to his family, his voice faltered, and he was desired to read no longer, as it appeared to oppress him. "It is not that," replied he, "but I feel so in the immediate presence of my Maker, that I cannot control my emotion!” Till mercy spoke, and death unsheathed the dart, In agony of fever or of pain, My feeble frame, though spoiled of rest, In a manuscript volume which he sent to a highly-See where the waning moon Slowly surmounts yon dark tree tops, Lines written under a feeling of the immediate approach The damps of deatli are on my brow, My blood has almost ceased to flow, The valley and the shadow before me open wide, |