BENJAMIN SMITH, M.D., an eminent American naturalist, who was the first professor of botany and natural history in a college in the United States. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1766. He studied for two years at Edinburgh, and afterwards graduated at Göttingen. He began to practise his profession at Philadelphia, and soon obtained a respectable share of employment. In 1790 he was appointed to the professorship above mentioned in Philadelphia College; in 1802 was chosen president of the American Philosophical Society; was made professor of materia medica; and on the death of Dr Rush he obtained the chair of practical medicine. By his lectures and his writings he may be considered as the founder of the American school of natural history, which has risen to such a high rank in that branch of science. He died in 1815.