VOL. II. ] Proceedings of Socteties. 181 
March, 1841. He then returned to his native State and married a 
lady of beauty and refinement who survives him as his widow. He 
commenced the practice of medicine at Savannah, where he re- 
mained until August, 1846, when he was elected to the chair of 
natural philosophy and chemistry in Franklyn College, his alma 
mater. From that time he abandoned the practice of medicine and 
devoted himself to the study of the physical sciences. In 1855 he 
became lecturer on chemistry, in the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in the University of New York—thus reaching a chair in 
his second a/ma mater, as he had previously reached a chair in his 
first. 
In 1856 he accepted a call to fill the professorship of natural and 
mechanical philosophy in the University of South Carolina and 
remained there until the spring of 1869, when he was called to the 
chair of physics in our own University of California. He was al- 
most immediately upon his arrival in this State appointed acting 
president of the University, and as such initiated the first exercises 
of that institution. In 1870, after the election of Dr. Durant as 
president, and for several years thereafter, Dr. Le Conte gave him- 
self up exclusively to the duties connected with his professorship; 
but in 1875, after the resignation of Dr. Gilman, he was again ap- 
pointed to act as president, and in 1876 was elected to the office of 
president. He continued to fill the office of president for a year 
and a half, since which time, and to the time of his death, he oc- 
cupied the chair of physics. 
Professor Le Conte became a member of this Academy on August 
3, 1870, and a life member on January 3, 1888. He was alsoa 
member of the National Academy of Sciences and of many other 
scientific societies in this country and Europe. He wrote many 
valuable and important papers on scientific subjects, and particularly 
on subjects connected with the phenomena of the vibrations of 
sound, on the astronomy of Mars and its satellites, on the famous 
nobular hypothesis, on the evolutions of worlds, and on various 
other matters whereby glimpses are gained into that world of truth 
called nature, the knowledge of which is destined to emancipate 
humanity from the shackles of ignorance and superstition, and all 
the innumerable ills connected with and involved in those immeasur- 
able evils. 
About the end of the last century, the great German philosopher 
