1850 TO 1865 301 



Gushing, Attorney-general; Campbell, Postmaster; McClelland, Inte- 

 rior. All good men. I hear some Vermonters are making stout efforts 

 to have you retained! What think you is the chance? Others appear 

 to be at work to make you Senator. For my part, I go in for the 

 latter. I want to see you more than any man on earth, except Mrs. 

 M., so I shall support the Senatorship. But I must stop, as it is get- 

 ting late, and my sleepy fit is coming on. I hope you will be satisfied 

 with the attempt. . . . 



From Spencer F. Baird to Thomas Biddle, Esq., Philada. 



WASHINGTON, April 5, 1853. 

 DEAR SIR: 



Knowing you to be one of those who will have the final decision of 

 the matter, I take the liberty of writing in behalf of the claims of my 

 friend, Dr. Leidy, to the place 16 vacated by the death of Dr. Horner. 

 I do this, influenced not merely by my regard for Dr. Leidy, but 

 assured that the exalted reputation of the University of Pennsylvania 

 will be carried still further with him as the incumbent of the vacant 

 chair. 



I have known Dr. Leidy for a great many years, long before he 

 entered into the scientific arena where he so far has distanced all his 

 competitors. Indeed I take much credit to myself for an early dis- 

 cernment of that bud of promise, now ripened to such a state of 

 development. In his special departments of a comparative anato- 

 mist, a helminthologist, a microscopist and a zoologist, he has no 

 equal in this country and but few rivals abroad. Although so young 

 he has done more to advance the subjects of his particular investiga- 

 tion, than any man living of his age. His discovery of Entophyta, 

 his determination of the species and affinities of extinct vertebrate 

 animals, his embryological investigations in different departments, 

 would any one be enough to give a wide reputation to a veteran in 

 Science; how much more when all has been the work of one person 

 scarcely over the threshold of life. 



I hazard nothing in asserting that no American surgeon or phy- 

 sician is looked upon abroad with so much approbation of past ser- 



16 The Professorship of Anatomy in the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



