THE INCORPORATORS 109 
United States,” for the establishment of a biological laboratory 
and school on Penikese Island, and many other enterprises. 
Greatest of all was the organization of the Scientific School 
and the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy at Harvard. In the 
latter, Agassiz’s ideas on zodlogy were embodied in concrete form 
in the zodlogical, geographical, and embryological series which 
were there displayed. “ By his large contributions to Science in 
America, by his power of developing a true scientific spirit, to 
excite and popularize the taste for scientific researches, by his vast 
influence on the American mind, and his universal popularity, 
which he kept to the very last, Agassiz had become emphatically 
a national man.” (Guyot.) He died on December 14, 1873. 
It was probably Agassiz who induced Senator Wilson to 
introduce and urge the bill incorporating the National Academy 
of Sciences, and when established he became its first Foreign 
Secretary. 
(From Arnotp Guyot, in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of 
Sciences, vol. 2, 1886, pp. 39-73. See also ExizanetH C. Acassiz, “ Louis 
Agassiz; His Life and Correspondence,” Boston, 1893; JULES Marcou, “ Life 
and Letters of Louis Agassiz,” Boston, 1895.) 
JOHN H. ALEXANDER 
Born, June 26, 1812; died, March 2, 1867 
Dr. Alexander was a man of remarkable versatility. A 
mathematician and a physicist, he was also a linguist and a 
poet. He was a successful man of affairs and a deeply-read 
student of theology and church history. His father, who be- 
longed to a Scotch-Irish family, came to America before the 
Revolution and settled at Annapolis, Maryland. Here John H. 
Alexander was born in 1812. He was graduated from St. John’s 
College in his native town when fourteen years old and entered 
upon the study of law. His attention being attracted, however, 
to the great possibilities of steam transportation and the utiliza- 
tion of the natural resources in iron and coal, he turned his 
energies in the direction of practical pursuits. He was at first 
connected with surveys for the Susquehanna Railroad (now 
9 
