THE INCORPORATORS 129 
Called once more to service at sea, Admiral Davis in 1867 
assumed charge of the Brazilian Squadron, when he encountered 
the unfortunate trouble with Lopez, which caused so much 
discussion in military circles. During his absence in Brazil, 
Harvard University conferred on him the degree of Doctor 
of Laws, the only instance up to that time in which it had been 
given to a naval commander. 
Admiral Davis commanded the naval station at Norfolk for 
three years, returning to the superintendency of the Observatory 
in 1874, when he became chairman of the Transit of Venus 
Commission. In editing Captain Hall’s journal of Arctic 
expeditions and in work on the naval exhibit at the Centennial 
Exhibition, he overtaxed his health and died at Washington, 
February 18, 1877. He was buried on the banks of the Charles 
River, overlooking the University and his old home, and a 
stained-glass window, bearing his record, has been placed in 
the Memorial Hall at Harvard. 
Admiral Davis was one of the members of the “‘ Permanent 
Commission” of the Navy Department, out of which the 
Academy appears in a measure to have developed. He was one 
of those most deeply interested in the Academy movement, and 
seems to have been the first to conceive the idea of having it 
incorporated under the Federal Government. He was a mem- 
ber of the first Council of 1863, and served on many important 
committees. 
(From C. H. Davis, in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of 
Sciences, vol. 4, 1902, pp. 23-55; see also “ Life of Charles Henry Davis, Rear- 
Admiral, 1807-1877,” by the same author, 1899.) 
GEORGE ENGELMANN 
Born, February 2, 1809; died, February 4, 1884 
Engelmann was descended on his father’s side from a long 
line of ministers for the Reformed Dutch Church at Bacharach- 
on-the-Rhine, and on his mother’s side from a family of Hugue- 
not émigrés from the vicinity of Amiens. He was born at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, February 2, 1809. His parents estab- 
