TIMOTHY ABBOTT CONRAD. 257 



TIMOTHY ABBOTT CONRAD. 



Br Dr. CHARLES C. ABBOTT. 



IN Philadelphia, early in the present century, there was a 

 strongly developed taste for natural-history pursuits, and 

 eager collectors of the local fauna naturally became so acquainted 

 and thrown together that the formation of a club and then the 

 organization of the Academy of Natural Sciences were the logical 

 outcome. Previous to this, local zoology had not been overlooked, 

 as the quartos of the American Philosophical Society show, and 

 Peale's Museum was also an incentive to natural-history studies ; 

 but all was more or less chaotic until the academy came into exist- 

 ence. Then fresh enthusiasm was roused and every member be- 

 came a collector, and every collector a describer of new species. 

 To-day these old naturalists would irreverently be called " species 

 mongers " ; but if possibly there was a little less " science " in their 

 labors, all credit is due them for excellent intentions, and every 

 evidence of careful, correct, and valuable work, which has not 

 had to be done over. Looking back to the time when Say, Nut- 

 tall, Rafinesque, Lesueur, Vanuxem, Troost, Harlan, Morton, and 

 Conrad filled the pages of the academy's journal, we get a glimpse 

 of a remarkable company, who collected eagerly and studied care- 

 fully their " finds " and spicily defended their positions when the 

 great question of " priority of publication " came up. These men 

 were not given to theorizing ; evolution was not in their vocabu- 

 laries, although we see at times some. evidence of looking beyond 

 a species to its real significance. De Maillet's strange book had 

 been translated and informally discussed, but, as a general thing, 

 no one troubled himself with Lamarck, or all accepted Cuvier 

 without question. In short, these Philadelphia naturalists gath- 

 ered specimens all day, and when they had the material sat up all 

 night describing new species. And among them all there was no 

 one more eager in the quest and more popular with his fellows 

 than Solomon White Conrad, the father of the subject of the 

 present sketch. That the elder Conrad was a remarkable man all 

 who remember him assert without reserve. That he was a popu- 

 lar one, the fact that his house was a favorite gathering place for 

 all the scientific notables of the city clearly proves. His was the 

 first natural-history salon opened in Philadelphia, and being a 

 matter of six days in the week, instead of at stated intervals, was 

 fully as popular as the celebrated Wistar parties. 



A descendant of Thones Kunders (subsequently anglicized to 

 Dennis Conrad), who left Crefeld, Germany, July 24, 1683, and 

 settled at Germantown, then nine miles from Philadelphia, but 

 now in the city limits, like his American ancestry, Solomon W. 



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