4 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ences, at his residence, on November 16th, and made special and elabo- 

 rate preparations for the occasion by electric illumination of the din- 

 ing-hall in a way to produce some novel and agreeable effects. It is 

 supposed that the anxiety and exertion of this preparation were more 

 than he could well endure. He was attacked with severe pains in the 

 chest, and suffered much while at dinner, but thought that he would 

 get relief by a warm bath. But, instead of relief, his symptoms were 

 aggravated, and a physician was sent for who recognized his attack 

 as one of violent double pneumonia and pleurisy. It was hoped, how- 

 ever, that he might recover until shortly before his death, which oc- 

 curred early in the morning on the 20th of November. 



Heney Deapeb was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, 

 March 7, 1837, and two years later his father, Dr. John William Dra- 

 per, removed to this city to take the chair of Chemistry in the New 

 York University. Henry, at first, went through the course at the 

 public school, but at the age of fifteen he entered the Academic De- 

 partment of the university, though he did not graduate there. At the 

 end of his sophomore year he entered the Medical Department of the 

 university, which his father had been prominent in establishing, and 

 from which he took his medical degree in 1858. He at first thought 

 of practicing medicine, and received an appointment upon the medical 

 staff of Bellevue Hospital, which he held for sixteen months, and then 

 decided to abandon practice, and give himself to teaching. He was 

 elected Professor of Physiology in the Academical Department of the 

 university in 1860, and in 1866 became professor of the same branch 

 in the University Medical School. He resigned this post in 1873, and 

 afterward taught advanced analytical chemistry in the Academical 

 Department of the institution. After the death of his father he was 

 appointed to fill his chair, but previous to the opening of the last fall 

 term he severed entirely his connection with the institution. 



Professor Henry Draper is one of the men who is not to be inter- 

 preted in his individuality alone. With his father he represents one 

 of the double stars in the firmament of scientific celebrities of which 

 we have now a considerable catalogue. Among the illustrious pioneers 

 of mathematical physics there are the Bernoullis, father and son ; in 

 chemistry, the Gmelins and the Brodies ; in botany, the De Candolles 

 and the Hookers ; and, in astronomy, the Cassinis and the Herschels ; 

 and to these must be added the Drapers, father and son. Many more 

 examples, though less eminent, might be given in which sons have 

 distinguished themselves by pursuing with success the branches of 

 research opened by their fathers, and to trace the influence that is 

 exerted and the effects that are produced in these cases would be an 

 interesting biographical study. In the present instance the son was 

 the inheritor both of his father's genius and of his subjects of research, 

 while his early education was shaped with a view to the pursuits to 

 which his life was devoted. This point is thus referred to in the 



