SKETCH OF PROF. LARDNER VANUXEM. 837 



true, for part if not all of tlie specimens are still there. In May, 

 1892, one of Prof. Vanuxem's daughters was applied to for infor- 

 mation as to the whereabouts of this collection, by a geologist, as 

 it contained, he said, the only known specimen of a certain South 

 Carolina fossil, which he very much desired to examine. 



Prof. Vanuxem was a member of and assisted in the organiza- 

 tion and establishment of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 

 Sciences and other scientific associations. 



" It was the habit of those connected with the New York sur- 

 vey to meet at Albany at the end of each field season, for the pur- 

 pose of comparing observations and becoming acquainted with 

 each other. In the autumn of 1838 Prof. Vanuxem suggested that 

 an invitation be extended to the geologists of Pennsylvania and 

 Virginia for the purpose of devising and adopting a geological 

 nomenclature that might be acceptable to all those who were then 

 engaged in the State surveys, and thus become the nomenclature 

 of American geology. This meeting was finally held in 1840, and 

 then the Association of American Geologists was organized, which 

 is now succeeded by the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, one of the largest scientific bodies in the world." 



Some few years after the close, of the New York survey, Prof. 

 Vanuxem was solicited by Prof. Henry, of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, at Washington, to become his associate in charge of that 

 institution. Although it would have been a work in many ways 

 congenial, the offer was declined, for various reasons that he 

 deemed good ones. 



In addition to the report that has been mentioned, and numer- 

 ous papers on scientific subjects published in the American Jour- 

 nal of Science, he published An Essay on the Ultimate Principles 

 of Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, and Physiology (Philadelphia, 

 1827) ; but it is his Report of the New York Survey which it is 

 said " will remain his monument, and on which the reputation of 

 his scientific attainments is based." 



It would seem as though a man as devoted to science as the 

 subject of this sketch would have his time and thoughts com- 

 pletely absorbed thereby, but not so in this case. The investigat- 

 ing turn of his mind prompted the examination of abstruse sub- 

 jects, and to him the Scriptures presented an unlimited field. His 

 careful scrutiny of the sacred writings and close study of all the 

 extant commentators upon them resulted in an immense pile of 

 manuscript books which he left as a monument of his interest in 

 the subject, untiring industry, perseverance, and love of research, 

 if nothing more. Although trained in the Presbyterian faith by 

 his mother. Prof. Vanuxem had adopted, and expressed in these 

 writings, views which were too broad and too far in advance of 

 the time to be considered " orthodox." 



