72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [March^ 



March 19. 

 Henry Skinner, M,D., Sc.D., in the Chair. 



Fifty persons present. 



The death, on February 26, of Samuel Gibson Dixon, M.D., LL.D., 

 Sc.D., President of the Academy, having been announced, the 

 following minute prepared for a special meeting of the Council by 

 John Cadwalader, LL.D., Vice President of the Academy, was read: 



This Academy has met the most serious loss in the death of its 

 President, Samuel Gibson Dixon. The death of ah officer who has 

 been twenty-two years in the service of such an institution inflicts a 

 loss not easily compensated. 



When a man of Dr. Dixon's earnest character, unusual attain- 

 ments and unflagging zeal in every cause which he espoused, is lost 

 to the community, it becomes a public calamity. 



It would be hard to find a man whose services had been of more 

 value to his associates, and to the public generally, than were those 

 of Dr. Dixon. 



► He was unusually well equipped for efficiency by early education. 

 He thus came to the bar, at that time the commanding profession. 

 The influence of an office discipline as well as Law School instruction 

 still existed, and lawyers were truly men of affairs as well as legal 

 advisers and could adapt themselves to all demands made upon them 

 more readily than could men of any other training. 



Having a natural trend of thought and interest in the pursuit of 

 science, he entered the other great learned profession — medicine, 

 after a very thorough preparation. A man in mature life who seeks 

 a new vocation is apt to throw a deeper interest into what he under- 

 takes, as he cannot afford to make another experiment. 



Dr. Dixon's work in his profession and here in The Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and for many years in his great 

 office, presiding over the Health Department of the State, cannot be 

 properly dealt with in a brief minute. A fitting tribute to his work 

 and memory will be paid at a suitable time. 



To-day we meet to record our deep sense of the loss of an able pre- 

 siding officer, a loyal friend to the institution over which he presided, 

 and a personal colleague whose friendship we all treasured. His col- 

 leagues tender to his family profound sympathy in their bereavement. 



