SKETCH OF PROFESSOR COFFIN. 503 



as recommended by Dr. Parkes, may, at the same time, be given. 

 When he can swallow, the patient should be encouraged to drink 

 freely, and, if vomiting follows, so much the better, as this tends to 

 relieve the lungs, which are always greatly congested. Other meas- 

 ures of treatment, and the management of after-consequences, may be 

 most safely left in the hands of the physician. 



After what has been said, the means to be adopted for the avoid- 

 ance of sunstroke will readily suggest themselves. Great care must 

 be taken to preserve intact the function of the skin, and nothing is 

 better for this than frequent bathing, and friction of the surface. 

 Hard labor, in a close, highly-heated atmosphere, or during extreme 

 hot weather, in the sun, should be carefully shunned, and the use of 

 spirits, if previously indulged in, entirely discontinued. The dress 

 should be such as will permit free loss of heat, preferably linen, and on 

 no account should it be so close fitting as to hinder the motions of 

 the chest, neck, or head. A light hat, permitting free circulation of 

 air about the top of the head, is very useful. English troops in India 

 wear light wicker-helmets made of bamboo, and covered with cotton. 

 These permit thorough ventilation of the head, and, according to Dr. 

 Parkes, have diminished the frequency of sunstroke. 



-*->- 



SKETCH OF PROFESSOR COFFIN. 



FROM Sir Richard Coffin, Knight, who accompanied William the 

 Conqueror to England in 1066, springs the genealogical tree that 

 bears the name of Tristram Coffin, the pioneer owner of the island of 

 Nantucket, whose American descendants have been engaged, to a 

 large extent, in navigation. Of these, and fifth in line of descent 

 from Tristram, is the subject of this sketch. 



Prof. James Henry Coffin, LL. D., was born in Williamsburg, 

 Mass., on the 6th day of September, 1806. He was, therefore, sixty-six 

 years, old at the time of his decease, which occurred February 6, 1873, 

 at Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., where he had long filled the pro- 

 fessorship of Mathematics and Astronomy. He graduated at Am- 

 herst College in 1828, and the year following established, at Green- 

 field, Mass., the Fellenberg Manual Labor Institution, which for eight 

 years continued to be one of the rarely successful instances of this 

 system in our country. He subsequently became the Principal of the 

 Ogdensburg (N. T.) Academy, and, in 1839, a member of the Faculty 

 of Williams College. In 1846 he became Professor of Mathematics 

 in Lafayette College. In the interests of this institution he labored 

 zealously till the close of his life, being rewarded by seeing it rise to 

 its present high rank among our colleges. 



