SKETCH OF DANIEL GARRISON BRINTON. 837 



points, the stone axes, and the fragments of pottery which marked 

 the presence of this older and mysterious race. The study of 

 McClintock's Antiquarian Researches, a now almost forgotten 

 volume, fixed and expanded this taste. The work, however, to 

 which he attributes beyond all others a formative influence on his 

 youthful tastes was Humboldt's Cosmos, the English translation 

 of which by Colonel Sabine was his favorite reading at the age of 

 fifteen and sixteen. The poetic hues in which this great master 

 knew how to garb the dry facts of science, and the wonderful 

 skill with which he developed the intimate relationship of lower 

 and inorganic existence to the thoughts, aspirations, and destiny 

 of man, stimulate the imagination with the force of a great epic. 



Dr. Brinton graduated at Yale College in 1858, and studied 

 medicine in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where 

 he took the degree of M. D. in 1860. After a year, spent chiefly 

 at Paris and Heidelberg, he was recalled by the events of the war 

 and entered the army as Surgeon of United States Volunteers. 

 After serving in the field as Medical Director of the Eleventh 

 Army Corps, he was sent to Quincy and Springfield, 111., as super- 

 intendent of hospitals, where he remained until the close of the 

 war. In 1867 he was tendered the position of editor of the Medi- 

 cal and Surgical Reporter, at that time the only weekly medical 

 journal in Philadelphia. This position he held uninterruptedly 

 until 1887. 



In 1884 he was appointed Professor of Ethnology at the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and in 1886 Pro- 

 fessor of American Linguistics and Archaeology in the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania. At both the institutions named he deliv- 

 ers a course of lectures every winter, which are highly appre- 

 ciated by the public, as the numbers attending them attest. His 

 subject-matter, being both ethnologic and archaeologic, necessa- 

 rily covers an enormous field ; but Brinton very successfully ex- 

 ercises the faculty of conciseness, yet never at the expense of 

 lucidity. 



Dr. Brinton's contributions to scientific literature began, as 

 already stated, in 1859, when he published The Floridian Penin- 

 sula, its Literary History, Indian Tribes, and Antiquities, the re- 

 sult of some months' travel in that State. His next work of im- 

 portance was The Myths of the New World : a Treatise on the 

 Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America (New 

 York, 1868; second edition, 1876). Other volumes which have 

 appeared from his pen are The Religious Sentiment, its Source 

 and Aim : a Contribution to the Science of Religion (New York, 

 1876) ; American Hero Myths : a Study in the Native Religions 

 of the Western Continent (Philadelphia, 1882); Essays of an 

 Americanist (Philadelphia, 1890); Races and Peoples; Lectures 



