482 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



James Davenport Whelplet was born in the city of New York, 

 January 23, 1817, and died in Boston, April 15, 1872. His father, 

 Philip Melancthon Whelpley, was pastor of the First Presbyterian 

 Church in New York City. His grandfather was the Rev. Samuel 

 Whelpley, a distinguished writer and theologian. His mother was 

 Abigail Fitch Davenport, a granddaughter of the Rev. John Daven- 

 port, one of the founders of the New Haven colony. He was sent to 

 school at New Haven, where, at ah early age, he showed a decided 

 taste for chemical study and experimentation. He entered Yale Col- 

 lege in 1833, and was graduated in 1837. In his Senior year he 

 published in the " American Journal of Science " a paper " On two 

 American Species of the Genus Hydrachna," in conjunction with Mr. 

 J. D. Dana, then assistant to Professor Silliman. 



Soon after leaving college he joined the corps of Professor Henry 

 D. Rogers, then occupied in surveying the anthracite region of Penn- 

 sylvania. After three years' service upon this survey, he studied at 

 the Medical School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and, having received 

 the degree of that school, he practised medicine in Brooklyn, New 

 York, until forced by ill health to relinquish his profession. 



He then returned to New Haven, and devoted himself to scientific 

 and literary study for a period of eight years. At this time, he con- 

 ceived the idea of a Philosophical System, to the development of which 

 he devoted much time and thought. Some fragments of this work 

 have been published in the " Proceedings of the Academy," and else- 

 where, and much manuscript matter relating to it remains in the pos- 

 session of his family. During his residence in New Haven, he 

 published in the "American Journal of Science " (1845) a remarkable 

 memoir on the " Idea of an Atom, suggested by the Phenomena of 

 Weight and Temperature." 



In 1847, he went to New York, and became editor and partial owner 

 of the " American Whig Review." In 1849, while occupied in editing 

 the Review, he conceived the idea of establishing a commercial colony 

 in Honduras, for the purpose of developing the resources of that coun- 

 try, and bringing it into closer relations with the United States. He at 

 once proceeded to obtain from the Honduras government grants of 

 land and various commercial privileges, and spent two or three years 

 in San Francisco editing a daily newspaper, which he had purchased 

 there, as a means of making his plan known. He had secured a large 

 number of emigrants, and was engaged in perfecting the arrangements 



