OF AKTS AND SCIENCES : MAY 24, 1864. 305 



conchology, geology, and mineralogy. Fond of exercise and of occu- 

 ])ation, bodily and mental, he made his walks and drives both conducive 

 to his robust health and subservient to these scientific pursuits, in 

 which he accumulated a large amount of knowledge, and evinced powers 

 of observation and reseai'ch of no common order. His genial nature 

 always inclined him to place at the disposal of others, and especially 

 of the assistants under his command, all the treasures and resources 

 which he had garnered ; and this was done more in the spirit of the . 

 elder brother, or head of a family, than as a superior officer. His per- 

 sonal influence and example stimulated and led on to improvement the 

 educated young men who from time to time came into his military 

 family. He marked out or suggested to them subjects of research, 

 mostly of a practical kind, and methods of experiment ; and always 

 encouraged any disposition in them towards oi'iginaUty of thought ; and 

 so freely and generously imparted his own conceptions to his assistants 

 while stimulating theirs, that they might well have been persuaded that 

 many of the ideas originated with themselves. His laboratory was 

 at their service, no less than his example and companionship. An 

 enumeration of his principal professional researches, could they here 

 be given, would illustrate the mental thoroughness, the complete 

 devotion, and the eminently practical character of this excellent and 

 genial man. 



General Totten was elected, first by Congress, one of the Regents 

 of the Smithsonian Institution at its foundation in 1846, and was con- 

 tinued in the Board of Regents by successive elections held every 

 sixth year thereafter. During the entire period he was constant in 

 his services as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board. 

 He was also a member of the Light-House Board created by Congress 

 in 1852, and one of the most useful of its working members, as Chair- 

 man of the Committee of Engineering and of Finance. 



" For the past twenty-six years he has been at the head of the 

 Engineer Department, administering with untiring devotion, spotless 

 integrity, and signal ability, the varied duties, the financial responsi- 

 bilities, and the professional labors of that arm of service, so essential 

 to our national defence." 



Francis Boott, M. D., — whom we claim as a New England 

 naturalist, although elected into the Academy long after he took up 

 his residence in London, — died in that city on Christmas last, in the 

 seventy-first year of his age. His father, Kirk Boott, who came from 



