THOMAS STERRY HUNT. 367 



12. New Chemical Apparatus. American Journal of Science, 1868, [2.], 



XLVI. 51. 



13. On the Sulphates of Oxide of Antimony. American Journal of 



Science, 1868, [2.], XLVI. 78. 



14. Obituary Notice of Dr. Augustus Matthiessen. American Journal of 



Science, 1871, [3.], I. 73. 



THOMAS STERRY HUNT. 



The subject of this notice, whose death occurred in New York 

 City, February 12, 1892, made extensive contributions to American 

 science, and has permanently identified his name with its progress 

 and development. Choosing two of the most rapidly advancing 

 sciences, chemistry and geology, as his field of work, and studying 

 these especially in their intimate and extensive interactions, he had a 

 large and honorable share in giving form to our present knowledge 

 upon these subjects. Although an indefatigable experimenter and an 

 extensive observer, Dr. Hunt was also eminently an original and 

 philosophic thinker, and took an influential part in the establishment 

 of the most matured scientific theories. 



Thomas Sterry Hunt was born in Norwich, Conn., on September 5, 

 1826. His ancestor, William Hunt, was one of the founders of Con- 

 cord, Mass., in 1635. His maternal grandfather, Consider Sterry, of 

 Norwich, was a civil engineer and mathematician, and was the au- 

 thor of text-books of arithmetic and algebra published one hundred 

 years ago. 



While the subject of this sketch was a child, the family moved to 

 Poughkeepsie on the Hudson. There the father died when Thomas, 

 the oldest son, was twelve ; and the mother returned with her family 

 of six young children to the old home in Connecticut. For a short 

 time Thomas attended the public school ; but it was for a short time 

 only, as he thus early was required to share the burden of the family 

 support, and to seek employment. 



At that time his intention was to study medicine. Under the 

 counter of the store in which he was employed he kept a skeleton, as 

 well as his home-made chemical apparatus. Two local physicians 

 assisted the brilliant boy, thus educating himself, by the loan of books. 



In 1845 he went to New Haven during the meeting of the Associa- 

 tion of Naturalists and Geologists, and obtained work as a reporter on 

 a New York paper. But a more important issue of this trip was a 

 visit to the elder Silliman, whom the boy had met in Norwich after 



