420 JOHN BACON. 



He was educated at the Boston Latin School, and at Harvard Col- 

 lege, where he graduated with the Class of 1837, being at that time 

 not quite twenty years of age. Both at school and at college young 

 Bacon was an excellent scholar, and is remembered with respect and 

 affection by those of his classmates who enjoyed his intimacy. He 

 had a warm and generous heart, a sympathetic smile, with genial 

 manners, and a quiet vein of humor which endeared him to those who 

 could draw him out of himself; but one of his classmates writes, 

 "He was one of the least demonstrative persons I ever knew." 



After his graduation, Bacon entered the Medical School in Boston 

 connected with Harvard University, and received in regular course the 

 degree of M. D., although he never practised the medical profession. 

 Soon after, he made an extended tour in Europe when such a privilege 

 was more rare than at the present time, and this journey gave him the 

 opportunity to 2:)ursue effectively tlie study of chemistry, for which he 

 had acquired a strong taste, and which he continued with great assi- 

 duity after his return home. 



The bias of his professional associations naturally gave direction 

 to Dr. Bacon's chemical studies, and he soon became the leading au- 

 thority in this community on all questions of physiological chemistry. 

 He very early applied the microscope to the examination of urinary 

 deposits, and his skill in the preparation of objects for study was re- 

 markably great, and it is to be hoped that the very large and unique 

 collection of these objects which he made has not been lost to science. 

 His private laboratory was a model of order and neatness ; his reagents 

 were preserved in the greatest possible purity, and his instruments 

 kept in the most serviceable condition. 



In 1847, Dr. Bacon, then at the age of twenty-nine, was elected a 

 Fellow of this Academy ; but, so far as the writer can discover, he 

 made but one communication to the Academy which was published in 

 its Proceedings. Most of his papers, generally very brief, were pub- 

 lished either in the Boston Journal of Natural History, or in medical 

 journals. As complete a list of these papers as the zeal of a friend 

 can now secure is given below. Dr. Bacon's modest and retirinor 

 disposition kept him from being much before the world; but when he 

 was called on for an opinion on matters relating to his peculiar depart- 

 ment of study, he would give it with decision, and show the result of 

 thorough knowledge, careful observation, and large experience. 



In 1851, Dr. Bacon was appointed Chemist and Microscopist to the 

 Massachusetts General Hospital, a position which gave him great fa- 

 cilities for pursuing his special studies, and which he held until 18G3. 



