160 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OP SCIENCE, 



DOUGLASS HOUGHTON. 



"He loved the study of the operations oi" nature in thf- midst of b^r wildest 

 scenes." — Bela Hubbard. 



As a niai). Dr. Houghton is described by his Irieud and biographer. 

 Alvah Bradish, as slightly below the medium height, his head was large 

 and well developed, his hands and feet small and delicately foiined, his 

 nose prominent, his eyes blue tending toward hazel, and brighi and merry 

 and expressed his feelings without disguise. His temperament was warm 

 and nervous, his movements quick and earnest. His voice rang with the 

 melody of unaffected enjoyment, or the gayety of social and contiding 

 intimacy. His sensibilities were feminine in delicacy. He saw the im- 

 y>ortance of making friends of political leaders, and had a faculty of 

 inspii-ing others with his enthusiasm, and of awakening a profound inter- 

 est in his pui'suits. He was young, ardent and generous to a fault. He 

 did not confine himself exclusively to the study of scicuc*', but t'ugaged 

 in business enterprises, and as is shown by his being laayor of Detroit, 

 took a deep interest and exerted a directing infiuenct' in affairs of state. 

 l>eing at the same time quite above and outside of i)oliTical parties. These 

 and many more broad, generous, and noble qualities may be found 

 recorded in the biographies of the subject of this sketcli. Hie most eminent 

 of the y)ioneers of science in Michigan. 



The leading events in the short but useful life of Dr. Houglilon may be 

 briefly summarized in a few paragraphs. He was i»oru at Tioy, New 

 York, on September 21. 1800 ; passed the greater part of his boyhood at 

 Fredonia in the same state; studied at the Rensselaer high school under 

 Amos Eaton, and was graduated from that institution in October. 1829. 

 but remained there as an assistant instructor and assistant professor for 

 about one year. He delivered a course of public lectures on geology and 

 kindred sciences in Detroit during the winter of IS.'iO-Hl. Having studied 

 medicine, he was admitted to pi-actice by the .Medical Society of Chautau- 

 qua <-ounty. New York, in the spring of ISol. At tliis perio<l lie was 

 appointed physician and botanist on an expedition to the sources of the 

 Mississippi under the leadershij> of the distinguished explorer Henry R. 

 Schoolcraft. His experiences on this expedition beyond the frontier as 

 then known. s<MMns to hav(^ intensitied an inherent lo\c foi- the cliarnis of 

 nature an<l led him later to assume 'leadership in still more extended 

 explorations and discoveries. His report on the botany of tlu' i-egion 

 visited \\ith Schoolcraft, as is stated by I'ela Hubbard, shows not only 

 an exhaustive a(H|uaintance with the bianch of science with which it 

 deals, but did much to extend the world's knowledge of the tlora of the 

 Northwest, and to establish his own reputation as a scientific observer. 

 From 1832 to 1837. he practiced as a jihysician and surgeon in Detroit, 

 and during that period i-endered highly iinporlaul service at a time when 

 the city was stricken with cholera. In F'ebruary 1837„ he was ajq»ointe(l 

 State Geologist of Michigan, and thence forward to the day of his death, 

 devoted the greater y)art of his time and almost his entiiv energy to the 

 study of the geology of his adojtted State. In ls:{S lie was app<iinted 



