PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 133 



sanctuary of trade, the gambler's hell, the hospital, the home, and 

 the grog-shop withered, crumbled, or evaporated into thin air, 

 before a power stronger than them all. 



After this universal destruction, when granite became flour, 

 bricks ran to glass, iron shrunk like wax before the roaring and 

 devouring element, all that was left of Stimpson's lifework, of the 

 building and its treasures of art and nature, was a heap of ashes, 

 the calcined foundations, and the clay pipkin of a mound builder, 

 once rescued from a western tumulus to illustrate the arts of bar 

 barism, and now, in this hour of universal wreck, surviving 

 every product of civilization. 



The blow was too heavy. The spirit indeed was valiant, but 

 the body was frail. He had long suffered from weakness of the 

 lungs, with periods of low spirits characteristic of the ailment. 

 After an attempt to work on the Gulf Stream with the Coast 

 Survey in the winter of 1871-2, he returned broken down, and 

 died at Ilchester on the 26th of May, 1872.* 



Dr. Stimpson was of middle height, slender, with brown, curly 

 hair, and merry eyes, whose expression was rather heightened 

 than impaired by the glasses he habitually wore. His bearing 

 was that of a scholar, rather retiring, except with friends, when 

 the boyish exuberance of his spirits had full sway. Those who 

 had the privilege of his companionship will carry an abiding 

 memory of his abilities as a naturalist, and his noble and lovable 

 characteristics as a man. 



The number of persons brought under review in the preceding 

 pages (omitting Poulsen and Warren) is eighteen, a number too 

 small to afford many statistical generalizations. 



Eight of the men were college bred, ten of them acquired their 

 education in the common schools, or had even fewer early advan- 



* See memorial notice by J. W. Foster in Chicago Tribune of June 12, 

 1872. Reported from the proceedings of the Academy. 



