486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to disperse other delusions regarding the "profits" of that "tour." 

 Such statements are credible to the mean, incredible to the high- 

 minded, and were therefore never thought worthy of refutation by 

 me. And why should I now waste a word upon your critic's closing 

 sentences ? It will not make him noble to be told that envy is igno- 

 ble ; that, if ever " j^raise " has been adjudged to me by his country- 

 men, it is not because I went out of my way to seek it. It came to 

 me unasked an incident, not an aim shining, as your own Emerson 

 would put it, pleasantly because spontaneously, upon the necessary 

 journey of my life. It was not, I can truly say, the applause of large 

 assemblies that constituted my chief happiness in the United States, 

 but the ever-growing proof, for the most part undemonstrative, that, 

 without swerving from my duty, I had gained a modicum of the affec- 

 tion of the American people. That I prized, and that I have sought 

 to keep free from fleck, material or intellectual. For reasons best 

 known to himself, your critic does not relisli this relation ; and he 

 will damage it if he can, I cherish the belief that he will be unsuc- 

 cessful. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 



John Tyndaix. 

 London, November 23, 1875. 



-- 



SKETCH OF THOMAS STERRY HUNT, LL. D., F. E. S. 



THE subject of the present notice, of whom an excellent portrait 

 appears in this number, although still in middle life, has made 

 extensive contributions to American science during the past genera- 

 tion, 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 them espe- 

 cially in their intimate and extensive interactions, he has had a large 

 and honorable share in giving form to our present knowledge upon 

 these subjects. Although an indefatigable experimenter and an ex- 

 tensive observer. Dr. Hunt is also eminently an original and philo- 

 sophic thinker, and has taken an influential part in the establishment 

 of the most matured scientific theories. He was eai'ly in the field of 

 chemical speculation, and aided essentially in that revolution of views 

 which has ended in the establishment of the "new chemistry." 



Thomas Sterry Huxt was born on the 5th of September, 1826, in 

 Norwich, Connecticut, where he received his early education. He be- 

 gan the study of medicine, but soon abandoned it for chemistry and 

 mineralogy, and in 1845 became a private student with the present 

 Prof. Benjamin Silliman at New Haven, acting meanwhile as chemical 

 assistant to Prof. B. Silliman, senior, in the cliemical laboratory of 



