304 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



source of great enjoyment, especially when he could share it with 

 others. Unlike many naturalists to whom the shores they tread and 

 the mountains they climb offer nothing beyond the forms they would 

 describe and arrange, all else being as if it were not, our late asso- 

 ciate (than whom no one ever toiled more industriously over indi- 

 vidual forms and nice distinctions) was touched and warmed by every 

 aspect of nature, in its grander and gentler scenes ; not that he 

 was peculiarly enthusiastic or emotional, but rather from the delicate 

 perception and calm contemplation of a refined, devout, and responsive 

 spirit. 



He was elected into this Academy in May, 1841, and for many years 

 he rendered useful service in various offices. 



Dr. Henry Bryant, whom we lost as suddenly and unexpectedly 

 as Dr. Gould, and from the same section of the Academy, died in Porto 

 Rico, on the 31st of January last, in early manhood, not having com- 

 pleted his forty-seventh year. He was born in Boston, May 12, 1820; 

 entered Harvard College in 1836, and was graduated in 1840, without 

 literary distinction, but with a mind awakened to the attractions of 

 natural science. After taking his degree of Doctor of Medicine, in 1843, 

 he went to Paris to prosecute further his professional studies. There 

 he received, after severe competitive examination, the post of interne at 

 the Hospital Beaujou ; but was soon obliged by ill health to resign it. 

 Partly for the re-establishment of his health, he accepted the invitation 

 of some officers of the French army to accompany them to Algeria, 

 where he served during a winter campaign as volunteer surgeon. 



He came home in 1847, and commenced the practice of his profes- 

 sion. But his precarious health obliged him finally to abandon it. 

 Thenceforth he devoted his time principally to natural history, and par- 

 ticularly to ornithology, which had been a favorite pursuit from boy- 

 hood. This was the occupation most suitable to his delicate health, as 

 it led him to live a good deal in the open air. He visited, in the way 

 of scientific exploration, Nova Scotia, Canada and Labrador, Florida 

 and the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, some of them repeat- 

 edly, — to the great profit of his favorite science, as is shown in the 

 various ornithological papers he communicated to the Boston Society of 

 Natural History. Besides these papers, he made, while in Paris, a 

 communication to the French Academy of Sciences, on the nervous 

 system of birds, which is published in the Comptes JRendus for 1848. 



Dr. Bryant was a very vigilant and acute observer, — one who 



