240 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Mr. Abbot's scientific works but few have been published, and he was 

 so scrupulous and carefully conscientious that he was unwilling to give 

 to the public any thing which he was not quite sure was perfect. 



He gave lectures occasionally on scientific subjects. One on Heat 

 he delivered before the Lyceum of Exeter in 1831 ; and he also deliv- 

 ered a course of lectures to ladies in Boston, in 1833-34, on Natural 

 Philosophy, which proved very acceptable to persons fully qualified to 

 judge. In 1839-40 he gave lectures on Electro-magnetism at Lyceums 

 in Boston, Salem, and Beverly; and in 1857 he gave, by special request, 

 two courses of lectures to ladies in Pemberton Square, his subject 

 being Natural Philosophy. In 1855 he was engaged as a lecturer at 

 the Lowell Institute, his subject being Meteorology ; but illness pre- 

 vented his deliverins: the course. 



In 1840 he published in the "American Journal of Science" an 

 article entitled " An Attempt to determine by Experimental Research 

 the Theory of the Pneumatic Paradox." About the same time he 

 read to the Academy a communication explaining a curious phenome- 

 non in hydraulics, which he illustrated by experiments with ingenious 

 apparatus of his own invention. , 



In 1848 ]Mr. Abbot published in"Litteirs Living Age "a paper 

 entitled "Principles recognized by Scientific Men applied to the Ether 

 Controversy." In June, 18G8, he published in the "Atlantic Monthly" 

 a second paper on the same subject, entitled " The Discovery of Ether- 

 ization." In 1857 he undertook the revision of the definitions of the 

 scientific terms of Worcester's Dictionary. 



Mr, Abbot was a ripe scholar, thoroughly versed in the classical and 

 several of the modern languages, and a zealous student and experi- 

 menter in science. He was for a number of years the Recoi'ding Sec- 

 retary of the Academy ; and his records show his remarkable powers 

 of condensation without loss of any material fact or principle, and may 

 be regarded as models of their kind. 



Mr. Abbot married Fanny, daughter of Captain Henry Larcom, of 

 Beverly ; and, of his seven children, five are now living. 



Henry C. Perkins, M.D., the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Per- 

 kins, was born in Newburyport, November 1 3, 1804. He commenced the 

 study of Latin at eight years of age, under Michael Walsh, an eminent 

 teacher, then residing in that city, and author of an Arithmetic of con- 

 siderable reputation. He fitted for college at the Newburyport Acad- 

 emy, and graduated at Harvard in the class of 1824. He pursued his 

 medical studies with Di's. Richard S. SpofFord, of Newburyport, and 



