1910.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 255 



A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 



OF 



HENRY CADWALADER CHAPMAN, M.D., Sc.D. 



BY 

 EDWARD J. NOLAN, M.D. 



Visitors to the library of the Academy in 1868 were likely to 

 encounter a little old man, dressed in gray. If it were a morning in 

 winter he would be found reading the Ledger near the register before 

 going on with the drawing of fossil shells on stone for the American 

 Journal of Conchology. 



He was an enthusiast in his specialty of fossil shells and his work 

 will endure. His health was far from good, and he was wont to say 

 that the compensations the years brought him were the recurring 

 "songs of the birds and the perfume of new mown hay." It is evident, 

 therefore, that he was a poet as well as a geologist. 



His exceedingly frugal lunch would sometimes be eaten at his work 

 table, but he frequently carried his provisions, often a few shellbarks 

 and a pinch of red pepper, in a little basket on his arm to the Penn- 

 sylvania Hospital, where his brother was then apothecary. Here 

 he met the young Chapman for whom he conceived a warm regard, 

 heartily reciprocated, the friendship remaining unbroken until the 

 death of the older man in 1877. It was a striking case of the 

 attraction of opposite:?, their only traits in common being a love 

 of Nature and an eager desire to explore her mysteries. Chapman 

 was strongly influenced by the enthusiasm of the older naturalist. 

 He declared, half seriously, in after years, "he is responsible for all 

 the time I have wasted in the study of natural history." If that be 

 true, Timothy Abbott Conrad is also indirectly responsible for the 

 preparation of this notice, but it cannot be doubted that an important 

 factor in determining Chapman's career, apart from his inherited 

 bent for scientific investigation, was his devotion to Leidy. 



Henry Cadwalader Chapman was born in Philadelphia in the 

 house of his grandmother, Mrs. John Markoe, 1617 Walnut Street, 

 17 



