836 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by the large number of scientists from all over tbe country who 

 will be going abroad next summer. This plan is doubtless wise, 

 although it is much to be regretted that the time — the last week 

 in June — will cut off from attendance almost all the members 

 who are teachers in public schools, who will be just then in the 

 pressure of their closing days and examinations. The peculiar cir- 

 cumstances of the year, however, justify what would otherwise 

 be a most unfortunate time. New York will do her best, and 

 give the association a welcome worthy of the great metropolis 

 of America. 



SKETCH OF DR. WILLIAM PEPPER. 

 bt lewis k. harley. 



PHILADELPHIA has long been regarded as the home of med- 

 ical science in America. Here was founded the first medical 

 school in the United States, among whose alumni are numbered 

 some of the most brilliant names in the profession. The spirit 

 of scientific research has always been most active in Philadelphia. 

 Here Franklin made his experiments in electricity, and Ritten- 

 house observed the transit of Venus-; while Rush, Morgan, William- 

 son, and Physick gave the city a name abroad as a great medical 

 center. Each generation has contributed something to her fame 

 as the abode of scientific culture. 



In recent times no name has been so closely associated with 

 the intellectual progress of the city as that of the subject of this 

 sketch. Dr. William Pepper was reared in a scientific atmosphere. 

 His father, William Pepper, the elder, was born in Philadelphia, 

 January 21, 1810. He graduated with first honors at Princeton 

 in 1829. He afterward studied medicine for a time with Dr. 

 Thomas T. Hewson, and in 1832 graduated in medicine at the 

 University of Pennsylvania. He then spent two years in study in 

 Paris, and in 1834 he entered upon his profession in Philadelphia, 

 where he rose rapidly in reputation. He was physician to the Penn- 

 sylvania Hospital for twenty-six years. In 18 GO he was elected 

 Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania. He held this position until the time of his 

 death, October 15, 1864. Dr. Pepper had two sons, who became 

 distinguished in the medical profession. The eldest son, George, 

 was born April 1, 1841, and died September 14, 1872. He gradu- 

 ated from the college department of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania in 1862, and completed the course in the Medical School in 

 1865. He served with distinction in the civil war, and died at 



