74. 



Rusehenberger.] • * [May 15, 



tributed to its report of 1850, Vol. iii, pp. 91-94, " Observations on Vital 

 Statistics ;" of the Committee on Hygiene, 1851 ; and of the Committee 

 of Arrangements, 1855. 



Dr. Emerson was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians of 

 Philadelphia, February, 1847. He never contributed to its Transactions. 

 He was elected a delegate from the College to the American Medical 

 Association in 1849, and in 1858 ; and to the National Quarantine and 

 Sanitary Convention in 1857, and 1858. 



He was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 from August, 1853 ; of the Philadelphia County Medical Society from 

 1857, of which he was President ; and of the Medical Society of the State 

 of Pennsylvania. 



Dr. Emerson's medical practice from about 1828 to 1840 was lucrative 

 and extensive. His interest in agricultural affairs, always notable, grad- 

 ually increased with the lapse of time, and his interest in medical affairs 

 gradually abated till he relinquished the practice about the year 1857. 



Dr. Emerson, by invitation, began to live with Mr. Henry Seybert, at 

 No. 926 Walnut street, in May, 1856. Apartments in the house were 

 assigned to each proportionately. Dr. Emerson was the caterer, though 

 they did not mess at the same table, and kept a detailed account of the 

 household expenses which were periodically and equally shared. They 

 lived together in perfect harmony eighteen years — till Dr. Emerson died. 



Mr. Henry Seybert and Dr. Emerson were warm friends. Their close 

 association is notable because their pursuits and aims in life were wide 

 apart. Their mental characteristics were quite different. They were alike 

 in condition. Both were unmarried, and both in easy circumstances. In 

 some respects their tastes and ways were the same, simple, economical. 



Dr. Emerson had a working knowledge of botany, mineralogy, geology 

 and physics. Mr. Seybert had been educated in Paris, and trained in 

 the School of Mines to be a chemist and mineralogist, and after his re- 

 turn home did some good work. In these scientific paths they were con- 

 genial. But Mr. Seybert was deeply imbued with religious sentiment. 



While he was in Paris mesmerism attracted public attention, and he 

 became interested in spiritualism. 



He had read that " it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a 

 needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." His con- 

 struction of this sentence made him unhappy. He was so much tor- 

 mented by the thought that all his attempts to lead a good life were use- 

 less as regards future existence because he was rich, that he consulted 

 pious men on the subject, and among them the Archbishop of Rouen. 

 By them he was assured that the sentence was addressed to the sinful rich 

 only, and not to those who gave of their goods liberally to the poor.* 

 Whether his many charities were prompted more by disinterested consid- 

 eration for others than by this assurance is conjectural. Be this as it may, 



* Obituary Notice of Henry Seybert, by Moneure Robinson. Read before the American 

 Philosophical Society, Oct. 5, li83. 



