150 



[Nov. 20, 



Mr. Eosengarten, presenting the portrait of Mrs. Seiler, 

 spoke as follows : 



Mr. President : — At the last meeting, the American Philosophical 

 Society agreed to accept a marble relief portrait of the late Madame 

 Seiler, presented by a few of her friends and pupils. I now have the 

 pleasure,-on behalf of the subscribers, to present it to you and through 

 you to the Society. Madame Seiler was a member of this Society, one of 

 the six women who have thus far been enrolled on its list. The others 

 were Princess Dashkoff, Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. Agassiz, Miss Maria 

 Mitchell and Miss Helen Abbott. Her works on "The Voice in Singing" 

 and "The Voice in Speaking " were not her only claims to this distinction. 

 In Germany, her native country, Madame Seiler was a pupil of the famous 

 teachers of the University of Berlin, and it is to her that is attributed the 

 first use of the laryngoscope in studying the organs of the throat, 

 while her discovery and description of some of the parts of the throat 

 were of great value. She brought letters of introduction from well-known 

 German savans to the late Dr. George B. Wood, for many years President 

 of this Society, and through him was enabled to make the acquaintance 

 of the Rev. Dr. Fumess, among its oldest members. This venerable 

 member of the Philosophical Society helped her in all of her literary 

 work, and was her kind and steadfast friend through all her life ; his last 

 act of kindness was officiating at her funeral, when his tender sympathy 

 and earnest words assuaged the grief of her family and her friends. But 

 no patronage and no help would have availed without the talent, energy 

 and ability which won for Madame Seiler hosts of friends here. Her 

 success was shown in the establishment of a singing academy, where 

 many pupils were trained in her methods, and her little leisure was spent 

 in scientific and literary work. Much still remains in manuscript, but 

 her printed books have been freely used and commended by the later 

 writers on the subjects specially her own. As "a mark of respect and 

 affection, her friends and pupils have secured this admirable marble relief 

 portrait. It is the work of Mr. Henry K. Bush Brown, a young American 

 artist, and it is now presented to the Philosophical Society, with the 

 request that it may find a suitable place on the walls of its hall, where 

 there are portraits and busts of many of the distinguished men who have 

 been members. What Madame Seiler did to entitle her to this honor will 

 be set forth in detail in a biographical sketch to be read this evening, and 

 that memoir will no doubt be preserved in the growing list of necrological 

 notices in the printed papers of the Society. On behalf of the subscribers 

 this marble relief portrait is presented to the Society as an expression of 

 the affection and admiration felt for Madame Seiler in her lifetime and in 

 the hope of thus perpetuating her name and memory as those of a woman 

 who did much for a scientific knowledge of music and whose general cul- 

 ture, broad sympathies and earnest labors endeared her to all who knew 

 her. Coining to this city almost an entire stranger — not even a master of 



