2882.] •^•^ • [Hammond. 



An Obituary Notice of John W. Draper, 31. D., LL.D. By William A. 

 Hammond, M.D., Surgeon General U. S. Army (.Retired Lid). 



(Read before the American Philosophical Society, March 3, 1SS2.) 



In the deatli of Dr. Draper, the American Philosophical Society has to 

 regret the loss of one of its most distinguished members. He died at his 

 residence at Hastings-on-the-Hudson, in the State of New York, on the 

 fourth day of January, 1882, after an illness which had lasted with more 

 or less severity for several months. 



John William Draper was horn at St. Helen's, England, May 5th, 1811. 

 His early education was received at the Wesleyan School at Woodhouse 

 Grove, and subsequently from private teachers. At a still later period he 

 made especial study of Chemistry, Natural Philosopliy and the higher 

 Mathematics, taking high rank in the knowledge of these sciences. 



In 1833 he came to the United States, intending to make it his perma- 

 nent home. Here he seems to have had his attention for the first time 

 turned to the profession of Medicine, for lie entered the Medical Depart- 

 ment of the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 183G. He never 

 practised medicine, however ; probably he never had a patient. A few 

 months after receiving his diploma, lie was appointedProfessor of Chemis- 

 try, Physiology and Natural Pliilosophy in Hampden-Sidney, College, in 

 Virginia. He occupied this position for about three years, publishing 

 during that period several important essays on chemical and physiological 

 subjects. Some of these appeared in the Americaii Journal of Medical Sci- 

 ences, but the greater number in the London, Edinburgh and Bublin Philo- 

 sophical Magazine. 



In 1839 he resigned his professorship at Hampden-Sidney College, to ac- 

 cept that of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy in the newly inaugurated 

 University of the City of New York. In 1841 on the origination of the 

 Medical Department of the University, of which he was one of the founders, 

 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry. In 1850 Physiology was com- 

 bined with Chemistry and he held the joint chair. The union was con- 

 tinued till 1865, when Dr. Draper gave up the teaching of Chemistry in 

 the Medical Department, continuing, however, to lecture on Physiology. 

 In 1867 he resigned this professorship also, retaining, however, the Presi- 

 dency of the Medical Faculty, which he had held from 1850. In 1873 he 

 severed his connection altogether with the Medical Department, but con- 

 tinued to the day of his death to hold his professorship in the Department 

 of Arts. 



Dr. Draper was, early in his career, an experimenter in various depart- 

 ments of Natural Science. In 1840 he described the figures which are 

 formed when coins are laid on polished glass and which are made visible 

 by exposure to the action of a vapor. About the same time he began 

 to interest himself in the discoveries being made by Daguerre and was the 

 first to photograph the human face. 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XX. 111. 2c. PRINTED M.^Y 18, 1882. 



