JUN ''' "•: 



April 1.1892.] ^^^ [Ruschenberger. 



PROCEEDINGS 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 



HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 



Vol. XXX. April, 1892. No. 138. 



A Sketch of the Life of Joseph Leidy, M.D., LL.D. 



By W. S. W. Ruschenberger, M.D. 



{Bead before the American Philosophical Society, April 1, 1S92.) 



The Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia, devoted the 

 stated meeting of May 12, 1891, to commemorate its President, Dr. Joseph 

 Leidy, who died April 30. The meeting was very large and impressive. 

 Drs. William Hunt, Harrison Allen, Henry C. Chapman, James Dar- 

 rach, Edward J. Nolan, Prof. Angelo Heilpriu and Mr. Joseph Wil- 

 cox, by appointment, delivered appropriate addresses ; and the Rev. Dr. 

 H. C. McCook, Mr. Isaac C. Martindale, Dr. James J. Levick and others 

 eulogized the dead President. 



A more affectionate tribute has seldom been paid in this city to the 

 memory of a votary of science. Ample testimony was adduced that Dr. 

 Leidy had attained distinction among scientific men at home and abroad, 

 and that he had the warm sympathy and respectful regard of all those 

 members of the Society with whom he had been in any degree associated. 



In the first hours, while a great bereavement is still fresh, love and 

 admiration so obstruct perception that the extent of the loss sustained 

 may be sometimes overstated. But let whoever may conjecture that in 

 this instance some of the addresses were too fervid, consult the cold rec- 

 ords of the Academy in which are faithfully set down his works since he 

 entered the Society, and he will find that they justify the encomiums 

 pronounced. 



Loyalty to truth and ingenuousness were shining features of Dr. Leidy's 

 nature. 



The first paragraphs of Dr. William Hunt's opening address on Dr. 

 Leidy's personal history are cited here in illustration : 



" It is fitting that we imagine the beloved subject of our discourses this 

 evening to be with us in spirit, as he doubtless is in influence, and to let 

 him introduce himself as I heard him do in Association Hall some years 

 ago when he was about to give a popular lecture. I was unexpectedly 

 called upon to introduce him. 'What!' said I. 'Who is to introduce 

 the introducer? Here's a man more widely known to the city and to the 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXX. 138. R. PRINTED APRIL 20, 1892. 



