1873.] -L ^ J [Bell. 



and affiliation of the first families of mankind, our remote ancestors, the 

 privileged stock, comparatively small in number to the rest of the popu- 

 lation on the face of the earth, but the peoples of which have in all times 

 dominated and shaped the destinies of the rest. 



The historian can make but small advances in studying and describing 

 the rise and progress of nations, and their decline and fall, or in finding 

 an explanation of the results of the competitive struggle for empire and 

 domination, unless he shall have acquired a knowledge of the differences 

 of races of mankind, and of their great families or peoples. History, 

 aided by ethnological teachings, is no longer a mere registry of conquests 

 and revolutions. It shows the innate differences in aptitude or capacity 

 for improvement and civilization, irrespective of the external modifying 

 circumstances of locality or climate. In one people we see a rapid 

 germination of the seeds of knowledge, and a subsequent growth and 

 culture, whilst in another people the growth of similar seeds is slower, 

 the plant sickly, and soon decays, while in a third, again, there is no 

 yield — all is barrenness. 



Dr. Meigs took great delight in reading and re-reading the work of the 

 Count de Gobineau, "Sur l'inegalite des Races Humaines." Marginal 

 notes show the careful attention which he gave to the utterances of this 

 author, with whom he had a friendly correspondence ; and so far did he 

 carry his admiration of the French savan, that his very latest literary 

 exercise and amusement was a translation of a work of fiction of the 

 Count's, called "L'Abbaye de Typhanes," intended to exhibit the 

 manners and customs of the people of the 12th century. 



Thus, in the midst of his loving family, the endearments of his friends, 

 and the respect of the community, Dr. Meigs filled up the measure of 

 his allotted days. His decease took place on the 22d June, 1869, at the 

 age of 77 years. He had retired to his chamber in the evening at bed- 

 time, making no complaint of any deviation from his usual state of health, 

 except of some pain, for which he took a few drops of laudanum, as he 

 had done on previous occasions for the same cause. As the next morning 

 advanced without his appearing, one of the family went to his room, 

 and saw him lying in bed, with his head resting on one arm, in the 

 attitude of quiet sleep ; but it was the sleep of death. 



He had breathed his last in the course of the night, without a straggle 

 or a pang, and thus passed from time to eternity, saved from the often 

 protracted bodily and mental distress and pains which fall to the lot of 

 so many, before death comes to relieve them of their sufferings. 



Thus disappeared from amongst us a good man, an estimable citizen, 

 and an accomplished physician, leaving, as a legacy to the world the 

 memory of his wise teachings for the relief of suffering humanity, his 

 own personal labors for the same object, his kindly and disinterested 

 nature, aspiration for the noble and the beautiful, a cultivated intellect, 

 and refined tastes. 



