LeConte.] lbi [April 4, 



While passing through the academic course of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, and for some time after graduation, he acted as the laboratory 

 assistant of Prof. A. D. Bache ; and in this function he aided in deter- 

 mining "with accuracy, for the first time in this country, the periods of 

 the daily variations of the magnetic needle,"* and the connection of 

 the aurora borealis with magnetic forces. 



An additional training in physical and natural science was obtained 

 while he held the position of assistant in the Geological Survey of 

 Pennsylvania, under Prof. H. D. Kogers, in 1836. 



About this time he perfected his youthful education by a course of law, 

 in the office of John M. Scott, at the end of which he was admitted to 

 practice. 



The practice of his profession soon became less attractive than the more 

 laborious, though less remunerative intellectual pursuits, which he had 

 cultivated under the instruction of Prof. Bache. For some time he was 

 Professor in the High School of Philadelphia, when the Professorship 

 of Chemistry and Physics in the University becoming vacant by the resig- 

 nation of Prof. Bache, Mr. Frazer was chosen to fill the chair. He was 

 then the youngest member of the faculty, and continued to hold the posi- 

 tion until his death, when he was the senior Professor, and had been for 

 many years Vice-Provost. 



He now devoted himself most industriously to filling the duties of his 

 professorship, and its collateral occupations, among which were many 

 courses of lectures on various branches of physical and chemical science 

 at the Franklin Institute, and the editorship of its Journal, from the year 

 1850 to 18G6 ; the pages of which, during those 17 years, bear evidence of 

 of his extensive reading and judicious selection from contemporaneous 

 scientific journals of both continents. 



He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 

 1842, and was soon honored with an official position, being made Secretary 

 in 1845, and Vice-President in 1855. He remained in office until the end 

 of 185V when owing to some unhappy differences which then distracted 

 the Society, he resigned. He was re-elected in 1867, and was afterwards 

 frequent in his attendance at the meetings, taking part in the discussions 

 which occurred on matters of science and business. 



He was one of the fifty original members of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, chartered in I860 by the Government of the United States : an in- 

 stitution intended to represent the highest scientific culture of the country. 

 The members are pledged to make reports, without compensation, on all 

 subjects of science, on which the opinion of the Academy is required by the 

 Government. After remaining an active member for several years, and 

 serving upon committees, he retired to the grade of honorary member, to 

 make room, as he said, for some more energetic investigator, better en- 

 titled to the place. 



♦E'llnsy of Prof. A. D. Bache. by Prof. Joseph Henry. Report of Smithsonian Institution. 

 1S70. p. ". 



