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OBITUARY NOTICE OF WM. PARKER FOULKE. 



Bead before the American Pldlo^ophical Society^ 

 By J. P. Lesley, 



AViLLTAM Parker Foulke was born at Philadelphia in 

 1810; was entered as a law student in the office of John B. 

 Wallace, in 1835 ; continued his legal studies, on the death of 

 Mr. AVallace, in 1837, with John M. Scott; became practising 

 attorney of the Supreme Court of Penns3dvania in January 1841 ; 

 was married to Julia Dc Veaux Powel in 1855 ; and died, at 

 his town residence in Pine street, on the 18th day of June, 1865, 

 in the fiftieth year of his age. 



Mr. Foulke was elected to membership in this Socict}' Octo- 

 ber 20th, 1854, and served it in the Board of Officers and ^leni- 

 bers in Council from January 1803 until his death. For more 

 than ten years he was a regular assistant at its meetings, and 

 took the greatest personal interest in the doings of the Society ; 

 proud of its fame, jealous of its honor, and unremitting in his 

 efforts to direct and enlarge its active usefulness. He possessed 

 uncommon administrative ability. Few men could see so quickly 

 and directly tlirough a complication. None surpassed him in an 

 extempore statement. He was gifted with good judgment as 

 well as with persuasive speech. 



The attachment which he exhibited to this venerable institu- 

 tion was in part hereditary ; for his grandfather. Dr. John 

 Foulke, became a member of it Januar}^ 20th, 1780, and after- 

 wards one of the secretaries of the Society. Dr. Foulke was 

 the earliest demonstrator and lecturer on human anatomy in 

 the Medical College of Philadelphia ; a polished and liberal man, 

 zealous and humane. During the epidemic of j-ellow feA^er he 

 would be absent from his home for several da^'s at a time, devo- 

 ting himself to »medical attendance on the sick in the infected 

 district. There was a tradition in the family that his Avife, 

 returning home one day, discovered to her disma}^, that every 

 quilt and blanket she possessed had been swept from her beds 

 by the Doctor's orders, and sent where he considered them of 

 more immediatel}^ pressing use. Nor was he less enthusiastic in 

 his pursuit of science, and in his methods of instruction. On 

 his return from France, where the balloon had lately been in- 

 vented, he exhibited one for the first time in America, on the 



