1893.] ^^^ [Ruscheuberger. 



the distinguished chemist, Dr. Robert Hare, in the Professorship of 

 Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. His three uncles, as 

 well as their father, Dr. P. K. Rogers, were widely known in the field 

 of science. Dr. P. K. Rogers was appointed, in 1819, Professor of 

 Natural Philosophy and Mathematics in the ancient college of Wil- 

 liam and Mary, at Williamsburg, Va. William B. Rogers, the 

 uncle after whom our subject was named, was Professor of Natural 

 Philosophy and Geology in the University of Virginia, and, from 

 July, 1835, the Director of the Geological Survey of the State. 

 Henry Darwin Rogers was Director of the First Geological Survey 

 of Pennsylvania, and, from 1858, Regius Professor of Natural His- 

 tory in the University of Glasgow ; and Dr. Robert E. Rogers was 

 Professor of Chemistry during many years in the University of 

 Pennsylvania, and subsequently in the Jefferson Medical College. 



William B. Rogers, Jr., was born Dec. 17, 1833, in Baltimore, 

 where his parents then resided. In 1840, they settled in Philadel- 

 phia. William was first at a Friends' School, taught by Miss Mary 

 Tyson. On leaving it, he was, from 1843 to 1846, at the Public 

 Grammar School, N.E. corner of Twelfth and Locust streets, of 

 which Mr. Clevenger was Principal. 



In 1846, he entered the Central High School of Philadelphia, 

 then under the direction of Mr. John S. Hart, and graduated 

 Bachelor of Arts in 1850. The same year he matriculated at the 

 University of Virginia, but being called home in the spring of 1852 

 by the illness of his father, who died June 15, he did not resume 

 his course in the University. 



In the winter of 1852-53, he was appointed an assistant on the 

 First Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, and for three years did 

 field or office duty, as occasion required, and in the fourth year, 

 desultory work. This Geological Survey was ended by the failure 

 of the Legislature of the State to appropriate money to continue it, 

 and all who had assisted in the work were released from their con- 

 nection with it. 



Mr. Rogers was without regular occupation during many months. 

 To him profitable and continued employment of some kind was 

 very desirable. He was always an earnest student, and his acquire- 

 ments were notable at that time. It seemed probable that the ex- 

 ample of the lives of his father and uncles, as well as his own pref- 

 erence, would induce him to select for himself only some one of 



