HEXRY CHARLES LEA. xxxix 



about one of the most remarkable men with whom I have had the 

 good fortune to be associated in a long life. 



The President : 



The portrait of Mr. Isaac Lea, a striking copy of ^Ir. Uhle's by 

 Mr. Thomas P. Anshutz, of the Academy of the Fine Arts, will be 

 presented by Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, the worthy successor of Mr. 

 Isaac Lea as President of The Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia. 



Dr. Samuel G. Dixon : 



Mr. President, -M embers of the American Philosopliical Society, 

 Honored Representatives of our Mother Country, Ladies and Gen- 

 tlemen : It is my privilege tonight to present to you, on behalf of the 

 family of the late Henry C. Lea, a portrait of Isaac Lea, LL.D., 

 by L'hle, that at last it may rightfully take its place in the series of 

 portraits of distinguished members, which adorn the hall of the 

 Society. 



Isaac Lea's work was ended long ago; he rests beneath "the low 

 green tent." It may be fitting on this occasion to recall, if only 

 briefly, his work and services to science. 



The honor of membership in this Society has not always an equal 

 significance. In most cases it is bestowed in recognition of large 

 performance in the domain of science or of afifairs ; but rarely has 

 a man's work been discounted, and a member admitted for what he 

 was expected to perform. 



Eighty-two years ago this Society elected to its membership a 

 young man whose actual achievement was then small ; Init he was 

 destined to become, in his own special line of research, the most 

 eminent of his generation. 



This young man was Isaac Lea. His life work was the study of 

 fresh-water mollusks. Born in 1792, of parents belonging to the 

 Society of Friends, whose English ancestors had followed Penn to 

 America, young Lea lost his birthright by serving in a volunteer 

 rifle company towards the end of the War of 1812. About this time 

 he became interested in geology, under the inspiring influence of 

 Professor Vanuxem, whose pioneer work on the geology of Xew 



