REPORT OF THE .SECRETARY. 79 



selor of many iiieii; into his ears were [»oure(l the sorrows aud joys of 

 others, and he nioiiriied with the inourniii^', and rejoiced with the re- 

 joicing". His life at home was pure and sweet and lull of joys, for he 

 j>ave and received love and trust and tender care. But the history of 

 his home life is sacred. 



" For nuiuy long months he contemplated the day of parting. Labor 

 that knew no rest, responsibility that was never lifted from his shoulders, 

 too soon brought his life to an end. In the summer of the i)ast year he 

 returned to his work by the sea-side, that he might die in its midst. 

 There at Wood's Holl he had created the greatest biologic laboratory of 

 the world ; and in that laboratory, with the best resnlts of his life-work 

 all about him, he calmly and philosophically waited for the time of 

 times." 



The memorial which is being prepared, in obedience to the desire of 

 the Regents, by the Assistant Secretary of the Institntiou, is partly writ- 

 ten, but the pressure of official work has prevented its completion in 

 time for publication in the present report. 



Jt seems essential, however, that this report should not be pub- 

 lished without at least a brief biographical sketch of my [iredecessor 

 from one of his scientitic family, and the following notice, which antici- 

 pates the coming fuller memorial by Dr. Goode, has accordingly been 

 prepared by him at my request. 



" iSpencer Fullerton liaird was born February 3, 1823, in Reading, a 

 town in southeastern Pennsylvania about GO miles from Philadelphia, 

 where his ancestors, people of education and proniinent in the commu- 

 nity, had lived for several generations. About 1831 his mother, then a 

 widow, removed to Carlisle. Carlisle Avas the seat of Dickinson Col- 

 lege, where he was graduated in 1810, at the age of seventeen. His 

 tastes for scientific investigation had already developed in such a re- 

 markable manner that his mother felt that she was justified in allowing 

 him, after graduation, to devote himself for a time to his favorite pur- 

 suits, and his time for several years was devoted to studies in general 

 natural history, to long pedestrian excursions for the purpose of observ- 

 ing animals and plants, and collecting specimens, and to the organiza- 

 tion of a private cabinet of natural history, which a few years later be- 

 came the nuck'us of the museum of the Smithsonian Institution. During 

 this period he [)ublished a number of original papers on natural his- 

 tory. There were at that time no schools for young naturalists, and 

 his education was in large degree self-directed ; during this time, how- 

 ever, he ])artially completed a course in medicine at the College of 

 I'hysicans and Surgeons in New York,* and drew inspiration and in- 

 struction from such men as Audubon and others of the older natural- 

 ists whom at this i)eriod he visited, forming the tbundationof lifelong 

 Iriendships. His home studies continued for six years, and were 

 scarcely interrupted by his election in 1841 to the chair of natural his- 



* He read iiicilicinc with Dr. Mi(l<ll«ton Gold.siiiitli, and attondcd a winter course of 

 lecturers at Uie College of IMiysicians and 8uif;<Miiis in Ni'w York, in 1812. Hisnit'diea! 

 cuuiHo was never formally compli-lfd, altliongli in 1818 lie received tUe degree of 

 M. D., honoris causa, from the Philadelphia Medical College. 



