William Manuel Mew. 



1835-1902. 



William Manuel Mew was born in Newport, Isle of Wight, 

 September 25, 1835. His early education was received in the 

 grammar schools and by private tutor until 13 years of age, 

 after which he had no regular schooling. At this age he went 

 to sea and rose rapidly, attaining at the age of 20 the position 

 of a ship's officer in the Merchant Marine service. He made 

 several trips to the Crimea during that war. In 1858 he came 

 to America and became a teacher in the public schools at War- 

 ren, Pennsylvania. While thus engaged he studied medicine 

 with a physician at Warren and afterward took a course in med- 

 icine at college. In 1861 he raised a company, of which he 

 was made captain, and joined the Seventy-fourth New York Vol- 

 unteers. Illness caused him to be honorably discharged in 1863. 

 He was then appointed to a position in the office of Secretary 

 Stanton, from which he resigned in 1865, and in the following 

 year he entered the United States Treasury at the head of the 

 Division of Steamboat Navigation. In connection with this 

 work he was sent abroad by the United States Government to a 

 conference to investigate and revise the laws relating to trans- 

 portation of emigrants, sanitary conditions and life-saving ap- 

 pliances. He resigned from the Treasury in 1869 and began 

 the study of chemistry with Dr. Leonard Gale, chemist to the 

 Smithsonian Institution, in his private laboratory, and later in 

 the Smithsonian laboratory under Professor Henry. In 1873, 

 through the kindly interest of Professor Joseph Henry, who had 

 watched his progress, he was offered a choice of two positions, 

 namely, as chemist in the Department of Agriculture, the other 

 as assistant to Dr. Craig, chemist at the Army Medical Mu- 

 seum. He accepted the latter position and thus began his 29 

 years of service in the chemical laboratory of that museum. 

 Upon the death of Dr. Craig within two or three years he suc- 

 ceeded to the position vacated, which position he continued to 

 hold until his death. In 1882 Captain Mew received the hon- 



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