THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 71 



fisheries, about which little was known in his youth, sub- 

 mitted to scientific investigation by national and state com- 

 missions, to which he was a valuable contributor. 



Capt. Atwood was a member of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, of the Society of Arts of the Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology and of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences. He was elected a corresponding 

 member of the Essex Institute, Aug. 27, 1856. 



He died at his home in Proviucetown on Sunday, No- 

 vember 7, 1886, after a lingering illness. 



Isaac Lea, LL.D., the distinguished naturalist, who 

 earned a world-wide fame by his extensive researches in 

 science, died on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 1886, at his residence 

 iu Philadelphia, in the ninety-fifth year of his age. His 

 principal works are devoted to conchology and some de- 

 partments of palaeontology. 



His investigations of the American Unios began in 1825 

 on receiving some specimens from the Ohio river; and 

 when they terminated in 1874, he had published thirteen 

 volumes. 



He was born in Wilmington, Delaware, March 4, 1792. 

 He became a member of the American Philosophical So- 

 ciety in 1828 : was president of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia from 1853-1858, and at the time 

 of his death he was an honorary member of many of the 

 scientific, philosophical and historical societies of the 

 world. He received the degree of LL.D., from Harvard 

 in 1852. In I860 he presided at the meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Science, held 

 at Newport, R. I. A complete detailed list of his publi- 

 cations with a biographical sketch is contained in number 

 twenty-three of the Bulletin of the United States National 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN, VOL. XIX. 7 



