riitnain.l « 



Had health and life been spared to him, Dr. ^\Tieatland would have 

 groatly advanced our knowledge of the embryology of tills most inter- 

 esting' order of animals by his careful investigations. During his last 

 period of partial health, he visited Buenos Ayres, in the hope of 

 building up his failing strength, and while there contributed many 

 specimens to t]ie collections of Salem, Cambridge and this Society; 

 but, alas for his wishes, both the voyage and the season were adverse 

 to his hopes, and he returned home with health still more impaired, 

 and remained an invahd until his decease. During his long sickness 

 Dr. AVlieatland showed a Christian resignation to his fate, and con- 

 tinued cheei-fully Avaiting until he should be called to the home of the 

 God whoee worlcs on earth he so much loved, and in whose mercy he 

 had firm faith. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson read the following 

 Notice of the Death of Francis Alger of Boston. 



Our late associate, Francis Alger, son of Cyrus Alger, who married 

 Lucy Willis, was born in Bridgewater in this State, March 8, 1807. 

 He had one brother named Cyrus (now dead) and six sisters, five of 

 whom are now living. 



Francis, in youth, was not studious, and had only a common school 

 education. His taste for study commenced in 1824, when his atten- 

 tion was first drawn to the science of Mneralogy. To his love for 

 that science he attributed his after progress in general learning and 

 scientific acquirements. One branch of Natural History leads to oth- 

 ers, and Francis soon found himself engaged in the study of shells and 

 plants, first the fossils and then their analogues in the living world. 

 He began to collect good scientific books, and his library shows how 

 extensively he entered into the study of other branches of Natural 

 History But it was to his first love, Mneralogy, with its proper 

 physiology, Chemistry, that he devoted his chief attention. 



In 182G his father made a trip to Nova Scotia for the purpose of 

 erecting a furnace for smelting iron ores at Clements, on the Annapolis 

 basin. He took Francis Avith him, and there the young mineralogist 

 began his field labors by collecting such minerals as occur in the iron 

 ores of Digby Neck and in the trap rocks of Granville. He brought 

 home a small collection of Zeolites, Amethyst, Quartz and Agates, of 

 Avhich he published a list In the Boston Journal of Philosophy and the 

 Arts. He also published a brief description of the Nova Scotia min- 

 erals in the American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. XH., p. 227. 

 In 1827 the project Avas formed by Mr. Alger and his present biogra- 

 pher to make a full exploration of the Peninsula of Nova Scotia, and 

 to collect, describe and puljlish an account of all the mineral species 



