Journal 



OF THE 



NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. V. - JULY, 1889. No. 3. 



BRNJAMIN BRAMAN. 



Benjamin Braman died on the 20th day of January, 1889. 

 The illness which resulted in his death had lasted over a year, 

 and had confined him in bed the greater part of that time. The 

 wonderful amount of will-power possessed by him, and which 

 had enabled him during many years of ill health to pursue his 

 professional labors, undoubtedly added months to his life after 

 his fatal illness was upon him. He was born in Norton, Massa- 

 chusetts, on the 23d day of November, 1831, and was lineally 

 descended from one of the original founders of Plymouth colony. 

 He received his early education in his native town, and gradu- 

 ated from Brown University in 1854. Subsequently he entered 

 the Theological Seminary at Andover, and graduated therefrom 

 in 1859, thus fitting himself for the vocation he had long 

 intended to follow, namely, that of a minister of the Christian 

 religion. Indeed, so powerfully was he urged by a sense of duty 

 and responsibility to enter the ministry, that about this time he 

 refused very lucrative and promising offices in lay institutions of 

 learning. When, soon after he left Andover, he commenced, at 

 Shutesbury, to exercise his calling from the pulpit, he found to 

 his sorrow that a bronchial weakness to which he was subject, so 

 much interfered with his utterance that he was compelled to 

 cease temporarily, and finally, permanently, his efforts to preach. 

 Nor could he at any time afterward make such use of his voice 

 as would be absolutely necessary for him properly to discharge 

 his duties as a clergyman. He therefore withdrew entirely from 

 that profession, and became the principal of a high-school in 

 Westport. For a few months this occupation seemed suited to 

 him. After that time, however, it was evident that the unremit- 

 ting attention which he bestowed upon his labors, and which his 



