1889.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 87 



singularly gifted. It enabled him to treat in his lectures 

 subjects so diverse as Mental Philosophy and the Science 

 of Perspective, Ancient Literature and Botanical Physiology ; 

 and although no original work can be included in a record of 

 his performances, he was instrumental in disseminating much 

 thorough and valuable knowledge through the medium of his 

 lectures. For those who attended them his brilliant under- 

 standing illuminated all that was dark before in the most ab- 

 struse problems of the studies which they pursued And the 

 winning manner of the teacher transformed his pupils into his 

 friends — friends who followed his future endeavors with solici- 

 tude, who lingered affectionately around him in his hours of 

 illness, and who solaced his last days by every office the kindli- 

 est feeling could devise. Mr. Braman was married to Martha 

 W. Bowers, of Providence, in 1862. Within two years there- 

 after, she died. He suffered intensely from the effects of her 

 death, nor did he during his life ever cease to cherish her 

 memory with mournful fidelity. The shock and the loss he 

 sustained in her death influenced, to its detriment probably, his 

 whole subsequent career. His life, pure and unselfish in its 

 every act and relation, childlike in its reverence for matters of 

 faith and religion, though passed outside of the glare of public 

 observation, presented an example which was as effective in the 

 promotion of good among his fellows as were his intellectual 

 labors successful in imparting knowledge ; and the picture of 

 his beautiful character will fade in the memory of those who 

 came within its influence when the stars fade on their vision and 

 not till then. 



PROCEEDINGS. 



Meeting of March ist, 1889. 



The President, Mr. Charles F. Cox, in the chair. 



Thirty-six persons present. 



On motion, the Committee on Publicatiois was authorized to 

 publish a new list of the Members of the Society. 



The Librarian announced the donation to the Library, by Mr. 

 William G. De Witt, of two bound volumes of the Journal of 

 the Society. 



