1901.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 7 



surprise he found that the mental application required for proof- 

 reading was an excellent remedy for his sleeplessness. The applica- 

 tion required for the task di'ove out thoughts of the railroad's dis- 

 aster. He begged for more, both fi'om the Academy and fi'om 

 friends, and the greater part of his subsequent life was devoted, 

 as one of the best means for preserving health, to his favorite 

 occupation of proof-reading. 



Though not courting favors, he was highly esteemed by his 

 fellow-citizens. For two successive years, 1877 and 1878, he 

 was elected president of the Union League — one of the most 

 enviable of Philadelphia's social positions. 



His eminently practical character has been well illustrated by 

 the reference to his journey through the State in the interests of 

 the iron men, and by the details of his railroad affairs. He car- 

 ried this quality into all his transactions. His close friend, Prof. 

 T. C. Porter, relates that on a trip with him, Aubrey H. Smith 

 and Dr. Joseph Leidy, in July and August, 1865, to Lake Supe- 

 rior, they were much amused by his practical test of the truth of 

 the Abbe Hue's statement that cow " cake " was better for kind- 

 ling, but that horse " apples " Avere better for holding heat in a 

 fire. The result proved the correctness of Abbe Hue's assertion. 

 Dr. Porter further notes, as illustrative of the tendency to draw 

 valuable conclusions from little things, that one of the party, 

 having placed over the fire a branch of a spruce tree to aid in 

 extinguishing it. Smith noted how the turpentine oozed from the 

 twigs, flashed into a blaze and sent up as incense a cloud of 

 fragrant white' smoke. 



With all his love of facts, he was not devoid of sentiment. 

 His private correspondence discloses an active interest in the good 

 of others of which the world will never know. Few have suc- 

 ceeded so well in preventing the left hand from knowing what the 

 right hand was doing. His selection of a burial place in Laurel 

 Hill Cemetery for his mother, on a spot that commanded the most 

 delightful views of the Schuylkill and the surroundings, is a strik- 

 ing testimony to his depth of sentiment. 



We have already seen how he was early brought into a love for 

 botany at the boarding-schocl. He was elected a member of the 

 Academy in 1851, and served in some of the administrative offices 

 until his death. He was appointed on the Publication Committee 



