JACOB BIGELOW.! 
Dr. Jacos BicELow died at his residence in Boston, on 
the 10th of January last, near the close of the ninety-second 
year of his age. 
While we would pay the tribute due to his memory as by 
far the most venerable of American botanists, the last survivor 
of a school in this country which culminated half a century 
ago, it should also be remembered that he was even at that 
time distinguished in other scientific avocations, and that from 
middle to old age he was among the most eminent of physi- 
cians. It is not often that we can contemplate a life so long, 
so richly various, and so well-rounded as his. He was born 
in Sudbury, Massachusetts, on February 27, 1787; and his 
father was the minister of the town. That almost goes without 
saying, most of our distinguished professional men of his and 
the preceding generations in New England having been the 
sons of country ministers. He was graduated at Harvard 
College in the year 1806, Alexander H. Everett and the late 
Dr. J. G. Cogswell being among the most notable of his class- 
mates, all of whom he long survived. He directly took up 
the study of medicine, was licensed as a practitioner in 1809, 
and after attending one course of lectures in Philadelphia, 
took his degree of M. D. at Harvard in 1810, and established 
himself in Boston. There he was a practising physician for 
about sixty years, and since the death of his senior, Dr. James 
Jackson, probably the most eminent one. ‘What turned his 
attention to botany we know not. He early showed an abid- 
ing taste for poetry. His commencement part was a poem, 
and he delivered a ©. B. K. poem not long after. At about 
the same time, however, he gave a course of popular botani- 
eal lectures in Boston, in connection with Professor Peck, 
who must have been installed as natural-history professor at 
1 American Journal of Science and Arts, 3 ser., xvii. 263. (1879.) 
