REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 173 



member of the Institute of France, appeared in 1004, entitled ''Lcs 

 Voyages du Naturaliste Ch. Alexandre Lesueur dans I'Amerique du 

 Nord (1815-1837) ". It was published (1901) in the Journal de la Societe 

 des Aniericanistes de Paris (Vol. V) as a special "Numero dedie par 

 la Societe a Foccasion de 1' Exposition Univ^erselle de Saint Louis." 

 It is illustrated by many landscape views reproduced from originals 

 of Lesueur. 



V. 



Next in order of time comes a work whose like was never seen in 

 any other country, and which has never been equaled. An expert in 

 ichthyology who should see it for the first time without previous 

 knowledge of it, might suppose that the author was an irresponsible 

 idiot who had not intelligence enough to appreciate elementary facts. 

 An ordinarily bad book might be left unnoticed, but the one in ques- 

 tion is so abnormally bad as to be a curiosity of ichthj^ological litera- 

 ture, and interest and wonder must be excited at the variety of errors 

 an educated man may conmiit in a held of which he has no knowledge. 

 Now hear who this man was and what positions of honor and profit 

 were conferred on him. 



Jerome Van Crowninshield '^' Smith was born in Conway, N. H., 

 July 20 (or 22), 1800, was graduated at the medical department of 

 Brown College in 1818, and again at Berkshire Medical School in 1825 

 (or 1822). He became the first professor of anatomy and phvsiology 

 in the latter institution. In 1825 he settled in Boston, was port phy- 

 sician from 1820 to 1810, and meanwhile was editor of several medical 

 or other periodicals, among which were the Boston Medical Intelli- 

 gencer (1823-1826), the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal (1831- 

 1856), and the Medical World (1857-1859). In 1854 he was elected l)y 

 the Native American, otherwise called the "Know-Nothing" partv, 

 mayor of Boston, and served a single term (1854-55). Subsequently he 

 removed to New York, where his son was resident, and was appointed 

 to the professorship of anatomy and physiology in the New York Med- 

 ical College. During the war of 1861-1865 " he went to New Orleans, 

 where he accepted the position of acting inspector-general, with the 

 rank of colonel, and he was the chairman of a commission appointed 

 by Banks to consider the sanitary condition of the cit3\" lie died at 

 Richmond, Mass., at the residence of his sister-in-law, August 21, 1879. 



His obituarist, in his old periodical, the Boston Medical and Sur- 

 gical Journal, records that, "although a man of no great ability, he 

 could turn his hand to almost anything. For instance, it is said of 

 him that as a college boy he was the champion drummer of his class. 

 Later in life he was alternately anatomist, hisitorian, naturalist, poli- 



a There is a discrepancy between the different biographical sketches of Smith as to name (Crownin- 

 shield or Crowningshield) and several dates. Crowninshield is the only form of the name in Boston 

 directories. 



