1887. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 79 
members, Mr. J. Carson Brevoort, who resided at No. 36 
Brevoort place, Brooklyn. 
He was the son of Henry Brevoort, an intimate friend of 
Washington Irving, and was born in this city July 10th, 1818. 
After a thorough preliminary education in this country, he spent 
several years in study in France and Switzerland, graduating 
after a three years’ course at the Ecole Central des Arts et 
Metiers, Paris, with the diploma of civil engineer. On his re- 
turn to the United States, he assisted his uncle, James Ren- 
wick, one of the commissioners appointed for that purpose, in 
running the line of our northwestern boundary. In 1838, he 
was appointed private secretary to Washington Irving, who be- 
came United States Consul to Spain. He remained five years 
abroad at this time, in Spain, England, France, and Germany, 
returning to America in 1848. In 1845, he married a daughter 
of Judge Lefferts, of Brooklyn, and from that time onward con- 
tinued to reside in that city, where he became well known and 
was highly honored. He long served on the Board of KEduca- 
tion and the Board of Water Commissioners, and, in 1863, he was 
elected President of the Long Island Historical Society, an office 
he held for ten years. In 1852, he was appointed a trustee of 
the Astor Library, and for two years was superintendent of that 
institution. In 1861, he was made a Regent of the University of 
the State of New York. He became a member of the Lyceum 
of Natural History in 1840, and is believed to have been, at the 
time of his death, the oldest living member of the Academy; he 
was also a Patron of this Society, and an occasional contributor 
to the Annals. In natural history, his specialty was ichthy- 
ology, of which he had a good knowledge and the finest library 
in this country. His knowledge and interests were, however, 
far-reaching, and he contributed to the American Journal of 
Numismatics a series of papers on ‘‘ Karly Spanish and Portu- 
guese Coinage in America;” to the Historical Magazine a paper 
on the ‘‘ Discovery of the Remains of Columbus;” and he read 
a paper in 1871 before the American Geographical Society ‘* On 
Giovanni de Verrazano and on a Planisphere of 1529, Ilustrat- 
ing his American Voyage in 1524.” This was subsequently ex- 
