AN APPRECIATION OF THEODORE NICHOLAS GILL 
By Frederic A. Lucas 
HERE died in Washington on 
September 25, 1914, the man 
who may well be termed the 
Nestor of American zodlogists, not per- 
haps so much from the fact that he 
chanced to be a year or so older than his 
from his extraordinary 
compeers, as 
grasp of vari- 
ous branches 
of  zodlogi- 
eal science. 
Theodore 
Nicholas Gill 
vas born in 
New York, 
March 21, 
1837. He 
passed part 
of his early 
life in Brook- 
lyn, and we 
infer from his 
“Reminis- 
cences of the 
Apprentice’s 
nib r ar yo)” 
that this an- 
eestor of the 
Brooklyn In- 
stitute of Arts 
and Sciences 
had much to 
do with turn- 
ing his atten- 
tion from law 
toward natu- 
He first became familiar 
with the Institute that was to be, in 1854, 
when he was seventeen, and as long as he 
remained in Brooklyn, made use of its 
library and collections and was a regular 
attendant at the meetings of the Lyceum 
of Natural History, being for a part of 
the time its secretary. 
ral history. 
The fact that shells were the objects 
most readily obtained and preserved by 
amateurs, and the accessibility of the 
fine ichthyological library of Mr. J. 
Carson Breevoort, seem to have been 
the factors that directed his attention 
to conchology and ichthyology, although, 
as noted far- 
ther on, other 
factors came 
into play 
The 
influence of 
later. 
Baird and of 
the Smithso- 
nian Institu- 
tion led him 
to Washing- 
ton in 1868, 
where for a 
time he was 
librarian — of 
the Smithso- 
nian Institu- 
Eom fasnd, 
later, assist- 
ant librarian 
of the Library 
of Congress. 
For one 
who achieved 
such impor- 
tant results 
he did com- 
paratively 
little original 
work, from a natural indolence of body 
which led him to take life easily, to shun 
the dissecting table, to relegate the labor 
of preparation to others and to utilize 
their work, even if he might not accept 
their conclusions, for he possessed to an 
unusual extent the ability to make use 
of the work of others, not by claiming it 
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