EDGAR ALEXANDER MEARNS RICHMOND, 661 



down to museuin research, to work over his collections and complete 

 reports long projected. The opportunity was now at hand, but, alas! 

 not to be realized. The privations and exposure of his many travels, 

 together with the progress of his malady, had so undermined his 

 system that his vitality had reached a low ebb. He continued at work 

 for two or three years, with ever widening periods of inability to 

 reach his office. Thinking to benefit his condition, he made several 

 short field trips in this period, from which he returned Avithout much 

 improvement, and at length he succumbed, in the midst of his greatest 

 undertaking, surrounded by a wealth of material that was largely 

 the result of his own industry. He passed away at the "Walter Reed 

 Army General Hospital, in Washington, November 1, 1916, leaving 

 his mother, widow, daughter, and a large number of friends to mourn 

 his loss. 



Doctor Mearns was of an exceedingly generous disposition, one who 

 had no desire to retain the fruits of his labor for his own glory and 

 satisfaction, but preferred to donate them to museums where they 

 would be accessible to all for study. His earlier collections, made 

 up to 1891, went to the American Museum of Natural History, and 

 later ones were given with equal liberality to the United States 

 National Museum. Of shells, and probably other objects collected in 

 large quantity, he distributed sets to various museums, while a series 

 of human skeletons and crania from the cliff dwellings at P^ort Verde 

 was sent to the Arniy Medical Museum. An inkling of the im- 

 portance of his contributions may be gathered from the statement of 

 Standley (1917), who Avrites: 



As naturalist of the Mexican Boundary Survey of 1892-93 he collected or had 

 collected under his direction the largest and best representation ever obtained, 

 consisting of several thousand numbers, of the flora of that part of tlie United 

 States and Mexican boundary which extends from El Paso, Texas, to San Diego, 

 California. Doctor Mearns secured also what is undoubtedly the largest series 

 of plants ever obtained in the Yellowstone National Park, and in addition he col- 

 lected extensively in the Philippines, Arizona, Florida, Rhode Island, Min- 

 nesota, and southern New York. All his collections are deposited in the United 

 States National Museum, and probably no one person has contributed a larger 

 number of plants to that institution. 



Hollister, in 1913, referring to Philippine mammals, said that of 

 1,454 specimens in the National Museum, " probably by far the largest 

 collection from the archipelago in any museum," Doctor Mearns had 

 given 1,012. More impressive figures may be cited in the case of 

 birds, when it is known that more than one-tenth of the total number 

 of specimens of birds in the United States National Museum were 

 either collected or contributed by him. 



The published writings of Doctor Mearns number about 125 titles, 

 chiefly on biological subjects, although medicine, archaeology, and 

 biography are also represented. Fifty or more new species of animals 

 65133°— SM 1917 43 



