The Microscope. 369 



In the January number of The Microscope we shall publish a 

 fine portrait and a sketch of Prof. D. S. Kellicott, President of the 

 American Society of Microscopists. This portrait will be sent onlj 

 to subscribers for 1888. 



Correction: The word in heavy type, quantitative, at the foot 

 of the page of the pink premium list, should read qualitative. 

 Please make a note of this. 



Spencer F. Baird. — A bright star in the scientific firmament 

 disappeared when Spencer F. Baird, on the 19th of August last, 

 passed from the activites of his earthly life. He was a man of 

 gentle manner, modest and unobtrusive in all his ways, but 

 honored with the respect and affection of all his fellows and 

 coUaborateurs in the work of exploration among the natural 

 sciences. His great labors and his greater triumphs will secure for 

 him a high place in the gallery of American scientists. He was 

 born in Reading, Pa., on the 3d of February, 1823, graduated at 

 Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pa., in 1840, studied medicine in the 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York, received a degree 

 from the Philadelphia Medical College, became professor of natui'al 

 history and chemistry in Dickinson College, his alma mater, became 

 assistant secretary in the Smithsonian Institute in 1850, and its 

 principal executive officer in May, 1878, on the death of Joseph 

 Henry, its former Secretary and official head. He gave himself at 

 once to the work of enlarging and enriching this great national 

 institute, devoting much of his time, especially during the decade 

 1850-1860, to enlisting all officers at the head of governmental 

 exploration in the objects of the Institute. He prepared the 

 numerous specimens brought back by them to Washington from 

 time to time, and these, with his own collection and those of the 

 celebrated Wilkes exploring expedition, formed the beginning of 

 the great National Museum, now the finest in the country. 



From early youth his tastes led him to the field, the wood, the 

 mountain-side, the lake and the stream; and it is said of him that 

 his pedestrian expeditions sometimes covered over 2,000 miles in 

 the course of the year. These tastes grew into a passion with him, 

 and like the great Agassiz, his highest pleasure was found in the 

 world of fishes, birds, mollusks, and the silent fields of extinct life. 

 He was advisory counsel at the Halifax Fishery Commission, held 



