204 DAVKNPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



His friendship for the young naturalist, J. Duncan Putnam, was 

 something almost unique in its warmth. The writer has often heard 

 him lament the paucity of American youths with the same untiring 

 energy, the same unselfish devotion to science, and the same thor- 

 oughly correct habits of thought, as that lamented member who passed 

 away before him. 



His studies of ethnological character were pursued with that vigor, 

 perseverance, and patience which marked all his investigations, and 

 judges of such work fully appreciated them. In 1880 he was apjjointed 

 by the French Societe Ethnographique its member for Iowa, with 

 power to recommend any further additions to its membership; and 

 this he always considered one of the highest honors ever paid him. 



His life in Davenport, aside from his Academy work, was marked 

 by little that could furnish material of interest for this memoir. His 

 retiring disposition and the singular sensitiveness he displayed in regard 

 to his deafness rendered his strictly professional work somewhat meagre 

 and unproductive. The bulk of this was done as a consulting physi- 

 cian; and those who knew the full value of his ripe scholarship in 

 medicine frequently appealed to him in this direction, and always 

 found his counsel of great worth, and his regard for the ethics of con- 

 sultation as lofty as those of any man who ever lived. 



He was elected a member of the visiting staff of Mercy Hospital in 

 1870, and served in that capacity till his removal to Des Moines, being 

 then transferred to the consulting staff; and many a poor creature who 

 profited by his ministrations in that institution remembers with grati- 

 tude his great skill and his thoroughly kindly and sympathizing treat- 

 ment. While serving on the hosjntal staff, he planned and supervised 

 the construction of the outlying ward for contagious diseases, known 

 as St. John's, in which the practical application of sanitary construc- 

 tion has almost reached perfection; and the plans for this building 

 have since been ])ublished and commended by all the sanitary author- 

 ities of the country, and in several ])laces adopted. 



It was in the direction, however, of the movement of the advanced 

 thought of his profession, viz., that of prevention of disease, that, for 

 years, he had thrown the best energies of his active mind; and it was 

 in operations like a com):)licated analysis of drinking-waters, such as he 

 made for the Board of Health of Rock Island, and in statistical ob- 

 servations of disease, as in state or municipal hygiene, that he found 

 most pleasurable occupation ; hence, it was with real pleasure that, in 

 1880, he accepted the position of Secretary of our State Board of 



