PROCEEDINGS OK MEMORIAL MEETING. ^15 



Correspoiirteiice. 



A large number of letters from friends of the deceased abroad 

 were then read. From among- these the following have been se- 

 lected for pviblication: 



From Prok. Spencer F. Baird, Secretary Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 



Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C, Dec. 80, 1881. 



Sik: In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 10th inst., which 

 conveys the painful intelligence that Professor J. D. Putnam, President of 

 Davenport Academy of Sciences, has been called from his earthly labors, I 

 beg to say that while, through this dispensation of Providence, the Academy 

 sustains a double loss, in that by the death of Prof. Putnam it is deprived 

 of an honored presiding officer, and at the same time of an associate who 

 was ever zealous for the success of the establishment, the cause of science 

 is again called upon to mourn the departure from earth of a devoted friend 

 and conscientious collaborator. 



Begging that you will convey to the members of the Academy, and to the 

 family and friends of Professor Putnam, the assurance that in their bereave- 

 ment they have the profound sympathies of the officers of this institution, 



I am, very truly yours, 



SPEXCER F. BAIRD, Sec'y- 

 W. H. PuATT, Davenport, Iowa. 



From Proe. Asa (iray, Cambridge, Mass. 



C.\MBRiDOE, Mass., .January 4, 1882. 

 Mv Dear Sius: I learn that a meeting of the Davenport Academy is 

 convened to take notice of the death of its late Corresponding Secretary, Mr. 

 J. Duncan Putnam. It is well that you should put upon record, for future 

 times, some memorial of the services and the character of the associate who 

 is now lost to you. Young as he was, T suppose he is to be ranked among 

 your founders; at least, his place in your history is a very early one. Of 

 what he did for your society, of what he accomplislied for science, of the 

 serious disadvantage under which he labored in doing this from almost 

 life-long ill health, of the enthusiasm which supplied the place of bodily 

 strength, and of the fruits of his devotion which you are enjoying in the 

 prosperity and good name of the Academy, it is quite unnecessary that I 

 should write a word. His name and place in the science which he pursued 

 with such devotion are made sure by being incorpo'-ated into the imperisha- 

 l)le records which Natural History builds into its very fabric as its structure 

 ri.ses through the combined labors of all its gifted devotees. Let me only 

 say, that what struck me in my intercourse with Putnam, was his sobriety of 

 judgjient and simplicity of spirit. Xever have I seen a cooler, and, as we 

 say, more level, head l)orne upon such .young shoulders, nor is it often that 

 such gifts and acquisitions as his are borne with such genuine modest}' by 

 one so young and so situated. Little as I have actually l)een with him, I 



