6 Richmond, In Memoriam: Edgar A. M earns. [j" n 



Ella Wittich, of Circleville, Ohio, who shared his love of natural 

 history, especially botany, and gave him considerable assistance 

 with his collections. They had two children, a son, Louis di 

 Zerega Mearns, and a daughter, Lillian Hathaway Mearns. 



In 1882, Dr. Mearns took an examination for entrance into the 

 medical department of the army; but the events of that period 

 are best told in the following extract from a letter he afterwards 

 wrote (March 16, 1885) to his old preceptor, Robert Donald, then 

 at Lanesboro, Minn.: 



" I informed you I think of my determination, you know it had 

 long been my wish, to enter the army, of my coming up before the 

 Army Medical Examining Board and of my passing satisfactorily 

 the examination. I did not receive my commission at once but 

 spent the summer in settling up our business affairs and in prepar- 

 ing to go to New York for the winter. 



I stored my collection of specimens at the American Museum of 

 Natural History, N. Y., and on the first of October was called there 

 as temporary curator of Ornithology, and spent the winter. While 

 there I labelled all of their large collection of European birds, and 

 many others from Asia and Africa, and got up catalogues of all the 

 ornithological and oological specimens in manuscripts with printed 

 headings for all items of desirable data concerning the specimens. 

 The most important thing that I accomplished there was the estab- 

 lishment of a cabinet collection in vertebrate zoology for the use 

 of students." Confirmation of this last statement is found in a 

 recent work, 1 where it is stated that "the first material for study 

 collections was given by Dr. E. A. Mearns in 1882, consisting of 

 skins and eggs of North American and European birds." 



Dr. Mearns participated in the organization of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union in September, 1883, and on Dec. 3 of that year 

 received his commission as assistant surgeon in the army, with the 

 rank of first lieutenant. He was offered a choice of several stations, 

 and selected that of Fort Verde, in central Arizona, as promising 

 an exceptional field for natural history investigations. He was 

 accordingly assigned to this post, which he reached early in 1884. 

 Fort Verde, abandoned as a military station in 1891, was then a 



1 The Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., its History, etc., 2d ed., 1911, 67. 



