362 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



ceived a prei^aratory training under the tuition of the celebrated Alexander 

 H. Stephens, and in 1835 entered Franklin College, afterwards known as 

 the University of Georgia, where he graduated with high honors in 1838. 



From an early age he manifested a remarkable taste for scientific subjects, 

 and in college exhibited a decided preference for those branches of study 

 which were connected with nature and physics. Almost immediately after 

 graduation he proceeded northwai'd; entered the College of Physicians and 

 Surgeons of the University of New York, and received from that institu- 

 tion the degree of M. D. in March, 1841. He then returned to his native 

 State and married a lady of beauty and refinement, who survives him as 

 his widow. He commenced the practice of medicine at Savannah, where 

 he remained until August, 1846, when he was elected to the chair of 

 natural philosophy and chemistry in Franklin College, his alma mater. 

 From that time he abandoned the practice of medicine and devoted him- 

 self to the study of the physical sciences. In 1855 he became lecturer on 

 chemistry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the University of 

 New York, thus reaching a chair in his second alma mater as he had pre- 

 viously reached a chair in his first. 



In 1856 he accepted a call to fill the professorship of natural and 

 mechanical philosophy in the University of South Carolina, and remained 

 their until the spring of 1869, when he was called to the chair of physics 

 in our own University of California. He was almost immediately upon his 

 arrival in this State appointed acting President of the University, and as 

 such initiated the first exercises of that institution. In 1870, after the 

 election of Dr. Durant as President, and for several years thereafter, Dr. 

 Le Conte gave himself up exclusively to the duties connected with his 

 professorship, but in 1875, after the resignation of Dr. Oilman, he was 

 again appointed to act as President, and in 1876, was elected to the office 

 of President. He continued to fill the office of President for a year and a 

 half, since which time, and to the time of his death he occupied the chair 

 of physics. 



Professor Le Conte became a member of this Academy on August 3, 1870, 

 and a life member on January 3, 1888. He was also a member of the 

 National Academy of Sciences and of many other scientific societies in this 

 country and in Europe. He wrote many valuable and important papers 

 on scientific subjects and particularly on subjects connected with the 

 phenomena of the vibrations of sound, on the astronomy of Mars and its 

 satellites, on the famous nebular hypothesis, on the evolution of worlds, 

 and on various other matters whereby glimpses are gained into that world 

 of truth called nature, the knowledge of which is destined to emancipate 

 humanity from the shackles of ignorance and superstition, and all the in- 

 numerable ills connected with and involved in those immeasurable evils. 



About the end of the last century, the German philosopher Fichte wrote 

 a treatise on the subject of The Scholar, in which he represented the 



