ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 55 



he might deposit, from time to time, the quantity of food requi- 

 site for his nourishment. He lived in this manner several years, 

 during which time his food did not cost, on an average, more 

 than twelve cents a day. An interesting and instructive me- 

 moir of this gentleman was read before the Academy, hy Dr. 

 Benjamin H. Coates, December 16, 1834, which was published 

 by order of the Institution. 



Of Mr. Jacob Gilliams, our first comptroller, or auditor, and 

 of Mr. John Speakman, our first treasurer, mention has been 

 made. Both are still warm friends of the Institution. As late 

 as the year 1839, Mr. Speakman, at a very considerable sacrifice 

 of his private interests, visited Mr. Maclure, in Mexico, where he 

 spent several months, in behalf of the Academy. 



Mr. John Shinn, Jr., one of the first Vice-Presidents, was a 

 native of New Jersey. He was employed as a manufacturing 

 chemist. 



Mr. N. S. Parmantier, also one of the first Vice-Presidents, 

 was a native of France. He was a distiller and manufacturer of 

 cordials. He removed to Florida. 



Our first President, Dr. Gerard Troost, was born at Bois-Le- 

 Duc, in Holland, March 15, 1776. He was educated in the 

 schools of his native country, and received the degree of Doctor 

 of Medicine from the University of Leyden. In 1801, the Col- 

 lege of Amsterdam conferred upon him the degree of Master in 

 Pharmacy, and he practised this art for a brief period, both at 

 Amsterdam and at the Hague. He served twice in the army, 

 first as a private soldier, and subsequently as an officer of the 

 first class in the medical department. During his military service 

 he was wounded twice; once in the thigh, and once in the head. 



In 1807, the King of Holland, Louis Napoleon, sent him to 

 Paris, to improve himself in his favorite science. There he be- 

 came the pupil and companion of the celebrated Abbe* Rene' Just 

 Haiiy, the author of a new system of crystallography. While in 

 Paris, he translated into the Dutch language, one of the earlier 

 works of Humboldt, "The Aspects of Nature." 



He travelled in France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, and 

 collected a valuable cabinet of minerals, which he sold to his pa- 

 tron, the king of Holland. 



In the year 1809, he was appointed by the king of Holland 

 to visit the island of Java, in the capacity of a naturalist. To 

 avoid the British cruisers, he took passage in an American vessel 



