ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 59 



knowledge, and also because he was attached to the study of 

 natural science for its own sake. 



Besides his numerous donations to the Library and Museum, he 

 gave, at different times in the course of his life, to the funds of 

 the Society, and towards building the present hall, an aggregate 

 exceeding $25,000; and thus he made the Institution a cenotaph 

 to himself, which will carry his name further into the future than 

 any monumental marble that twice the sum would purchase. To 

 his munificence and labors during the early period of the Society's 

 history, the Academy is greatly indebted for its present existence 

 and prosperous condition. In the year 1841, the Society pub- 

 lished an interesting Memoir of Mr. Maclure, written by our late 

 President, the lamented Samuel George Morton, to which the 

 reader is respectfully referred, for a full account of this remark- 

 able man. 



Mr. Maclure was succeeded in the presidency of the Academy 

 (December, 1840,) by William Hembel, Esq., who became a 

 member of the Society in the year 1825. 



Mr. Hembel was born in Philadelphia, on the 24th of Sep- 

 tember, 1764, and was educated in this city. At the age of 

 sixteen years, an attack of scarlet fever left him with impaired 

 hearing ; and, in the hope that he might discover a remedy for 

 his infirmity, he commenced the study of medicine about the 

 year 1781. But, believing that his defective hearing would in a 

 great measure disqualify him for the practice of the profession, 

 he abandoned the idea of graduating, though often urged to re- 

 ceive a degree from the University of Pennsylvania by his 

 friends, several of whom were professors in that institution. He 

 was ardently attached to the study of medicine, and, to gratify 

 his taste, he served with a portion of the army of the Revolution 

 in Virginia, as a volunteer assistant in the medical department. 

 Though he had not graduated, he practised medicine gratuitously 

 for many years in this city; and not only gave advice and atten- 

 tion to the poor, but furnished them medicines at his own expense. 

 I am assured, by one who knew him well, that Mr. Hembel spent 

 $500 in a year for remedies prescribed by himself for the indigent 

 sick who applied to him for aid. When advanced in age, especi- 

 ally, a very considerable number of female patients resorted to 

 him for advice, confident that his age, and experience, and learn- 

 ing, enabled him to afford them relief with more certainty than 

 a younger practitioner. With his patients, he bore the title of 



