54 



BAIRD. 



estantism in Hungary, where all the churches, 

 Government buildings, schools, banks, and a 

 great number of dwellings and workshops were 

 burned to the ground. 



About the same time floods did great dam- 

 age in various parts of the country, and culmi- 

 nated in a destructive inundation that swept 

 over the alluvial district around Szegedin. 

 After the destruction of that town in 1879 it 

 was rebuilt on high ground, and a system of 

 embankments was constructed at a cost of 44,- 

 000,000 florins for the purpose of securing the 

 neighboring farming lands from the overflow 

 of the Theiss. A sluice at Kistisza was badly 

 constructed, and left in charge of a heedless or 

 incapable inspector, with the consequence that 

 on May 31 the river, which was swollen by 

 rains but yet not within several feet of the 



high-water mark, carried away the dam and 

 flooded 30,000 hectares of growing wheat, des- 

 troying many farmsteads, and reducing nearly 

 2,000 families to destitution. 



Croatia, The vigorous measures of Count 

 Khiin-Hedervary, the Ban of Croatia, have 

 broken up the National or Home-Rule party as 

 an open political organization. The elections 

 to the Croatian Diet, which took place a week 

 before the Hungarian elections, resulted in the 

 return of 86 Government candidates to only 19 

 of the Opposition. The Roman Catholic clergy 

 head the Separatist movement in the Banat, 

 but they are kept in check by the repressive 

 means in the hands of the civil authorities. In 

 August a clergyman was sentenced by the 

 court at Agram to a year's imprisonment with 

 hard labor for seditious language. 



B 



BAIRD, SPENCER FULLERTON, an American 

 naturalist, born in Reading, Pa., Feb. 3, 1823; 

 died in Wood's Holl, Mass., Aug. 19, 1887. He 

 was graduated at Dickinson College in 1840, 

 and in 1842 studied medicine at the College 

 of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city, 

 but was not graduated. Meanwhile, he de- 

 voted much time to long pedestrian excursions 

 through Pennsylvania for the purpose of col- 



SPENCER FCJLLERTON BAIRD. 



lecting specimens in natural history, and his 

 private cabinet ultimately became the nucleus 

 of the museum connected with the Smithson- 

 ian Institution. In 1845 he was appointed, 

 Professor of Natural History at Dickinson, 

 also teaching chemistry, where he remained 

 until 1850, when he was elected assistant sec- 

 retary of the Smithsonian Institution. This 

 office he held until May, 1878, when, on the 

 death of Joseph Henry, he succeeded to the 



full secretaryship. The department of explo- 

 ration was placed under his authority from its 

 beginning, and his annual reports constitute 

 the only systematic record of the National 

 explorations ever prepared. During the dec- 

 ade of 1850-'60 he devoted much time to 

 enlisting the sympathies of the leaders of Gov- 

 ernment expeditions in the objects of the In- 

 stitution, supplying them with all the appli- 

 ances for collecting, as well as with instruc- 

 tions for their use. In many instances he 

 organized the natural-history parties, named 

 the collectors, employed and supervised the 

 artists in preparing the plates, and i'requently 

 edited the zoological portions of their reports. 

 The specimens brought back to Washington 

 were intrusted to his care. These, with his 

 own collection and those obtained on the 

 Wilkes exploring expedition during 1842, 

 were the beginnings of the United States 

 National Museum, which, under his adminis- 

 tration, has developed until it is now unsur- 

 passed throughout the United States. The 

 system of international exchanges organized 

 under the direction of the Smithsonian, is like- 

 wise due to his genius. In 1871 Prof. Baird 

 was appointed Commissioner of Fish and Fish- 

 eries, an office which he held without salary 

 until his death. This great work, organized 

 by him, has grown until it includes: 1. The 

 systematic investigation of the waters of the 

 United States, and the biological and physical 

 problems they present. 2. The investigation 

 of the methods of fisheries, past and present, 

 and the statistics of production and commerce 

 of fishery products. 3. The introduction and 

 multiplication of useful food-fishes throughout 

 the country, especially in waters under the 

 jurisdiction of the General Government, or 

 those common to several States, none of which 

 might feel willing to make expenditures for 

 the benefit of others. In 1877, at the request 

 of the United States Government, he was 



