Though he wrote some professional 

 articles, during his hospital experience, 

 Dr. Cones seems never to have been 

 much interested in the practice of 

 medicine and surgery. After about 

 ten years of ordinary military ser 

 vice as post surgeon in various places 

 he was, in 18/3, appointed naturalist of 

 the U. S. northern boundary commis 

 sion, which surveyed the line along the 

 forty-ninth parallel from the Lake of 



the Woods tO the Rocky mountain*, 



In 1874 he returned to Washington to 

 rrcrire : e ?r.e :::.-: :;. ::: ;: -:? :?e- 

 ::-. : ; - - H ; e :1 . : T :-..'. : .:: y .. : '. ; i : : -;. - 

 :: : .- r 'Jr..:- :. ^-:-.-t? j r ; : ~ . : i . A::.: 

 geographical survey of the territories 

 from 1876 to iS-So and contributed 

 several volumes to the reports of the 

 survey, notably his "Birds of the North 

 west," "Fur Bearing Animal*/* "Birds 

 cf the Colorado Valley/' and several 

 installments of a universal Bibliogra 

 phy of Ornithology. The latter work 

 attracted especial attention in Europe, 

 and Dr. Coues was signally compli- 

 men'ed by an invitation, signed by 

 Darwin, Huxley, Flower, Newton, 

 Sclater, and about forty other leading 

 British scientists to take up his resi- 

 itzre .:'. lir.irr. ini . ir-:::v h:rr.jri: 

 with the British Museum. 



Dr. Coues also projected and had 

 well under way a fc ' History of North 

 American Mammals," which was or 

 dered to be printed by act of Congress 

 when suddenly, at the very height of 

 his scientific researches and literary 

 labors, he was ordered by the war de 

 partment to routine medical duty on 

 the frontier. He obeyed the order and 

 proceeded to Arizona, but found it, of 

 course, impossible to resume a life he 

 had long since outgrown. His indig 

 nant protests being of no avail, he re 

 turned to Washington and promptly 

 ~-.---i :. - :t ; _;-'-'. ; r. : ~ :'r \-~: 

 in order to continue his scientific career 

 --r.-^~'^:i :; : r : - ,~ ^ 



As an author he is chiefly known 

 by his numerous works on ornithol 

 ogy, mammalogy, herpetology, biblio 

 graphy, lexicography, comparative 

 anatomy, natural philosophy, and 

 psychical research. He was one of the 

 authors of the Century Dictionary of 

 the English Language, in seven years 



contributing 40,000 words and defini 

 tions in general biology, comparative 

 anatomy, and all branches of zoology. 

 During the last few years he contrib 

 uted several volumes on western his 

 tory, in all twelve volumes, and by 

 study and research was enabled to cor 

 rect many errors. In 1877 he received 

 the highest technical honor to be at 

 tained by an American scientist in his 

 election to the Academy of National 

 Science and was for some years the 

 youngest academician. The same year 

 saw his election to the chair of anat 

 omy of the National Medical College 

 in Washington, where he had graduated 

 in '63. He then entered upon a pro 

 fessorship and lectured upon his favor 

 ite branch of the medical sciences for 

 ten years. He appears to have been 

 the first in Washington to teach human 

 anatomy upon the broadest basis of 

 morphology and upon the principle of 

 evolution. Nearly all his life Dr. Coues 

 has been a collaborator of the Smith 

 sonian Institution of Washington, his 

 name being most frequently mentioned 

 in that connection. Many of the num 

 berless specimens of natural history he 

 presented to the United States govern 

 ment were found new to science and 

 several have been named in compli 

 ment to their discoverer. 



At the height of his intellectual ac 

 tivity in physical science the spiritual 

 side of Dr. Coues' nature was awak 

 ened. He became interested in the 

 phenomena of spiritualism, as well as 

 in the speculations of theosophy. Be 

 longing distinctively to the material 

 istic school of thought and skeptical 

 to the last degree by his whole train 

 ing and turn of mind, be nevertheless 

 began to feel the inadequacy of formal 

 orthodox science to deal with the 

 deeper problems of human life and 

 destiny. 



Convinced of the soundness of the 

 main principles of evolution, as held 

 by his peers in science, he wondered 

 whether these might not be equally 

 applicable to psychical research, and 

 hence took up the theory of evolution 

 at the point where Darwin left it, pro 

 posing to use it in explanation of the 

 obscure phenomena of hypnotism, 

 clairvoyance, telepathy and the like. 





