THE SCIENTIFIC CORPS 



J. H. Morison, Dr. W. S. W. Ruschenberger, and Profes- 

 sor Asa Gray. From the memoir last named a citation 

 is here made. 



' When the United States Surveying and Exploring 

 Expedition to the South Seas, which sailed under the 

 command of then Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, in the 

 summer of 1838, was first organized under Commodore 

 T. Ap-Catesby Jones, about two years before, Dr. Pick- 

 ering's reputation was such that he was at once selected 

 as the principal zoologist. Subsequently, as the plan 

 expanded, others were added. Yet the scientific fame 

 of that expedition most largely rests upon the collections 

 and the work of Dr. Pickering and his surviving associate, 

 Professor Dana; the latter taking, in addition to the 

 geology, the corals and the Crustacea, other special de- 

 partments of zoology being otherwise provided for by the 

 accession of Mr. Couthouy and Mr. Peale. Dr. Picker- 

 ing, although retaining the ichthyology, particularly 

 turned his attention, during the nearly four years' voy- 

 age of circumnavigation, to anthropology, and to the 

 study of the geographical distribution of animals and 

 plants ; to the latter especially, as affected by or as evi- 

 dence of the operations, movements, and diffusion of 

 the races of man. To these, the subjects of his pre- 

 dilection, and to investigations bearing upon them, all 

 his remaining life was assiduously devoted. The South 

 Pacific Exploring Expedition had visited various parts 

 of the world, but it necessarily left out regions of the 

 highest interest to the anthropological investigator, those 

 occupied in early times by the race to which we belong, 

 and by the peoples with which the Aryan race has been 

 most in contact. Desirous to extend his personal ob- 

 servations as far as possible, Dr. Pickering, a year after 

 the return of the expedition, and at his own charges, 

 crossed the Atlantic, visited Egypt, Arabia, the eastern 

 part of Africa, and western and northern India. Then, in 

 1848, he published his volume on The Races of Man and 

 their Geographical Distribution, being the ninth volume of 

 the Reports of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition. Some 

 time afterwards he prepared, for the fifteenth volume of 

 this series, an extensive work on The Geographical Distri- 



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