The Benefactors 237 



of the Institution to $500, and placed to the credit of the 

 Smithsonian fund. 



Doctor Habel was of Austrian birth and was grad- 

 uated at the University of Vienna in 1846. He came to 

 America and undertook an extended tour throucrh Central 

 and South America. Before doing this he spent several 

 months at the Institution familiarizing himself with the work 

 of the Geological Department. In 1877 he prepared a me- 

 moir for the Institution entitled "The Sculptures of Santa 

 Lucia Cosumalwhuapa, in Guatemala, with an account of 

 Travels in Central America and on the Western Coast of 

 South America," which was published in the "Smithsonian 

 Contributions to Knowledge." 



In 1889 a bequest of $5000 was received from Doctor 

 Kidder, to be used for the promotion of physical research. 



Doctor Jerome Henry Kidder was born in Baltimore 

 County, Maryland, on October 26, 1842, and was graduated in 

 1862 at Harvard University, where he is still remembered as 

 foremost in the gymnasium as well as on his class-rolls. He 

 immediately tendered his services for the Civil War, and was 

 placed in charge of the sea-island plantations near Beaufort, 

 South Carolina, where he contracted yellow fever, and was 

 sent home early in 1863 ; but upon recovery he enlisted in the 

 Tenth Maryland Infantry, in which he served as private and 

 non-commissioned officer until the following year, when he 

 was selected to be medical cadet, and in that capacity was 

 employed in the military hospitals near the capital. During 

 this time he was prosecuting the study of medicine, and in 

 1866 received from the University of Maryland the degree of 

 M. D. In the same year he was commissioned an assistant 

 surgeon in the United States Navy, becoming full surgeon in 

 the month of May, 1876. 

 16* 



