GERARD TROOST. 



1776-1850. 



GERARD TROOST, one of the founders and first President 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, was born 

 at Bois-le-Duc, Holland, March 5, 1776, and died in Nashville, 

 Tenn., August 14, 1850. His parents were Anna Cornelia 

 (Van Heeck) and Everhard Joseph Troost. He attended the 

 Universities of Leyden and Amsterdam, devoting special atten- 

 tion to chemistry, geology, and natural history ; received the 

 degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Leyden, 

 and that of Master in Pharmacy, in 1801, from the University 

 of Amsterdam. He practised his art for a short time at 

 Amsterdam and the Hague ; served in the army as a private 

 soldier, and at another time as an officer of the first class in 

 the medical department ; and during these periods of service 

 was wounded in the thigh and in the head. In 1807 he went 

 to Paris, under the patronage of Louis Napoleon, King of 

 Holland, to pursue his studies, and then he became the pupil 

 and associate of the Abbe Rene" Just Haiiy, author of the fa- 

 mous system of crystallography. For this distinguished and 

 most excellent man he ever cherished a filial, grateful, and 

 affectionate respect. One of the last letters written by the 

 illustrious Haiiy was to Troost with a presentation copy of his 

 great work. While in Paris he translated into the Dutch lan- 

 guage one of the earlier works of Alexander von Humboldt, 

 The Aspects of Nature. This service brought him the cordial 

 thanks of the author, with whom he maintained a friendly -cor- 

 respondence to the last. 



Dr. Troost travelled in France, Italy, Germany, and Switzer- 

 land, and collected a valuable cabinet of minerals, which was 

 purchased by the King of Holland. In 1809 this king ap- 

 pointed Troost to accompany, in a scientific capacity, a naval 

 expedition to Java. He was captured by an English privateer 



119 



