JOHN TORREY. 333 



ever, his strength was unequal to the task. For several years 

 his health had been so delicate as to cause anxiety to his family 

 and friends, and each succeeding winter he seemed to be more 

 susceptible to atmospheric changes. In the winter of i872-.*73 

 he had a severe attack of pneumonia, which left him so weak 

 that he was unable to rally, and his death, which was in a 

 measure sudden, soon followed. He left one son and three 

 daughters, also a grandson, Gray Torrey. 



Speaking of his list of works his pupil and associate, Prof. 

 Asa Gray, says : * " There would have been more to add, per- 

 haps of equal importance, if Dr. Torrey had been as ready to 

 complete and publish as he was to investigate, annotate, and 

 sketch. Through undue diffidence and a constant desire for a 

 greater perfection than was at the time attainable, many inter- 

 esting observations have from tjme to time been anticipated 

 by other botanists." Throughout all his botanical labours the 

 flora of North America was constantly kept in view, and each 

 special monograph that he wrought out was regarded as a piece 

 of material for that grand edifice a complete system of Amer- 

 ican botany which he hoped would some day be completed. 



" In the estimate of Dr. Torrey's botanical work," Prof. 

 Gray continues, " it must not be forgotten that it was nearly 

 all done in the intervals of a busy professional life." In 1827 

 he gave up his professorship of chemistry at West Point, already 

 alluded to, and took a similar chair in the College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons, where he had received his own medical degree. 

 For twenty-seven years he held this position, and for part of 

 this time he was also Professor of Chemistry at Princeton, where 

 he was associated with Prof. Henry. Then, in 1854, a United 

 States Assay Office was established at New York, in which 

 Prof. Torrey became the assayer, and so remained until his 

 death. " The Secretary of the Treasury," says Prof. Gray, " se- 

 lected Dr. Torrey to be its superintendent, which would have 

 given to the establishment the advantage of a scientific head. 

 But Dr. Torrey resolutely declined the less laborious and bet- 

 ter paid post, and took in preference one the emoluments of 

 which were much below his worth and the valuable extraneous 

 services he rendered to the Government, simply because he was 



* In a memoir read before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 

 1873. 



