SKETCH OF ROBERT EMP1E ROGERS. 837 



duced to the smallest proportions, such as occurs to common ill- 

 nesses on the cessation of a more or less prolonged epidemic." 



This book Ferri has dedicated to his little three-year-old son 

 Dante, expressing the hope, as he says in his dedication, that 

 when he is old enough to understand it, Italy may show fewer 

 signs of moral pathology. It is certainly a remarkable work, 

 and reflects great credit on its writer by its minute and impartial 

 research. 



SKETCH OF ROBERT EMPIE ROGERS. 



FOR the facts in the life of Robert Empie Rogers, as well as 

 of the other members of this family famous in science, the 

 memorial paper of the late Dr. W. S. W. Ruschenberger is almost 

 our only authority. Robert Empie Rogers was the youngest of 

 the four brothers, sons of Patrick Kerr Rogers and Hannah 

 Blythe, whose researches, several and joint, have conferred so 

 much honor on the name. He was born in Baltimore, Md., March 

 29, 1813, and died in Philadelphia, September 6, 1884. His father 

 having been called to be Professor of Natural Philosophy and 

 Mathematics in William and Mary College, removed to Williams- 

 burg, Va., in 1819. There his mother died in the next year, when 

 Robert was seven years old, and the boys, Dr. Ruschenberger 

 says, " became almost foster children in the families of the pro- 

 fessors." Robert seems to have received special care at the hands 

 of the Rev. Adam P. Empie, D. D., and his wife, and in recog- 

 nition of that care assumed the name of Empie. He was taught 

 by his father, and after his death by his brothers James and 

 William. The profession intended for him was that of engineer, 

 and he began the exercise of it as an assistant in the survey of 

 the Boston and Providence Railroad. Nothing is known about 

 the engagement or the work done by young Rogers, except that 

 the results of it were not satisfactory. In a letter written to his 

 brother William in 1833, Robert expresses doubt of his prospect 

 of success if he should try engineering again, and confesses that 

 his favorite desire had always been to become an instructor. 

 Civil engineering was given up, and Robert, having determined 

 to study medicine, became a pupil of Dr. Robert Hare, Professor 

 of Chemistry, " and worked zealously in his laboratory till the 

 close of his undergraduate course." He was graduated from the 

 Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in March, 

 1836, offering as his thesis a paper on " Experiments on the Blood, 

 together with some New Facts in regard to Animal and Vegetable 

 Structures, illustrative of many of the most Important Features 

 of Organic Life." This thesis was published, with illustrations, in 



