14 The Academy of Natural Sciences 



Bridges, John Phillips, William Gambel, Timothy Abbott Conrad, 

 and Samuel Stehman Haldeman. 



At the close of 1849, Mr. Hembel declined a renomination for 

 the Presidency. He was succeeded by Dr. Morton who had, with 

 few exceptions, presided at the meetings during the entire incum- 

 bency of his predecessor. Dr. Morton's position as Vice-President 

 was filled by the election of Dr. E. Egglesfield Griffith, the accom- 

 plished author of the Medical Botany. He died in 1850. 



The election of Dr. Morton to the Presidency was a fitting 

 recognition, not only of more than a quarter of a century's devoted 

 service, but also of his distinguished rank as one of the world's most 

 accomplished ethnologists. He was to enjoy the well-merited honor, 

 which was the ultimate expression of the Academy's appreciation of 

 his work, for less than eighteen months. He presided at a meeting 

 for the last time on .May 6, 1851, and died on the 15th of that 

 month in his fiftieth year, after an illness of four days. His first 

 work was in geology but his magnum opus, the Crania Americana, 

 was published in 1839 and has been properly described as a lasting 

 monument to his learning, energy and ability. His last paper was 

 on the size of the brain in various races of man and in support of his 

 belief in the plurality of origin of mankind, a doctrine to which 

 he gave unfaltering support. 8 



Dr. Morton was succeeded in the Presidency by George Ord. 

 He had served as Vice-President from 1816 to 1834 and as Curator 

 during 1816 and 1817. He belonged to the old-fashioned type of 

 naturalist which has now almost entirely disappeared. His favorite 

 subjects of study were birds and mammals although he did not 

 confine his attention entirely to them. He acted as the literary 

 executor of his friend Alexander Wilson. His contribution to 

 Guthrie's Geography is regarded as the first systematic work on the 

 zoology of North America by an American. His biographies of 

 Wilson and Say are specimens of elegant English and prove him to 

 have had what his friend Charles Waterton called "a polished mind." 

 Although he had declared as far back as 1841 that he was compelled 

 by the encroaching infirmities of age to abandon his nature studies 

 and devote himself to more sedentary occupations, he served the 

 society faithfully as presiding- officer until December, 1858, when, 



8 A Memoir of Samuel George Morton, by Charles D. Meigs, M.D. 

 Read November 6, 1851, and published by direction of the Academy, Phila- 

 delphia, 1851. 



