84 SOME AMERICAN MEDICAL BOTANISTS 



tern of Anatomy, an excellent work, sent some 

 papers to the Transactions of the American 

 Philosophical Society and made a contribution to 

 the anatomy of the ethmoid bone, as described by 

 Tilghman. Bardeen says Wistar was undoubt- 

 edly the first to describe the posterior portion of 

 the ethmoid bone in its most perfect state; viz., 

 with the triangular bones attached to it. Anat- 

 omy was his forte, but he was learned also in the 

 natural sciences and collected a number of sub- 

 jects for the study of comparative anatomy. He 

 kept up a delightful correspondence with Correa 

 da Serra, the botanist, and such men as Hum- 

 boldt, Soemmering, Camper, Michaux, Mar- 

 shall and other scientists. 



When Humphry Marshall, the great botanist, 

 was seventy-one, young Wistar performed on him 

 the operation of couching for cataract, with 

 partial success, for the old man was at least en- 

 abled to distinguish his favorite plants as he 

 walked in his garden. Were the instruments 

 those in the case Wistar afterwards gave to his 

 pupil, Short, 1 another botanist, when the latter 

 left him for his home in the South? I had a 

 pleasant note from Dr. Thomas Wistar of Phila- 

 delphia in answer to one of thanks for a portrait 

 of his great uncle: 



1 See Biography of Short. 



