18 



and found a grave ! Though he died at thirty, the halls of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and his brief publications, bear testimony 

 to the value to science of the life of ROBERT KENNICOTT. 



His successor, WILLIAM STIMPSON, whose portrait is before you, 

 came to us in his early manhood, already a ripe scholar ; and for 

 seven years, from 1865 to 1872, was our honored Secretary. With 

 educational advantages of the highest order, with rare facilities for 

 securing a practical as well as theoretical acquaintance with nature, 

 and with ability and perseverance to improve every opportunity, he 

 early won that world-wide reputation, which, on his coming among 

 us, at once gave our Academy an honorable position among kindred 

 organizations at home and abroad. The insatiable demon of Fire, 

 on that fatal October night, compelled no more precious sacrifice 

 than the broken heart of STIMPSON. His life-work, the beautiful 

 drawings and manuscripts of an extensive treatise on Mollusks, 

 which for a generation would have been of universal authority, lay 

 in ashes ; and with failing health there was not courage to begin 

 again. A cruise in the Gulf, and the constant ministrations of 

 friends, failed to restore ; and he returned to wife and children but 

 to die. The Academy and this city lost, in STIMPSON, not only the 

 accomplished scientist, but also one who inspired in others the same 

 zeal which animated his own life. Of the close intimacy of his 

 friendships, I may not trust myself to speak. 



To Col. JOHN W. FOSTER, LL.D., President of the Academy 

 during the three years from 1870 to 1872, I will only allude. The 

 worthy memorials of his life, presented in this room a few weeks 

 since, are fresh in your remembrance, and I could add nothing to 

 their weight. I would call your attention to the noble likeness we 

 have of him in marble, a recent gift to the Academy. 



But, my friends, this hour of reminiscence would be incomplete 

 did I not go further back than the present incorporation of this 

 Academy, to the organization which preceded it, and to which we 

 owe more than appears upon the pages of our records. Many pres- 

 ent this evening will remember the genial face of one who, twenty 

 years ago, was elected its first President JAMES VAN ZANDT BLA- 

 NEY. Occupying the chair of Professor of Chemistry in the Rush 

 Medical College, and conducting business also as an analytical 

 chemist, in which department he was authority, he was yet ever 



