JACOB BIGELOW. 1 



Dr. Jacob Bigelow died at his residence in Boston, on 

 the 10th of January last, near the close of the ninety-second 

 year of his age. 



While we would pay the tribute due to his memory as by 

 far the most venerable of American botanists, the last survivor 

 of a school in this country which culminated half a century 

 asro, it should also be remembered that he was even at that 

 time distinguished in their scientific avocations, and that from 

 middle to old age he was among the most eminent of physi- 

 cians. It is not often that we can contemplate a life so long, 

 so richly various, and so well-rounded as his. He was born 

 in Sudbury, Massachusetts, on February 27, 1787 ; and his 

 father was the minister of the town. That almost goes without 

 saying, most of our distinguished professional men of his and 

 the preceding generations in New England having been the 

 sons of country ministers. He was graduated at Harvard 

 College in the year 1806, Alexander H. Everett and the late 

 Dr. J. G. Cogswell being among the most notable of his class- 

 mates, all of whom he long survived. He directly took up 

 the study of medicine, was licensed as a practitioner in 1809, 

 and after attending one course of lectures in Philadelphia, 

 took his degree of M. D. at Harvard in 1810, and established 

 himself in Boston. There he was a practising physician for 

 about sixty years, and since the death of his senior, Dr. James 

 Jackson, probably the most eminent one. What turned his 

 attention to botany we know not. He early showed an abid- 

 ing taste for poetry. His commencement part was a poem, 

 and he delivered a 3>. B. K. poem not long after. At about 

 the same time, however, he gave a course of popular botani- 

 cal lectures in Boston, in connection with Professor Peck, 

 who must have been installed as natural-history professor at 



1 American Journal of Science and Arts, 3 ser., xvii. 263. (1879.) 



