THE LATE DR. ELLIOTT COUES. 



C. C. MARBLE. 



THE subject of this sketch, whose 

 death occurred on Christmas, 

 1899, at Baltimore, Md., was 

 one of the few men who have 

 become famous both in physical and 

 psychical science. He had long been 

 recognized as one of the leading natu- 

 ralists of America, and of late years 

 had acquired equal distinction as a 

 philosopher. 



Early in April last Ur. Coues sup- 

 plied us with the material for a sketch 

 of his life, to which we are indebted 

 chiefly for what this article contains. 

 He was born in Portsmouth, N. H., 

 Sept. 9, 1842, and was the son of Sam- 

 uel Elliott Coues and Charlotte Haven 

 Ladd Coues. His father was the 

 author of several scientific treatises 

 which anticipated some of the more 

 modern views of physics, astronomy, 

 and geology; so that young Coues 

 would seem to have inherited his bent 

 of mind towards study and research. 

 The name is of Norman French origin. 

 Dr. Coues' father was a friend of 

 Franklin Pierce, and early in the presi- 

 dency of the latter received from him 

 an appointment in the United States 



patent office, which he held nearly to 

 his death in July, 1867. The family 

 moved to Washington in 1833 and Dr. 

 Coues had always been a resident of 

 that city, excepting durmg the years he 

 served in the West and South as an 

 army officer or engaged in scientific 

 explorations. As a boy he was edu- 

 cated under Jesuit influences at the 

 seminary now known as Gonzaga Col- 

 lege. In 1857 he entered a Baptist 

 college, now Columbian University, 

 where he graduated in 1861 in the aca- 

 demic department, and in 1863 in the 

 medical department of that institution. 

 To the degrees of A. B., A. M., Ph. D., 

 and M. D., conferred by this college, 

 his riper scholarship added titles 

 enough to fill a page from learned 

 societies all over the world. 



His taste for natural history devel- 

 oped early in an enthusiastic devotion 

 to ornithology, and before he gradu- 

 ated he was sent by the Smithsonian 

 Institution to collect birds in Labra- 

 dor. Among his earliest writings are 

 the account of this trip, and a treatise 

 on the birds of the District of Colum- 

 bia, both published in 1861, and both 

 papers secured public recognition in 

 England as well as in this country, thus 

 making a beginning of his literary rep- 

 utation. 



While yet a medical student, Dr. 

 Coues was enlisted by Secretary Stan- 

 ton as medical cadet, U. S. A., and 

 served a year in one of the hospitals in 

 Washington. On graduating in medi- 

 cine in 1863, he was appointed by Sur- 

 geon-General Hammond for a year as 

 acting assistant surgeon U. S. A. and, 

 on coming of age passed a successful 

 examination for the medical corps of 

 the army. He received his commission 

 in 1864, and was immediately ordered 

 to duty in Arizona. His early years of 

 service in that territory, and afterward 

 in North and South Carolina, were 

 utilized in investigating the natural his- 

 tory of those regions, respecting which 

 he published various scientific papers. 



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