ca- 



Miscellaneous Intelligence. 147 



By this time, verging on manhood, the bent of his talents was % 

 decided that the parental wishes which hitherto seemed to find gratifi 

 tion in the prospect of the old house being perpetuated, opposed no 

 farther obstacle to the manifest destiny of the young man ; and he was 

 sent to Paris, then as now the focus of the arts and sciences, to com- 

 plete his education. There, with the appliances which the wealth of 

 his father, chiefly acquired in the exercise of a meritorious profession 

 and honorable skill, freely allowed, he had full opportunity for increas- 

 ing his stores of learning ; and however he may have mixed in the gay 

 societies of the capital, those who knew him best in after life found 

 cause to admire the extent of his graver acquisitions treasured up 

 since then. 



There, he made acquaintances whose correspondence was maintained 

 for more than thirty years, and until death rendered it longer impossi- 

 ble; and the names of Brongniart, Brochant, and Gay-Lussac among 

 them, attest the favorable impressions which the young man of five and 

 twenty made upon those whose scientific fame already shook the world. 



His stay in the capital of France and his travels through that king- 

 dom, through Switzerland and Italy, covered a period of nearly four 

 years, and having left America in 1818, he returned in 1822. At lhat 

 time, geology was far from being the systematic science that it is now; 

 but it may be safely said that he brought back with him a knowledge of 

 its as yet somewhat vague groupings, and an acute and accurate appre- 

 ciation of mineral characteristics, founded not only upon the study of 

 cabinet specimens, but upon extensive and careful observations in situ, 

 second to that of none of his American cotemporaries. 



Not long after his return, in 1824, he assumed new relations by his 

 marriage with a lady, the least of whose commendations was, that she 

 *M a beauty and an heiress. But the fortunes of hra family, which 

 had already stood the shock of some unfortunate commercial specula- 

 tions, were still more seriously impaired by the reverses of 1825-6 ; 

 and the epoch of his domestic happiness may also he taken to mark a 

 new period, when it became necessary that bis talents and learning 

 should be applied in some degree for his own benefit. 



His first engagement was as Professor of Natural Philosophy in the 

 Mechanics' Institute of Baltimore; his next as Professor of Chemistry 

 and Geology in the Facility of Arts and Sciences in the University of 

 Maryland. To both these chairs he manifestly brought extraordinary 

 resources; and, adding to the reputation of a savant lhat of an agreea- 

 ble and successful lecturer, he was at length, upon the decease of the 

 lamented Professor De Butts, in 1830, elected with great unanimity to 

 fi| l the chair of Chemistry in the Medical Department of the University. 

 Here he had a wider scope for his talents; and he is still gratefully 

 remembered by many who enjoyed the benefit of his public teach- 

 J ngs, and still more for that abundant accessibility and cheerful interest 

 ^hich he allowed and manifested in the apparatus room to his students. 

 During several years of this period, he also edited awhile alone and 

 avvht 'e in conjunction with C. H. Calvert, Esq., well known by h.s taste 

 and attainments in German literature especially, a weekly journal, the 

 Baltimore Times, whose subsequent cessation appears to have been 

 caused by the calling away of the editors to other engagements. 





