2o8 The Ottawa Naturalist. February 



Death of a Distinguished American Amateur 

 Geologist and Paleontologist. — S. A. Miller. 



On December i8th, 1897, Hon. Dr. Samuel A.Miller, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 

 died of cancer of the liver, after a three weeks' illness, at the age of 60 years. 

 Although a prominent member of the Cincinnati bar, with a large and lucrative 

 practice, as well as a politician and public speaker in the front rank of his party, ye^ 

 he found time to so devote himself to scientific research that his published works, on 

 palaeontology are more voluminous and contain more original descriptions and figures 

 of new forms than are to be found in those of many an eminent professional palDeon- 

 tologist. We learn from the Cincinnati Enqiiirei- Xhs^i " every morning he arose 

 with the dawn and worked on his geological books until 9 or 10 o'clock ; he attended 

 to his law practice during the rest of the day, and early evening found him at work 

 at his books again . " 



Dr. Miller's first great work was "American Paleozoic Fossils," published in 

 1861, undertaken with a vitw to smooth the way of the student of paleontology by 

 furnishing a complete index of original descriptions of North American palaeozoic 

 fossils. This unique work was in use by all palaeozoic palaeontologists, by whom it 

 was considered indispensible, until replaced by his later and more comprehensive 

 work "North American Geology and Palajontology," published in 1889. The 

 latter work, together with its appendixes, published in 1892 and 1897 respectively, 

 contain descriptions of all the published American palaeozoic genera and an index 

 of all the species, filling 793 octavo pages and illustrated by 1,457 generic illustra- 

 tions consisting of about 3,000 separate figures. Such a work in itself should be 

 considered a proud record for the life work of one amateur — but we find the work of 

 this man appearing in the geological reports of five States of the American Union, 

 viz., Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin, for which he figured and 

 described about 800 species of fossils, the greater part crinoids, besides figuring and 

 describing about 300 species of fiissils, a part in the Cincinnati Journal of Science 

 (1874-75) and the remainder in its successor, the Journal of the Cincinnati Society of 

 Natural History. In 1881 he published a review of the bibliography, etc., of North 

 American Mesozoic and Calnozoic Palaeontology, covering 338 pages. 



He was one of the leading founder., of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History; 

 a graduate in Arts, Law and Philosophy of Ohio University and the deserving reci- 

 pient of academic and othes honors from many sources. Mis great integrity, benevo 

 lence, love of justice in public and private affairs and his eminence as a public 

 speaker and jurist, are alluded to at gieat length by the Cincinnati daily papers. 



W; R. B, 



