Memoir of Dr. Douglass Houghion. 219 
From 1832 to 1837, Dr. Houghton practiced as a physici 
and surgeon at Detroit. This period included the visitation of 
the cholera, which raged at that place with more than its wonted 
severity. hat event will never be forgotten by the survivors; 
nor will they forget the labors and devotion of Dr. Houghton. 
He was to the sick a ministering angel, prompt at a moment’s 
notice, instant and active in his remedies, cheerful and obliging, 
as weil to those from whom he expected no pay, as to the 
opulent. 
In Feb., 1837, Dr. Houghton projected the geological survey 
of Michigan, and received the appointment of geologist to that 
state, which, but recently admitted into the Union, and as ye 
sparsely populated, was one of the foremost in public enterprise. 
The plan upon which this survey was organized was such as 
reflected great credit upon the enlarged scientific views and enter- 
prise of Dr. Houghton, and may be considered as a model. It 
comprehended four departments, viz., geology and mineralogy 
proper, zoology, botany, and topography ; each having its official 
head and assistance, and all united under the general direction 
and surveillance of the state geologist. Thus while all were ex- 
pected to work in concert, by a division of labor, the results 
would necessarily be more extended and accurate. Oneof the 
duties connected with the topographical department may be con- 
sidered as novel to a geological survey, and could at least be but 
ill accomplished in any of the older states. Like all the states 
northwest of the Ohio, the system of rectilinear surveys of the 
United States had been applied to Michigan; by which the state 
1s divided into towns and ranges of six miles square ; which, again 
are subdivided into. thirty-six square miles or sections. The 
topographer was directed to furnish the geologist and his two as- 
Sistanis in the geology proper, with ‘skeleton plats’ of these town- 
ships, copied from the returns of the deputy U. S. surveyors, on 
a scale of two inches to the mile; these serving the latter as a 
basis for laying down, with more than ordinary accuracy an 
cility, as well the geological as the topographical and civil feat- 
ures of the country. These being returned to the topographer, 
were reduced by him to the scale adopted for a series of state 
and county maps, the publication of which was projected as a 
part of the results of the survey. The condition of the state 
finances has permitted the issuing of a few only of the maps 
thus prepared, but they are sufficient to shew, that for compre- 
hensiveness, minuteness and fidelity of detail, these maps of the 
Several counties of Michigan far exceed any thing of the kind 
ever atte i is country. 
oo Senta s “ aa proved fatal to the departments of 
200legy and botany, before the close of the second year of their 
complete organization ; so that Michigan, unfortunately, lost the 
Secorxp Series, Vol. V, No. 14.—March, 1848. 29 
