194 
acting assistant surgeon. His energy and 
trained skill were quickly felt in the medical 
department of the army, and he was rapidly 
promoted ; commissioned as surgeon within 
six months after enlistment,he was soon after 
made surgeon-in-chief of his division, and 
was appointed medical director of his corps 
fifteen months after entering the service. 
During this period he participated in sey- 
eral notable engagements. In consequence 
of the severe strain attending the battle of 
Gettysburg, he suffered a sunstroke, which 
compelled his retirement from field duty, 
and from which, in his own judgment, he 
never completely recovered. He resumed 
service, however, as superintendent of ariny 
hospitals at Quincy and Springfield, Illinois; 
and, on the close of the war in 1865, he was 
brevetted lieutenant-colonel and honorably 
discharged. Returning to Philadelphia, he 
became, in 1867, editor of the Medical and 
Surgical Reporter, a position retained (always 
in connection with other work) for twenty 
years ; he was also editor of the Compendium 
of Medical Science, and, in 1885, edited and 
made important contributions to one of the 
volumes of the ‘Iconographic Encyclo- 
pedia.’ In 1882 he began editing and pub- 
lishing the ‘ Library of American Aboriginal 
Literature,’ one of the notable scientific en- 
terprises of the country. In 1884 he was 
made professor of ethnology and archeology 
in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Phil- 
adelphia, and in 1886 professor of American 
linguistics and archzeology in the University 
of Pennsylvania. For some years he was 
President of the Numismatic and Antiqua- 
rian Sociéty of Philadelphia ; and in 1886 he 
was Vice-President and in 1894 President of 
the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, filling these positions with 
great ability and dignity. 
Dr. Brinton’s literary contributions to 
American anthropology in its various as- 
pects have been many andimportant. His 
bent toward the science began in early 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8S. Von. X. No. 242. 
manhood ; spending the winter of 1856-7 
in Florida, he yielded to the excellent op- 
portunity for archzeologic and ethnologic 
work. Some of the results of his operations 
were incorporated in ‘ The Floridian Penin- 
sula, its Literary History, Indian Tribes, 
and Antiquities,’ 1859. With the return 
to civil life and opportunity for original 
study in 1865 the early impressions were 
revived and led to researches concerning 
the symbolism represented in the prehistoric 
relics and surviving among the aboriginal 
tribes, and the fruits of these researches 
saw the light in ‘The Myths of the New 
World, a Treatise on the Symbolism and 
Mythology of the Red Race of America,’ 
published in 1868, and in revised edition in 
1876. Various minor publications followed, 
marking the progress of studies constantly 
increasing in breadth and depth, notably 
the ‘ Essays of an Americanist,’ 1870, and 
‘American Hero Myths, a Study of the 
Native Religions of the Western Conti- 
nent,’ 1882; and in 1876 the impulse 
awakened by the Floridian symbolism found 
further expression in ‘The Religious Senti- 
ment, a Contribution to the Science and 
Philosophy of Religions.’ Meantime the 
confinement and restriction of field work 
imposed by editorial duty, combined with 
growing mental activity, led him to seek 
original sources of information in the lan- 
guages and recorded traditions of the 
native tribes. Various contributions to 
aboriginal philology resulted, and the im- 
pulse in this direction found full expression 
in the six volumes of ‘ Brinton’s Library 
of Aboriginal American Literature,’ 1882— 
1885. As his field extended his grasp 
strengthened, and comparisons of the Amer- 
indian and other peoples were made with 
great acumen and comprehensiveness, as 
shown by his succeeding works: ‘ Races 
and Peoples,’ 1890, and ‘The American 
Race,’ 1892; these being among America’s 
most important contributions to anthro- 
