124 



SCIENCE. 



[Yoi.. I., No. -). 



lifelong friendships and associations with 

 George N. Lawrence, John Cassin, John G. 

 Morris, Thomas M. Brewer, and S. S. Halde- 

 man. 



In 1846 he was chosen professor of natural 

 history in Dickinson college, and the next j'ear 

 accepted the additional work of chemistry. He 

 remained in this position until 1850, declining 

 a call, which he received in 1848, to a corre- 

 sponding chair in the Universitj' of Vermont. 

 His college-work included instruction of the 

 seniors in phj-siology, of the sophomores in 

 geometrj-, and of the freshmen in zoology ; 

 but the period was one, also, of great activitj' 

 in collection and research, and in the begin- 

 ning of his extensive publications. He found 

 time to ca:Tjr on the work begun in previous 

 years, and to make, in summer, extended col- 

 lecting expeditions to the Adirondacks in 1847 ; 

 to Ohio in 1848, to collect, in company with 

 Dr. Kirtland, from the original localities of the 

 types of the fishes described bj- him in his 

 work on the fishes of Ohio ; to the mountains 

 of Virginia in 1849 ; and to Lakes Champlain 

 and Ontario in 1850. His fine phj'sique and 

 consequent capacity for work is doubtless due 

 in part to his out-door life during these j'ears. 

 In 1843 he made pedestrian collecting-tours, 

 the length of which was over 2,200 miles. 



The fii'st j)rinted paper which bears his 

 name is a description of two new species of 

 flj'-catchers, which was published in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Philadelphia academjr of nat- 

 ural sciences in 1843. As early as, 1846 

 he was engaged in the preparation of a 

 synonymy of North- American birds ; and the 

 next year he met Agassiz, just ari'ived from 

 Switzerland with Desor and Girard. Then, 

 or shortly after, was projected the work of 

 Agassiz and Baird on The fresh-water fishes 

 of the United States, which was, however, 

 never published ; although a number of illus- 

 trations, and some pages of text, were elabo- 

 rated. Just before leaving Dickinson college, 

 he undertook his first considerable literary 

 work, — that of translating and editing the 

 text for the Iconographic encyclopaedia, which 

 was an Eno-ljsli version of Heck's Bilder-atlas, 



published in connection with Brockhaus's 

 Conversations-lexikon. 



The work which he had already done had 

 called attention to his scientific qualifications ; 

 and in 1850, upon the urgent recommendation 

 of the late George P. Marsh, he was invited 

 to Washington as assistant secretary of the 

 Smithsonian institution, where he has ever 

 since remained, succeeding to the secretarj'ship 

 in May, 1878, upon the death of Professor 

 Henry. The institution was then just issuing 

 the first volume of its Contributions, and was 

 in the first j'ears of its organization. The 

 main dutj^ of the assistant secretary was the 

 development of the natural-history collections. 

 The onlj' specimens in possession of the insti- 

 tution at the time of Professor Baird's arrival 

 were a few boxes of minerals and plants. 

 Professor Baird deposited his own already 

 extensive collections, and these formed the 

 nucleus of the Smithsonian museum. The 

 collections of the Wilkes exploring expedition, 

 which constitute the legal foundation of the 

 United States national museum, were at that 

 time under the charge of the National insti- 

 tute ; and although, bj' the act of incorpora- 

 tion, the Smithsonian institution was the legal 

 custodian of the ' National cabinet of curiosi- 

 ties,' it was not until 1857 that the regents 

 finally accepted the trust, and the national 

 museum was definitely placed under the con- 

 trol of the Smithsonian institution, and trans- 

 ferred to its building. Until this time. Con- 

 gress had granted ho funds for the support of 

 the Smithsonian cabinets, and the collections 

 had been acquired and cared for at the expense 

 of the endowment fund. Thej' had, however, 

 become so large and important in 1857, that 

 the so-called- national collections at that time 

 acquired were small in comparison. 



The national museum, then, had a double 

 origin. Its actual, though not its legal, nucleus . 

 was the collection gathered in the Smithsonian 

 building prior to 1857. Its methods of admin- 

 istration, which were, in fact, the very same 

 that had been developed by Professor Baird 

 as early as 1845, when forming a cabinet in 

 Carlisle, are those which are Still in use, and 



