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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 676 



man in our generation and in our country 

 has given a better example of that true 

 simplicity and sincerity which are the dis- 

 tinguishing characteristics of the highest 

 type of the scientific life. Those of us who 

 worked with him as students, as assistants, 

 as colleagues, revere his memory not less 

 for the simplicity and sincerity of his per- 

 sonal life than for the work he wrought for 

 astronomy. His career is an illustration of 

 the possibilities open to an American boy, 

 and his life has shed luster upon his 

 country and upon his science. 



Henry S. Peitchett 

 December 2, 1907 



THE LIFE AND WORK OF JOSEPH LEIDY'^ 

 The statue just unveiled, of the late 

 Joseph Leidy, reveals a most admirable 

 portraiture of the greatest naturalist that 

 this country, perhaps that any country, 

 ever produced; for but few equalled, and 

 none ever surpassed, Joseph Leidy in the 

 exactness, variety and the comprehensive- 

 ness of his knowledge of natural history. 

 Joseph Leidy, of French-German extrac- 

 tion, was born in this city, September 9, 

 1823, and died here, April 30, 1891. His 

 whole life may be said to have been devoted 

 to the study of natural history and was as 

 simple, pure and noble as the objects of 

 his lifelong study. Regarding with the 

 spirit of a philosopher the petty incidents 

 and annoyances that go to make up one's 

 daily life, as only unavoidable interrup- 

 tions to his life work, Leidy pursued the 

 even tenor of his way. Happy in his do- 

 mestic life, enjoying the society of his 

 friends, generous and charitable, kindly 

 and sympathetic to those with whom he 

 came in daily contact, straightforward and 

 honorable, incapable of deceit or of a mean 

 or ungenerous thought or act, he lived his 



^ Address delivered at the unveiling of the Leidy 

 statue, October 30, 1907, City Hall Plaza, Phila- 

 delphia. 



life beloved by all, and passed away with- 

 out having made an enemy during his long 

 career. Such having been the life of our 

 distinguished fellow citizen, his eulogist, 

 as might be expected, will have no incidents 

 to relate such as the lives of great generals, 

 statesmen, men of affairs afford. Never- 

 theless, when perhaps the latter are for- 

 gotten, the name and reputation of Joseph 

 Leidy will be preserved in the many and 

 valuable contributions he made to our 

 knowledge of natural history. Well might 

 he have said like Horace "Exegi monu- 

 mentum aere perennius. " Leidy 's early 

 education was obtained at private schools. 

 He studied medicine at the University of 

 Pennsylvania, graduating as doctor of 

 medicine in 1844. He at once began the 

 practise of his profession to which he de- 

 voted himself for about two years. For 

 some time Dr. Leidy experienced that 

 struggle with hardships and obstacles inci- 

 dental to the lives of so many young physi- 

 cians, but it was happily relieved by his 

 election in 1853, at thirty years of age, as 

 professor of anatomy in the University of 

 Pennsylvania. This position he held with 

 the most distinguished success till his 

 death, a period of nearly forty years. 

 While Dr. Leidy was universally recog- 

 nized as the leading teacher of human 

 anatomy in this country, his text-book be- 

 ing long a classic, he himself viewed anat- 

 omy not simply as a means to an end, of 

 practical value to the practitioner of medi- 

 cine and surgery, but as constituting only 

 a part of the general subject of morphol- 

 ogy; that is, of the general structure of 

 plants and animals. As an illustration of 

 the manner in which Leidy studied the 

 human body may be mentioned his treatise 

 on the "Comparative Anatomy of the 

 Liver" which work can still be studied 

 with advantage by the medical student. 

 With the means of a livelihood assured 

 through his professorship at the university, 



