July 29, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



147 



portion of the estate that Charles was born, 

 one hundred and twenty-sis years after the 

 original purchase. 



Each member of this yeoman line tilled his 

 own ground and lived in much the same man- 

 ner that his English ancestors had done, ta- 

 king an active part in the local business and 

 public affairs of the community in which he 

 lived. Indeed they called themselves English- 

 men, and all were loyal to their king until the 

 occurrence of those acts which led to the war 

 for American Independence, when they were 

 all ardent patriots. When hostilities began 

 the grandfather and great-grandfather of Dr. 

 White, the tombstone of each of whom bears 

 the inscription " Captain Cornelius White," 

 hastened to join in the great struggle upon 

 the patriot side. The younger enlisted as a 

 minute man i mm ediately after the battle of 

 Lexington, when he was barely twenty years 

 •old. The elder had already served as captain 

 of militia in the colonial wars of his time, and 

 upon the beginning of the great struggle he 

 was appointed a member of the " Committee 

 of Inspection, Correspondence and. Safety," 

 "which was organized to hold the tories in 

 •check. Upon the close of the war both father 

 and son returned to their home farm and re- 

 sumed their usual peaceful pursuits. 



So strongly were they attached to their na- 

 tive soil that for five generations no member 

 of this ancestral line ever strayed fifty miles 

 from the original American home. But the 

 spirit of dispersion, which afterward became 

 so prevalent in New England, entered this 

 •conservative family and when Charles was 

 twelve years old his father's family removed 

 to Burlington in the then recently organized 

 territory of Iowa. He grew up to manhood 

 in that pioneer home, necessarily subject to 

 its privations and disadvantages, but the 

 rocks and hills, forests and streams round 

 .about it constituted an excellent field in which 

 to pursue his natural bent as a young natural- 

 ist. 



He revisited his old home in Dighton in 

 1847, and in the following year he was mar- 

 ried there to a schoolmate of his childhood, 

 Jiiss Charlotte E. Pilkington, daughter of 



James Pilkington, of Dighton. This mar- 

 riage proved to be an ideal one and the union 

 continued nearly fifty-four years, when the 

 honored and beloved wife was removed by 

 death. Eight children were born of this mar- 

 riage, six of whom survive. 



In 1849 he returned with his young wife to 

 his old home at Burlington, where they lived 

 until 1864. His eastern travel had greatly 

 stimulated his inherent love for the natural 

 sciences, and upon his return to his Iowa 

 home he began their systematic study, soon 

 becoming familiar with the geology, zoology 

 and botany of the region in which he lived. 

 It was at Burlington that his first scientific 

 papers were written, and these were based 

 upon his studies and observations there. He 

 made many journeys to various parts of the 

 great Mississippi Valley for geological study, 

 and in the years 1862 and 1863 he assisted 

 Professor James Hall in his paleontologieal 

 work for New York state. 



A few years after his return to Burlington, 

 in pursuance of his long-eherished purpose, 

 he entered the office of Dr. S. S. Ransom, a 

 leading practitioner, as a medical student. 

 He received earnest aid and encourage- 

 ment from his preceptor, who had known him 

 from his boyhood. He attended one fuU 

 course of medical lectures at the University of 

 Michigan, and was afterward graduated with 

 the degree of M.D. from Rush Medical Col- 

 lege, which is now the medical department of 

 the University of Chicago. In 1864 he re- 

 moved with his family from Burlington to 

 Iowa City and there began the practise of 

 medicine. His practise, however, was of com- 

 paratively short duration, and was abandoned 

 for his more congenial scientific pursuits. 



Because of the privations incident to his 

 pioneer life, the loss of his patrimony and the 

 consequent necessity to labor for the support 

 of himself and his family his education, aside 

 from his medical instruction, was desultory 

 and irregular. Still, his industry was such 

 that he so mastered the subjects to which he 

 devoted himself as to become a recognized 

 authority upon them. His services were con- 

 sequently sought and accepted as a college 



