426 



SCIENCE 



[N. S.. Vol. XLII. No. 1082 



The genealogical and family notes witli 

 whieh the memoir opens are followed by chap- 

 ters on Childhood and Youth ; Life at Carlisle ; 

 The Young Professor; The Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution; Life in Washington; 1850 to 1865; 

 1865 to 1878; The Secretary, 1878 to 1887; 

 The U. S. National Museum; The U. S. Com- 

 mission of Fish and Fisheries; and Apprecia- 

 tions. 



The following epitome covers the principal 

 events in the life of Spencer FuUerton Baird: 

 He was born in Reading, Pa., February 3, 

 1823. His father died in 1833, and his mother 

 then moved to Carlisle, Pa., where in 1835 he 

 attended the grammar school, an adjunct of 

 Dickinson College. In 1836, at the age of 

 thirteen, he entered that college, of which his 

 father had been a member of the academic 

 senate and his two brothers were already stu- 

 dents. After receiving the degree of A.B. in 

 1840, he began the study of medicine, and in 

 1841 and 1842 attended lectures at BeUevue 

 Hospital, New York. This subject proving 

 distasteful, he returned to Carlisle in 1842, 

 and resumed his academic studies, taking the 

 degree of A.M. in 1843. In 1845 he was made 

 honorary professor of natural history at Dick- 

 inson, and in the following year became full 

 professor, a position held until 1850. His 

 salary, which at the outset was $400 a year, was 

 increased to $650 at the end of the first term 

 and to $1,000 in 1848. The first named salary 

 being regarded as sufficient " to make a start," 

 he married Miss Mary Helen Churchill, of 

 Carlisle, on the strength of his professional ap- 

 pointment. In 1850, following letters written 

 in his behalf by Audubon, Marsh, Dana and 

 Agassiz, and on the nomination of Professor 

 Joseph Henry, Baird, at the age of twenty- 

 seven years, was elected assistant secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. This position 

 was held until the death of Professor Henry in 

 1878, when Baird was immediately and unani- 

 mously chosen as his successor by the board of 

 regents. Meanwhile in 1871, the position of 

 commissioner of fish and fisheries had been 

 created and Baird was appointed thereto by the 

 President. On Baird's presentation of the 



need for and value of a suitable despository for 

 the government collections, Congress in 1879 

 appropriated money for a fireproof building 

 for that purpose, and Baird became the ex- 

 officio director of the National Museum. The 

 three positions — secretary, commissioner and 

 director — were held until his death in 1887. 



At a very early age Baird evinced a predilec- 

 tion for natural history that was to shape his 

 career and make him one of the greatest syste- 

 matic and economic biologists that has ever 

 lived. The part of the work which gives the 

 best insight into his early aims, ambitions, 

 traits and habits of thought, as well as into 

 his later plans, methods and aspirations, is the 

 verbatim correspondence between Baird, the 

 members of his family, and scientific and 

 public men. These letters number about 225, 

 and extend from 1831 to 1887. Especially in- 

 teresting is the intimate correspondence be- 

 tween Baird and Audubon which began in 

 1840, when the young naturalist ventured to 

 write the most distinguished ornithologist of 

 the United States regarding two flycatchers he 

 could not identify, and continued actively for 

 more than seven years. 



This and other correspondence show that 

 Baird's capacity for making and retaining 

 worth-while friendships was due to his zeal, 

 candor and accurate knowledge of his subject, 

 combined with great modesty and a dignified 

 manner. Among the prominent scientific men 

 with whom he became acquainted while still 

 in his teens were, in addition to Audubon, 

 George N. Lawrence, James De Kay, J. P. 

 Giraud, John Torrey, Thomas Nuttall, Samuel 

 G. Morton, T. A. Conrad, James D. Dana, 

 John Cassin, Titian E. Peale and Isaac Lea. 

 This acquaintance and association undoubtedly 

 influenced and strengthened the trend of 

 Baird's studies, which, before his twenty-fiith 

 year, were confirmed and broadened by inter- 

 course with John and Joseph Le Conte, Joseph 

 Leidy, Thomas M. Brewer, Amos Binney, 

 Oliver Wendell Hobnes, Asa Gray, A. A. 

 Gould, D. H. Storer, the Sillimans, James 

 Hall, Sir Charles Lyell, George P. Marsh, 

 J. P. Kirtland, Joseph Henry and Louis 

 Agassiz. Especially noteworthy are the series 



