CASSINIA 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DELAWARE 

 VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



No. XIII. PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1909. 



Thomas B. Wilson, M. D. 



BY WITMER STONE 



It is an open question whether the patron who endows scien- 

 tific institutions or the investigator who carries out the scientific 

 work is deserving of the greater credit.* 



In every generation we find men of each class working to- 

 gether for the advancement of human knowledge. 



In proportion to the standards of his time, science in America 

 has had few if any more liberal patrons than Thomas B. Wil- 

 son, but so modest was he that few outside of his native city 

 know anything of him to-day and probably no one ever knew 

 the fall extent of his gifts for the advancement of science. 



Dr. Wilson was, however, not merely a patron. He was a 

 close student of nature in its broadest sense and his knowledge 

 in several branches was equaled by few. The results of his in- 

 vestigations, however, he never published. The same extreme 

 modesty which made any public acknowledgment of his bene- 

 factions distasteful to him, also led him to contribute to others 



* For most of the general matter in the present article, I am indebted to the 

 Memoir by Prof. Jacob Ennis, published by the Entomological Society of 

 Philadelphia in 1865. To the same society we are also indebted for the litho- 

 graphs of Dr. Wilson. 



