2 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



any important discoveries that he made with the request that 

 they publish them to the world. So it is that his name is miss- 

 ing from the rolls of eminent American Ornithologists, Ento- 

 mologists and Geologists upon any of which his qualifications 

 would have given him a high place. 



Thomas Bellerby Wilson was born in Philadelphia, January 

 17, 1807. His parents, Edward Wilson and Elizabeth Bellerby, 

 having both come over from England and married in America 

 in 1802, Thomas was educated at one of the Quaker schools in 

 Philadelphia during 1818 and 1819, but for the next two years 

 attended school at Darlington, in Durham, England, having 

 accompanied his father on a trip to his native country early in 

 1820. 



At the age of sixteen he was back in Philadelphia studying 

 pharmacy in the establishment of Frederick Brown of that city, 

 where he remained for six years. His parents being quite 

 wealthy and he being under no necessity of engaging in busi- 

 ness pursuits, he decided to devote his whole time to scientific 

 investigations. He had always been interested in natural his- 

 tory and during his pharmaceutical studies had become deeply 

 engrossed in chemistry, mineralogy and geology. 



In 1828 he entered the medical school of the University of 

 Pennsylvania and graduated in 1830, after which he spent two 

 years in Europe attending lectures in Paris where he studied 

 under Cuvier and other notable men and also in Dublin. 



In 1832 he returned home with apparently no thought of 

 practicing professionally; but, having had experience with the 

 cholera while abroad, he rendered valuable and generous aid to 

 the poor of Philadelphia during the outbreak of this disease 

 which occurred at this time, and later at different times gave 

 gratuitous medical assistance to those in need. 



In the spring of 1833 Dr. Wilson bought a farm at New Lon- 

 don, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he lived until 1841, 

 when he removed with his brother to the vicinity of Newark, 

 Delaware. At all times, however, he maintained a suite of 

 rooms in Philadelphia where he spent portions of each year. 

 He never married. 



During the period from 1833 to 1841 Dr. Wilson devoted him- 



