DuBois. ] 204. [Oct. 5, 
The President reported that, pursuant to the request of the 
Society, he had appointed Dr. D. G. Brinton to prepare an 
obituary notice of the late Philip H. Law, and Prof. Lesley 
that of the late H. Carvill Lewis. 
A paper by Dr. H. A. Hare was presented for the Transac- 
tions entitled, “The Pathology, Clinical History and Diag- 
nosis of Diseases of the Mediastinum other than those of the 
Heart and Aorta;” which, on motion, was referred to Drs. 
Ruschenberger, Allen, and Sharp, as a committee to examine 
and report thereon. 
Pending nomination 1180 was read. 
The President reported that he had received and paid over 
to the Treasurer $188.07 interest due July 1, 1888, from the 
Michaux legacy. 
And the Society was adjourned by the President. 
James Curtis Booth, Ph.D., LL.D. By Patterson DuBois, Philadelphia. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Soctety, October 5, 1888.) 
The life of the individual, like the history of a people, is generally 
divisible into a more or less well-markt series of epochs or periods. The 
life of Dr. Booth falls naturally into three such divisions, each quite dis- 
tinct in kind, yet all animated by the same principles of intellectual ac- 
quirement, the same moral of motive, the same love of learning, the same 
ardor in teaching, the same activity in business, the same hearty devotion 
to the bettering and uplifting of his feilow-men. 
The first period in the career of James Curtis Booth was his preparatory 
or student life. For convenience’ sake, we must include here the record 
of his parentage and birth. He was born in Philadelphia, July 28, 1810. 
His father was George Booth, of New Castle, Delaware ; his mother was 
Ann Bolton, daughter of John and Eleanor Bolton, of Chestertown, 
Maryland. 
After his preliminary schooling in Philadelphia and at the seminary of 
Hartsville, Bucks County, Pa., he entered the University of Pennsylvania, 
where he was graduated in 1829. He subsequently spent a year at the 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N. Y. But the great bent of his 
mind was for chemistry ; and chemistry to him was a thing beyond mere 
theory ; it had for him a meaning quite apart from the beauties of black- 
poard demonstrations and of symbolized reactions. His great thought 
was to find in the laboratory a miniature factory ; in the factory a mam- 
