THE WEST AMEEICAN SCIENTIST. 45 



CHARLES OLIYER TRACY. 



[We regre t to record the death of a dear friend and former associate, whose 

 labors in the field of science bid fair to win him well earned honor and distinction. 

 His studies were m inly devoted to natural history, especially ornithology — on which 

 subject he has contributed much in the Ornithologist and Oologist, and in other jour- 

 nals. The following is from the Veymont Standard, of May 6, and is by his valued 

 friend, Hon. E. M. Goodwin.— Ed,] 



Died at his home in Taftsville, Veimont, April 22, 1886, of consumption, 

 Charles 0. Tracy, aged nearly thirty years. He had been failing in health for some 

 time — indeed had never recovered from the assiduous watching and careful nursing 

 of his beloved wife. He endured his sickness with fortitude and very remarkable 

 patience, never complaining, heroically struggling with disease when there was no 

 hope of recovery. Mr. Tracy was a gentleman of culture, of genial and happy dis- 

 position, and of exemplary moral character. He was well known and highly re- 

 spected in the community where he resided, always intimate in good society. He 

 was a true friend of temperance — true to principle, never forsaking the cause when 

 others faltered, or grew weary in battling its enemies; many years a member of Good 

 Templars in Taftsville and filled from time to time its offices of trust and responsi- 

 bility and always with kindness and courtesy, where his loss will be deeply felt. 

 The loss of him will also be felt by his neighbors and friends, but most especially by 

 his family. To them he was inestimable; to us he was a dear friend and valued as- 

 sociate. He expressed much confi lence in the mercy and loving kindness of God all 

 through his sickness, conversing always cheerfully of his approaching death, and at 

 all times entreated his friends not to mourn for him. His wish and faith are ex - 

 pressed in these beautiful lines of Mrs. Browning: 



'And friends, dear friends, when it shall be 

 That this low breath is gone from me, 

 And round my bier ye come to weep, 

 Let one most loving of you all 

 Say * Not a tear must o'er him fall — 

 He giveth His beloved Sleep. ' 



THE EYES OF SERPENTS. 



At the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, June 8, Dr. Benjamin 

 Sharp reported that, while recently studying the eyes of serpents, he had observed 

 that in the poisonous snakes the pupils were elliptical, while in the harmless specie? 

 they were circular. The only exception to the rule, that he was aware of, was in 

 the case of the Elapidae, a family of poisonous coluberine snakes in which the pupil 

 is circular; but in these the poison fangs are fixed, and do not move as those of other 

 venomous forms. 



Fine crystals of epsonite are reported from an excavation near Rincon, in Ven- 

 .tura county, in the March number of the Pacific Science Monthly. 



