MEMOIR OF ALBERT E. EOOTE. 483 



if ever equaled by any American collector; he had a keen eye and knew 

 a good specimen at sight. 



In the development and prosecution of this work his services to science 

 were many and important. They w^ere principally of two kinds : the 

 discovery and procuring of material before unknown or inaccessible, and 

 the distribution of good, well determined minerals throughout the cabi- 

 nets of the whole country. The union of energy and accuracy in work 

 of this character by Professor Foote has made his influence of great and 

 permanent value. 



Professor Thomas Egleston says of him : 



" He was certainly the most enterprising mineral collector and merchant that we 

 have had in this countr3^ No one ever did so much to disseminate a knowledge 

 of American minerals in Europe as he." 



Professor E. S. Dana writes : 



"My relations with the late Dr Foote extended over some twenty years and I 

 thus had full opportunity to become acquainted with the unfailing activity and 

 tireless enthusiasm which he dovoted to his mineralogical work. His explorations 

 after minerals extended from Canada in the north to Mexico in the south, and to 

 all parts of our western country. He also made several journeys to Europe, and 

 collected zealously from England to Sicily and Austria. His work was carried on 

 with the same energy even when his health was seriously impaired. The results 

 of his labor are to be found in the development of American mineral localities and 

 in the distribution of specimens not only throughout this country, but to many 

 parts of the world, by which the knowledge of mineralogy and the general in- 

 terest in its study have been much increased." 



To illustrate briefly the points thus made by these eminent leaders in 

 scientific mineralogy from whom I have just quoted, I may refer to three 

 aspects of Professor Foote's work, namely, its extent, its accuracy, and 

 its importance in respect to developing localities. 



In the twenty-eight or thirty years of his collecting, he has placed in 

 the cabinets of the world several millions of specimens, besides many 

 thousands of small cabinets in which the specimens were sold as low as 

 one hundred for a dollar. The impulse given and the facilities afforded 

 both to beginners and to advanced collectors b}^ this vast amount of dis- 

 tribution are beyond calculation in their influence on the development 

 of this branch of study. 



But with all this wide extent the work was accurate. On every speci- 

 men, even the little pieces in the beginner's collections, was pasted with 

 a remarkably firm cement a label bearing the name of the species, the 

 variety, the locality, the formula, and the number in Dana's Mineralogy. 

 It is much to say, but I can say it without hesitation, that in all these 

 vast numbers of specimens Professor Foote never allowed a single one to 



