540 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WASHINGTON MEETING 



access than literature on the subject. As Wilbraham had no museum, 

 Marcy was accustomed to go 20 miles to Amherst to study the collec- 

 tions; yet in spite of these difficulties he became a fine scholar in geo- 

 logical lines. 



At the time of his election Northwestern had no museum. An im- 

 portant part of his life-work consisted in building up a museum. During 

 the course of his labors he classified and labeled more than seventy-two 

 thousand zoological, botanical, archeological, and geological specimens. 



Burdened thus with the duties of a curator, of a teacher of many 

 subjects, and of a president, he found little time for research and publi- 

 cation in his chosen work ; so his publications fail to represent his activity 

 and his attainments. He wrote numerous articles for weekly papers. 

 About sixty of these have come under my notice, and shed much light 

 on his line of thought, the nature of the problems he had to meet, and 

 the traits of his character. Many of the articles are metaphysical in 

 nature, showing that speculative philosophy had strong attractions for 

 him. Many of them discuss the place of natural science subjects in the 

 college curriculum, advocating for them a more important position. 

 Some of them deal with travel and geology. In some of them he opposes 

 tk mechanical evolution," advocates catastrophism with his teacher Buck- 

 land, and believes in the iceberg theory for drift deposits and glacial 

 scratching^, as Lyell atone time did. But those who would judge Doctor 

 Marcy by these expressions would misrepresent him, for they are but 

 phases in the history of his geological science and not his ultimate posi- 

 tion, and his students and those intimate with him know that he did 

 not believe in cataclysm, that he taught the commonly accepted ideas 

 of glaciation, and that he was a thorough evolutionist. This revision of 

 theory and belief was made at an age when most people cling to their 

 conclusions whether the facts warrant them or not, and was possible to 

 him because of his singular freedom from bigotry, his eminent reason- 

 ableness, fine scientific spirit, and truly scholarly habits. These qual- 

 ities, together with his diligence as a student and the strength of his 

 memory, enabled him to become not only a well informed geologist, but 

 in truth a profound scholar in the science. 



The only geological monograph* which he published was one on the 

 fossils of the Chicago Niagara limestone, prepared in conjunction with 

 Alexander Winch ell, and presented at the Boston Society of Natural 

 History in 1865. This publication was a satisfactory paper in every 

 way. 



* Kniimeration of fossils. collected in the Chicago limestone at Chicago, Illinois, with description 

 of several new species. Alexander Winchell and Oliver Marcy. Memoirs Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. 1, 1865. 



