56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



lost one of its most distinguished names. He was a naturalist in 

 the widest and truest sense, having sympathies with every branch 

 of enquiry which tended to enlarge our knowledge of Nature. His 

 own labours, indeed, embraced a remarkably wide range of acquire- 

 ment. Prom some of his published works he might have been 

 supposed to be entirely given up to the study of human anatomy, 

 from others he would have been set down as a man wholly devoted 

 to microscopic research among rhizopods, entozoa, or other minutest 

 forms of life ; from yet another set he appeared as an accomplished 

 mineralogist, and from still another he stood forth as one of the 

 most accomplished palaeontologists of his time. 



He was born in Philadelphia on September 9th, 1823. Even in 

 his school-days he showed his love for natural objects, especially 

 delighting in minerals and plants. He exhibited also such skill in 

 drawing that it was at one time intended that he should become an 

 artist. Chance, however, decided his fate otherwise. There was a 

 druggist in his neighbourhood whose shop had great attractions for 

 him. Passing most of his time there, he learnt a good deal about 

 drugs and prescriptions, insomuch that he was even once put in 

 temporary charge of the establishment. His contact with medicine 

 and medical pursuits, likewise the dissection of some cats, dogs, and' 

 chickens, awakened within him such a desire to study anatomy 

 that, mainly through the influence of his stepmother, he was allowed 

 to choose the profession of a physician. Studying in the University 

 of Pennsylvania he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1844, 

 and for two years engaged in practice. His love of investigation, 

 however, found no free scope for its exercise amid the exhausting 

 demands of a laborious profession. He accordingly determined to 

 give up medical practice, in which he had every reason to look 

 forward to success, and to apply himself to original research and 

 to teaching. The appointment of Prosector to the Chair of Anatomy 

 in his own University gave him an official position. But it was 

 the fostering and liberal assistance extended to him by the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia which started him on his career 

 and continued through life to be his chief aid in the prosecution of 

 scientific work. 



After twice visiting this country and the Continent in the years 

 1848 and 1849, he was appointed in 1853, at the early age of 

 thirty. Professor of Anatomy in his alma mater — a position which 

 he filled with the greatest distinction until his death nearly forty 

 years afterwards. He early rose to be the universally acknowledged 



