1850 TO 1865 301 
Cushing, Attorney-general; Campbell, Postmaster; McClelland, Inte- 
rior. All good men. I hear some Vermonters are making stout efforts 
to have you retained! What think you is the chance? Others appear 
to be at work to make you Senator. For my part, I go in for the 
latter. I want to see you more than any man on earth, except Mrs. 
M., so I shall support the Senatorship. But I must stop, as it is get- 
ting late, and my sleepy fit is coming on. I hope you will be satisfied 
with the attempt. 
From Spencer F. Baird to Thomas Biddle, Esq., Philada. 
WasuincTon, April 5, 1853. 
Dear Sir:— 
Knowing you to be one of those who will have the final decision of 
the matter, I take the liberty of writing in behalf of the claims of my 
friend, Dr. Leidy, to the place '* vacated by the death of Dr. Horner. 
I do this, influenced not merely by my regard for Dr. Leidy, but 
assured that the exalted reputation of the University of Pennsylvania 
will be carried still further with him as the incumbent of the vacant 
chair. 
I have known Dr. Leidy for a great many years, long before he 
entered into the scientific arena where he so far has distanced all his 
competitors. Indeed I take much credit to myself for an early dis- 
cernment of that bud of promise, now ripened to such a state of 
development. In his special departments of a comparative anato- 
mist, a helminthologist, a microscopist and a zoologist, he has no 
equal in this country and but few rivals abroad. Although so young 
he has done more to advance the subjects of his particular investiga- 
tion, than any man living of his age. His discovery of Entophyta, 
his determination of the species and affinities of extinct vertebrate 
animals, his embryological investigations in different departments, 
would any one be enough to give a wide reputation to a veteran in 
Science; how much more when all has been the work of one person 
scarcely over the threshold of life. 
I hazard nothing in asserting that no American surgeon or phy- 
sician is looked upon abroad with so much approbation of past ser- 
16The Professorship of Anatomy in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania. 
