344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



This venerable naturalist had for many years been a prisoner of the 

 Paraguayans, but he was now living like a patriarch on his own planta- 

 tion, surrounded by a brood of sons and daughters and cared for by a 

 devoted native wife. 



On his return to the United States Edward Palmer first went to 

 Cleveland to give his friends an account of his wanderings, and then 

 to England to visit the home of his childhood, as well as the great 

 World's Fair at the Crystal Palace. Coming back to America, he took 

 a course of medical instruction, to supplement as well as possible the 

 practical knowledge he had "acquired on the Water Witch. He then 

 received an appointment as collector in connection with the Geological 

 Survey of California, working under the direction of Dr. Cooper, espe- 

 cially on the marine invertebrates of the California seacoast. He was 

 thus engaged when the civil war broke out. 



In 1862, when President Lincoln called for troops, Palmer returned 

 east and applied for a position as acting assistant surgeon in the army, 

 relying on his past experience as a voucher for his fitness for the work. 

 He accompanied Colonel Leavenworth to Colorado, under the promise 

 of an appointment, but for many months he served without appoint- 

 ment or pay in caring for sick soldiers at various posts. At Fort Lyon 

 there was much sickness among the troops, and he was ordered to 

 relieve the contract surgeon at that post. From this time until the 

 close of the war he was engaged at various posts, often riding with the 

 sick in ambulances, but not resisting the temptation en route to alight 

 and gather up plants, reptiles and other objects which seemed to him 

 of interest; for he was a born collector. One of his last stations was 

 Kansas City, where he assisted the surgeon in the city hospital. 



After the close of the war he was stationed at various posts in 

 Arizona and the Indian Territory, where his work of attending the sick 

 was pleasantly varied with his occupation as a collector, sometimes re- 

 ceiving scant sympathy from his commanding officers, sometimes en- 

 couraged by them to pursue his work in the cause of science ; but always 

 on his detachment from a post carrying with him testimonials as to the 

 faithful performance of his duties, his tender care of the sick, and his 

 remarkable success in using simple herbs and local remedies when his 

 official supply of medicines was exhausted. His personal notes teem 

 with interesting anecdotes, such as an account of a scouting expedition 

 against the Apaches, on which he collected ethnological material while 

 half-breed soldiers were bayonetting and scalping hostile Indians; and 

 the story of his vicissitudes during an epidemic of sickness at Fort 

 Grant, when he himself was stricken. He did not on that account cease 

 to add to his collection, but while he lay in the little hut that served as 

 his dispensary he was aided by a cat that brought in small animals to 

 her kittens. He would seize her gently, take away her prey, and after 



