Hyatt.] 558 [April 18. 



General Meeting, April 18, 1888. 



Vice President, George L. Goodale, in the chair. 

 Professor Goodale read for the author, the following obituary. 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND SERVICES TO SCIENCE 

 OF PROF. SPENCER F. BAIRD. 



BY ALPHEUS HYATT. 



It would not be possible for me to have complied with the re- 

 quest of the President of this Society to prepare a short notice of 

 a life so full of solid results as that of Professor Baird, or to have 

 written anything approximating to what I considered to be really 

 due to his memory, if I had not been assisted by several obituary 

 notices, and by the admirable biographical sketch and complete 

 bibliography of all his works published by Prof. G. Brown Goode 

 during his lifetime. 



He was born at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1823, and graduated 

 at Dickinson College in 1840, at the early age of seventeen. He 

 studied medicine for a time, but never practised. His natural his- 

 tory studies were begun in earnest soon after he had left college 

 and were thenceforth the principal occupation of his existence. 

 He became an active and zealous student of plants and animals and 

 acquired, by his unwearying efforts during these early years, not 

 only a large collection and great familiarity with characters and 

 habits of organisms, but a store of health and strength, which en- 

 abled him to stand the strain of the intense intellectual labors of 

 his mature life. 



His first paper was published in 1843 ; in 1845 he was appointed 

 Professor of Natural Histoid in Dickinson college, and in 1848 re- 

 ceived from Professor Henry the first grant made by the Smithso- 

 nian Institution in aid of scientific exploration and field research. 

 This was given to assist him in the exploration of the bone caves 

 and local natural history of southeastern Pennsylvania. In 1 850 

 he was appointed, by Professor Henry, assistant secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution and entered upon those public duties, which 

 led to greater results, so far as the material foundations of science 

 in this country are concerned, than have been so far actually accom- 

 plished by any other man. 



