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FOREST AND STREAM. 



IMay 7, 1891. 



PROFESSORS LEIDY AND LECONTE. 



THE closing days of April were marked by the death of 

 two men eminent in the scientific world. Professor 

 John LeConte, of Berkely, Cal., died April 39, and Dr. 

 Joseph Leidy at Philadelphia, April 30. The following are 

 brief memoranda of their lives: 



Joseph Leidy was born in Philadelphia in 1823, and de- 

 voted himself in youth to a study of mineralogy and botany. 

 He then studied medicine under Dr. Paul B. Goddard, and 

 was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1844. 

 In 1848 he visited Europe, and upon his return delivered a 

 coui'se of lectures upon physiology. Five years later he 

 succeeded Dr. Horner in the chair of anatomy in the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania, In 1871 he was called to the chair 

 of natural history in Swarthmore College, and in 1884 be- 

 came the director of the department of biology in the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania. He obtained the Walker prize of 

 §1,000 from the Boston Society of Natural History, and the 

 Lyell medal from the Geological Society of London for his 

 contributions to palaeontology, and received the degree of 

 LL. D. from Harvard. He published more than 800 papers on 

 biological subjects, many of which were from specimens 

 obtained on various surveys under 

 the United States Government and 

 submitted to him for study and re- 

 port. Huxley and Marsh used his 

 paper on the fossil horse in their 



illustrations of the theory of evolu- .- ' 



tion. Many of his papers were 

 issued by the Philadelphia Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences, of which 

 he was the president, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and under the 

 auspices of the National Govern- 

 ment. Prof. Leidy was a member 

 of many scientific societies at home 

 and abroad. Of late years Dr. Leidy 

 had devoted his attention more es- 

 pecially to invertebrates, and es- 

 pecially to internal parasites, but 

 Ms most important labors were in 

 the field of vertebrate palajontology. 



John LeConte was the son of 

 Lewis LeConte, the natairalist, and 

 was born in Liberty county, Ga., in 

 December, 1818. He was graduated 

 at Franklin College of the Uni- 

 versity of Georgia in 1838, and at 

 the New York College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons in 1841. For a time he 

 practiced his profession in Savan- 

 nah, but in 1846 he was called to the 

 chair of Natural Philosophy in 

 Franklin College, which he occu- 

 pied untill85o. The following year 

 he lectured on chemistry at the 

 New Tork College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons, and in 1856 he was 

 appointed Professor of Natural and 

 Mechanical Philosophy in South 

 Carolina College, at Columbia, S. 

 C. In 1869 he was appointed Pro- 

 fessor of Physics and Industrial 

 Mechanics in the University of Cali- 

 fornia, and discharged the duties 

 of that position until 1881. From 

 1876 to 1881 he held the office of 

 President of the University in con- 

 nection with his professorship. At 

 the expiration of that period he 

 retired to the chair of phy.sics, which 

 he occupied until his death. The 

 whole of his active life, more than 

 half a century, was devoted to scien- 

 tific investigations. The result of 



his labors was disclosed in a great variety of communica- 

 tions to scientific journals in this country and Europe, and 

 in the "Proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science," of which organization he was 

 general secretary in 1857. He was a brother of Prof. Joseph 

 LeConte, the geologist and physiologist. 



JEROME C, BURNETT. 

 rpHE announcement from Washington last Monday of 

 the death of Jerome C. Burnett brought with it genuine 

 sorrow— a sentiment which will be shared by all readers of 

 this intelligence who were familiar with Mr. Burnett as a 

 contributor to the Forest aud Steeam. Mr. Burnett died 

 on Sunday, May 3, after an illness of some weeks. He was 

 stricken with a severe attack of the grip early in the preva- 

 lence of that disease, and was thought to be improving, 

 when he was suddenly seized with a stroke of paralysis, 

 from which he had not the strength to recover. His age 

 was 58 years. He leaves a widow and two children. 



Mr. Burnett was well known and highly esteemed in 

 Washington. When John C. New was Treasurer of the 

 United States, Mr. Burnett was appointed to the position of 

 Chief of the National Bank Division in that department, 

 where he remained until his death. He was one of the 

 founders and proprietors of the very successful weekly, 

 PulMc Opinion. He was a writer of recognized ability on 

 political and social themes, but it is not too much to say 

 that he took more pleasure in the sketches he wrote for 

 FOEEST AKD Steeam than in any other literary work. 



An enthusiastic angler and sportsman, with a wide and 

 interesting experience in the Bast and the West, he con- 

 tributed to these colums many a reminiscence of days in the 

 fi.eld, and many a bright story of scenes and incidents well 

 worth the telling. What he wrote was marked by manliness 

 and good cheer; the sterling character of the man was here 

 reflected as in a mirror. Jerome Burnett was of the type 

 vrhich gives dignity audlstanding tolth§ sports of the field. 



DR. EDWARD MAYNARD. 



npHE announcement of the death at Washington, D. C, 

 ^ on Monday last, May 4, of Dr. Edward Maynard, at the 

 ripe age of more than seventy-seven years, affords a striking 

 illustration of how speedily a man whose name was widely 

 known and honored in his day of active service may drop 

 out of sight and be almost forgotten in the turmoil and 

 seething fermentation of succeeding years, when a new race 

 has come to the front and is absorbed in present issues, 

 while the deeds of yesterday are only "remembered as a tale 

 that's told." 



Had Dr. Maynard's death occurred twenty-five or thirty 

 years ago there would have been no need of telling the 

 world who or what he was. Few of his contemporaries are 

 left to-day. To them the mention of his decease will awaken 

 many reminiscences of long past years, but to the great mass 

 of readers it will be unknown. 



He was a man of rare qualities and of rare acquirements, 

 and apart from the elements of character which commanded 

 the respect of all who knew him, and the warm affection of 

 the wide circle of his friends— the world at large is indebted 

 to him for discoveries the value and importance of which 



DR. EDWAKD MAYNARD. 



can never be justly estimated, and ought to be gratefully 

 remembered. 



He was born in Madison, N. Y., April 26, 1813, entered the 

 Military Academy at West Point in 1881, but owing to deli- 

 cate health was forced to resign the same year. He then 

 applied himself to the studies of civil engineering, architec- 

 ture, anatomy and drawing, with an earnestness which was 

 a prominent characteristic, and which could never be satis- 

 fied with smattering acquirements or with half-way work. 

 He finally adopted the profession of dentistry, and estab- 

 lished himself in Washington in 1835. 



His discoveries in dental surgery have been of such im- 

 portance and his skill as an operator was so remarkable, 

 that it may be safely said that he has had no superior in his 

 profession, and the honors bestowed upon him in recogni- 

 tion of it in this country and in Europe are sufficient proof 

 of the truth of the assertion. 



Many of the most important improvements in the instru- 

 ments of dentistry were of his invention. He was the first 

 to successfully practice (in 1838) the thorough filling with 

 gold foil of the nerve cavity, including the nerve canals in 

 molar and bicuspid teeth. He introduced this operation in 

 Europe in 1845, and at St. Petersburg. The Emperor's phy- 

 sician, Dr. Arndt, having witnessed it, Dr. Maynard was im- 

 mediately employed as the court dentist. The Emperor 

 (Nicholas I.) offered to give him a title with the rank of 

 major if he would remain in Russia ten years and teach and 

 practice his profession while attached to the court. This he 

 declined, but received from the Emperor in addition to the 

 sum paid for his services a magnificent diamond ring. 



In 1857 he accepted the chair of Theory and Practice in the 

 Baltimore College of Dental Surgery (the first dental college 

 every established), and held the like position in the Faculty 

 of the Dental Department of the National University at 

 Washington. He received honorary degrees from leading 

 associations in Europe and America, and for a long series of 

 years his pragtice was among the highest classes in Wash- 



ington, including several Presidents and a great number of 

 Cabinet officers, Senators, Representatives, officers of the 

 Army and Navy, Foreign Ministers and others who demand 

 such operations as necessarily exclude all machine work. 



His winning and always gentlemanly and courteous man- 

 ner, his rare intelligence and the wide scope of his informa- 

 tion, served to secure the warm personal friendship of all 

 whom he chose to admit to such Intimacy, and the large 

 and varied circle of acquaintance he thus made with leading 

 men of all parties, sects and opinions, gave a rare zest to 

 his conversation and made him a most interesting com- 

 panion. 



But the honors and friendships he acquired through his 

 professional reputation and practice were equalled if not 

 surpassed by those resulting from the exercise of his inven- 

 tive talents in another and entirely different field. Thous- 

 ands of men in every quarter of the globe who were ignor- 

 ant of the fact that he was a professional dentist are 

 familiar with his name in connection with the Maynard 

 rifie, which was the first breechloader that proved itself 

 equal in its performance to the best muzzleloading rifles, 

 and may be truly said to have served as the model which 

 has revolutionized the arms of the 

 civilized world. This is neither the 

 time nor the place for detailed state- 

 ments of its peculiar features, but 

 there are circumstances connected 

 with its history, that in justice to 

 the memory of the inventor should 

 be clearly stated and put on public 

 record. 



The invention was patented several 

 years before the war. and therefore 

 before the demand for improved 

 weapons had incited inventors 

 everywhere to the study of the 

 subject. There had been many 

 previous attempts to construct 

 breechloading guns, but the results 

 had been so utterly inadequate to 

 the wants of military service and 

 so far below the rfqnired merits 

 of the sportsman that they served 

 rather to illustrate the difficulty of 

 the problem tbaa to aid in its 

 solution. 



The perfect .simplicity and entire 

 efficiency and safety of the system 

 of levers by which in the Maynard 

 rifle necessary movements of the 

 barrel are effected can only be com- 

 pared to the anatomical system by 

 which the greatest possible ease of 

 motion and resistance to pressure 

 are secured in the animal structure. 

 Yet the ingenuity here displayed 

 was really of secondary importance 

 compared to that of the ammuni- 

 tion and the method of its prepara- 

 tion, which involved the principle 

 by which alone it has thus far been 

 found possible to secure in breech- 

 loaders the same degree of precision 

 and force that is attained by muzzle- 

 loaders. 



Dr. Maynard was the first inven- 

 tor of a metallic center-fire cartridge, 

 and the in.strument by which it was 

 loaded insured the perfectly true 

 delivery of the bullet into the barrel 

 of the rifle, and the most exacting 

 tests to which it was subjected 

 served to prove that it had no 

 superior in all essential points, 

 while in facility of manipulation 

 it so far excelled all others that it was at once obvious that 

 a revolution in firearms was at hand. Innumerable efforts 

 at improvements have since been made and are still making, 

 many changes of models of guns have been the result, in 

 adapting them to the necessities of modern military service, 

 or increasing their efficiency by various ingenious devices, 

 but in all of them the scientific principles by which Dr. 

 Maynard first secured the prime essentials of precision and 

 force are still adhered to and have never been improved 

 upon. Various changes of detail in the Maynard rifle have 

 from time to time been introduced, but in all its essential 

 features it is the same as the original weapon and still holds 

 its high place in the estimation of leading sportsmen and 

 riflemen throughout the country. 



Dr. Maynard has himself made many additional inven- 

 tions in connection with firearms of very great value, as for 

 instance a register which may be attached to any repeating 

 rifle, which indicates at all times the number of cartridges 

 that are in the magazine. He has also made a double- 

 barreled rifle which completely overcomes the previously 

 inevitable defect of unequal accuracy owing to the deflec- 

 tion of one barrel by the heating of the other. Instead of 

 soldering the barrels together he simply clamped them by 

 a most ingenious device, which while perfectly strong and 

 flrm, allowed the expansion of either barrel without affect- 

 ing the other. Another advantage was that if desired a 

 shot barrel might in a moment be substituted for one of the 

 rifle barrels, or a pair of shot barrels in place of the rifles. 

 A very beautiful model of such a gun was made and its 

 efficiency proved by careful tests, and so high an authority 

 as Quartermaster-General Meigs said of it that if introduced 

 it would drive all other sporting guns from the market.' But 

 it has never been manufactured for sale, and the model 

 alluded to is the only one in existence. 



The Kings of Sweden and Prussia recognized the great 

 value of Dr. Maynard's inventions. The former by giving 

 bim tjhe Great Medal of Merit of Sweden, an honor rarely 



