Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



151 



them. In 1827 lie was employed to revise the manuscript of Dr. Web- 

 ster's large Dictionary, and to this work he rendered a service much more 

 important than is commonly supposed. He was from time to time en- 

 gaged in various literary labors, as editor and translator. Among the 

 works which he published may be named a revised translation of Malte 

 Brun's Geography, and a Sketch of the Varieties of the Human Race and 

 their linguistic relations, a tract drawn chiefly from the Mithridates of 

 Adelung and Vater, and printed in 1831. Always an ardent lover of 

 nature, and fond of out-door explorations, he combined with his literary 

 pursuits, the study of natural history and geology. In 1835 he was 

 appointed in conjunction with Prof. C. U. Shepard, to make a survey of 

 the geology and mineralogy of the State of Connecticut. Dr. Percival 

 took charge of the general geology, and explored the whole state thor- 

 oughly and minutely on foot. He collected materials for a report so full 

 and extensive that it was thought inexpedient to offer the whole for pub- 

 lication, and he consequently presented only a brief summary thereof. This 

 Report was issued at New Haven, in 1842, in an octavo volume of 495 

 pages, accompanied by a geological map. The work is prepared with great 

 minuteness and precision of detail, but in a manner too much condensed 

 to be very attractive or popular. 



He spent the summer of 1853 in the service of the American Mining 

 Company, in exploring the lead mines of Illinois and Wisconsin, and 

 gave such satisfaction to the inhabitants of that region, that the next 

 year he was offered a commission as State Geologist of Wisconsin. His 

 first annual report on that survey was published at Madison, Wisconsin, 

 in January, 1855, in an octavo volume of 10! pages. The larger part of 

 that year he also spent in the field. While engaged in preparing his 

 second report in January, 1856, his health began to fail, and after a few 

 months of decline, he passed away. 



Dr. Percival possessed intellectual faculties of a very high order, and 

 few men have exceeded him in variety and exactness of learning. 



The late Dr. John C. Warren. — Dr. John Collins Warren was born 

 August 1, 17*78, and was the oldest of ten children. He graduated at 

 Cambridge in 1*797, at the age of 19. In 1806, when only 25 years 

 of age, and soon after the completion of his medical studies, he was 

 appointed Adjunct Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at Harvard Col- 

 lege, and in 1815 he succeeded, upon the death of his father, to the full 

 professorship (Hersey Professor of Anatomy and Surgery), the duties of 

 which he discharged with eminent ability and success during the period 

 of 32 years. He retired in 1847 from his post as Hersey Professsor of 

 Harvard College, when he had completed his 7 0th year. 



He was also for several years President of the Massachusetts Medical 

 Society, and was at different times honored with complimentary diplomas 

 by the Academy of Naples, the Medical Society of Florence, the Medico- 

 Chirurgical Society of London, the Academy of Medicine at Paris, and 

 several other foreign learned and scientific associations, besides many in 

 this country. At the time of his death he retained his position and. 

 promptly discharged the duties as President of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, which institution sustains in his death no ordinary loss. 



Since his retirement from the active duties of his professorship in 

 Harvard College, Dr. Warren has devoted himself to the study of the 



