THE SCIENTIST. 
121 
Colloii^e in Wasliinoton, where he had 
gradtiuted in 18G3. Too iBaiiy-sided to 
rest content witli pen-work in Zoolof^y, 
he now entered upon a Professorship 
and lectured upon his favorite bianch of 
the medical sciences for ten years, lie 
proved an apt and skilfid instructor of 
youth, greatly respected and admired by 
his pupils. Pie appears to hav^e been the 
tirst in Wa«;hington to teach human anat- 
omy upon the broadest basis of raorphol- 
o.ii'y and upon the principle of evolution. 
One of Professor Coues's students, Dr. 
Frank Baker, soon secured the Chair of 
Anatonsy in the Georgetown Medical 
College; and another, Dr. D. K. Shute, 
took his own chair in the Medical Col- 
lege, when lie resigned in 1887, under 
pressure of accumulating engagements. 
Prof. Cones has been nearly all his life 
a Collaborator of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution of Washington, and his name is 
most frequently mentioned in that con- 
nection. Prof. S. F. Baird, as well as 
Professors Louis Agassiz and Joseph 
Henry, was quick to recognize his ability 
In early years, and by invitation of the 
former Dr. Cones had long had an office 
in the Institution, though without pay. 
During the years that he was an ardent 
and successful collector in the field, his 
numberless specimens of natural history 
were presented to the United States Gov- 
-ernment, and now form no ijiconsiderable 
part of tlie material for 8tud3^ in the 
National Museum, of which many other 
naturalists, in various departments of 
zoology, have been able to avail them- 
selves. Many of these specimens have 
been found new to science, and several 
have been named in compliment to 
their discoverer. 
On his resignation from the Army, 
Prof. Cones resumed his brietly vacated 
desk at the Smithsonian, as well as his 
chair at the College. Among the first 
fruits of his rei\ewed activity were two 
volumes entitled '"ISTew England Bird- 
Life," published in 1881, and a "Dic- 
tionary and Checklist of ISTorth Ameri- 
can Birds," in 1882, as well as his new 
edition of the "Key to. North American 
Birds," then as now recognized as the 
standard text-book of orintholog}^ and 
lately i-epi'inted again in London. Pro- 
fessor Cones was also about this time one 
of the most active in founding the Amer- 
ican Ornithologists"' Union, a flourishing 
Association modeled on the British So- 
ciety of similar name, of which he had 
long been a Foreign Member. He was 
also one of the founders of the Biological 
Society of Washington. 
At the height of his intellectual activity 
in physical science, now aliout fifteen 
years ago, the spiritual side of Profesor 
Coues's nature seems to have first awak- 
ened, though it was not at once to find 
expression. He became interested in 
the phenomena of so-called Spiritualism, 
as well as in the specidations wdiich have 
become known under the name of "The- 
osophy." Belonging destinctively to 
the materalistic school of thought, and 
sceptical to the last degree by his whole 
training and turn of mind, he neverthe- 
less began to feel the inadequacy of for- 
mal orthodox science to deal with the 
deeper problems of human life and des- 
tiny. Convinced of the soundness of the 
main principles of evolution, as held by 
his peers in science, he wondered whether 
these might not be equally applicable to 
psychical research. In short, Coaes 
took up the Theory of Evolution at the 
point where Darwin left it, and pro- 
posed to use it in explanation of the ob- 
scure phenomena of hypnotism, clair- 
voyance, telephathy and the like. LTnder 
his personal surroundings as a scientist 
this required no oi-dinary moral courage 
and determination. One of the first 
fruits of this daring venture is found in 
an address delivered in 1883 before the 
Philosophical Society of Washington, 
and afterward published under the title 
of "Biogen: A Speculation on the Origin 
and Nature of Life.'' ''Biogen" is a 
