THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST. 
Vol. XVII. MARCH, 1896. No. 3. 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHARLES 
WACHSMUTH. 
By Charles R. Keyes, Jefferson City, Mo. 
(Portrait, Plate VI.) 
By the death of Charles Wachsmuth American paleontology 
loses one of its brightest lights. Notwithstanding the fact 
that he was compelled to lead a retiring life and was seldom 
seen at public gatherings, no one person did more to raise to 
the high plane that it now occupies the department of knowl¬ 
edge which he represents. The world’s final judgment as to 
his true-worth to the science must be based upon the monu¬ 
ments he has left. 
Although possessing from early childhood a delicate consti¬ 
tution which continually threatened to give way, Mr. Wachs¬ 
muth withstood the inroads of an organic disease long enough 
to nearly complete the allotted span of human life of three 
score years and ten. During the last three years his health 
gradually failed until for several months past herculean 
efforts were necessary to enable him to work even for a short 
time each day. His last illness covered only a few days; and 
even the iron will, which had so often before overcome a long 
standing chronic ailment, finally had to give up to the physic¬ 
ally weak heart. To within a day of his demise, with a zeal 
that is begotten only of a love for the sublime, he continued 
to apply himself to the finishing stages of the crowning glory 
of his life—a Monograph on the Fossil Crinoids. The first half 
