EDITOEIAL. 
IT is our painful duty to announce the death of our 
beloved brother and colleague, Alexander Winched, 
of Ann Arbor, Mich. , which took place at his resi- 
dence at nine o'clock on the morning of February 19, 
1891. His fatal malady, which had been insidiously ad- 
vancing on him for several years, was not known nor rec- 
ognized in its true character until a short time before his 
demise. Although diagnosed as "aortic stenosis," its 
effect, which on post-mortem examination was found to 
have pervaded nearly his whole body, impairing the nec- 
essary circulation of the blood to the great secretory 
organs, was so general and pronounced, that it became a 
matter of astonishment that he had survived and labored 
so long. 
He was a man of strong natural physique, of indomit- 
able will, unremitting industry with an insatiable love 
for work in his profession, of broad philanthropy, of pen- 
etrating reason, of fearless pursuit of the truth, at home 
in any realm of nature's handiwork which he considered 
permeated with the essence and will of its Creator; a geol- 
ogist who embraced geolog} T in all its ramifications, am- 
bitious to serve the world by contributing to its fund of 
advanced knowledge, an enthusiastic teacher, systematic 
and orderly to the smallest detail, in sentiment sensitive 
and delicate as a woman, in principle rigid and uncom- 
promising as law itself ; a tender-hearted son, father, 
husband and brother, generous to a fault ; a self-made 
man who. born a poor boy, did not content himself with 
the condition of his birth, a product of American insti- 
tutions and opportunities working on one of America's 
own scions. He was born December 31, 1824. His 
aged mother survives him. 
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