II8RARY 
■pXTXr OF THE 
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOli 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST 
Vol. XX. OCTOBER, 1897. No. 4 
SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MICHAEL TUOMEY. 
By Eugene A. Smith, University of Alabama. 
(Plate XIV). 
Practically all that is known concerning the early life of 
Prof. Tuomey, has been brought together by Rev. R. D. Nevi- 
us, of Tacoma, Washington, in an article published soon after 
Prof. Tuomey's death in the Alabama Educational Journal. 
The following sketch is a condensation from this article, sup- 
plemented by some remarks concerning his eminence as a teach- 
er, and as a geologist, and an annotated list of his scientific 
writings. The accompanying portrait is from a daguerreotype 
taken a short time before his death, and is considered by all 
who knew him aii admirable likeness. 
Michael Tuomey was born in Ireland, in the city of Cork, 
on St. Michael's day, 1805. His father, Thomas Tuomey, was 
a highly respectable man of industrious habits and of no in- 
considerable mechanical skill. His mother. Miss Nora Foley, 
was descended from a noble famil3\ He was educated chiefly 
at home* and at his grandmother's in the country, where he 
spent much time in his early years. From his grandmother, 
who seems to have been in many respects a remarkable woman, 
he received his first impulse towards the study of botany, 
which he never intermitted, and in which he was always an 
*Prof. Tuomey studied Latin and French, and to some extent Ger- 
man also, after he came to America. 
