THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST 
Vol. XXXrX. JULY, 1904. No. i. 
CHARLES EMERSON BEECHER. 
Oct. 9, 1856 — Feb. 14-, 1 904-. 
PORTRAIT— PLATE I. 
The sense of Ijereavement which follows upon a loss so 
disastrous to paleontology as the departure of professor Beech- 
er renders it difficult to express lucidly and in adequate meas- 
ure to those who may have known him more by repute than by 
personal intercourse, his real value to his science or to record 
an appreciative tribute to his genius. Human experience is 
so full of instances of brilliant abilities prematurelv quenched, 
of fruitful lives blotted out, of promising careers terminated 
before the goal is reached, that the aphorisms of th? world 
take note of them. Death loves a shining mark, indeed. 
Professor Beecher's end was wholly without premonition 
even to the penetrating eyes that watched him most closely, 
and its suddenness carries an element of the tragic. The 
Sunday morning of his death he arose as well as ever but 
later he complained of pains in his arms, then in hi'^ chest. 
The usual household remedies failing, a physician was sum- 
moned and while they talked together he comptained of diz- 
ziness and with a few breaths was gone. The bar Ic-ning of 
the cononary arteries or angina pectoris, which nr'ght least 
have been expected in a constitution of relative youth, is re- 
garded as the cause of death . 
One often sees in midsummer an oak on which a single 
leaf flares out in red and yellow while all the rest are green, 
and here too age has stolen on with uneciual pace. 
Professor Beecher was in the 48th year of a "singularly 
productive life. If his own death was an illustration of the 
