THOMAS TRACY BOUVE: MEMORIAL MEETING. 
237 
Although specially interested, as the records show, in several 
branches of natural history, Mr. Bouve’s first love among the natural 
sciences was mineralogy. In the mineralogical annals of the Society 
three names are especially prominent — Francis Alger, Charles T. 
Jackson, and Thomas T. Bouve. These three men were contem¬ 
poraries and life-long friends; and each in his own way contributed 
in an important degree to the development of this department of the 
M useum. Mr. Bouve was the youngest of the trio, and the period of 
his activity extended well into the modern era in the history of educa¬ 
tional methods. He was thus led to a deeper appreciation of the 
value of minerals as a factor in elementary education. It is, there- 
fore, probably well within bounds to say that for this reason and 
because of his greater length of service Mr. Bouve has done more 
than any other one man to make our collection what it is to-day, an 
important adjunct of the educational system of the community. 
During the years when we worked together upon the minerals, I 
had the pleasure of hearing from his lips the history, both in general 
and in detail, of a large part of the collection ; and whether the 
specimens had been collected by himself or a fellow member, or 
obtained by purchase or exchange, his evident love for them made 
me feel that I was being introduced to his dear friends whose care 
he was reluctant to relinquish to another. 
His appreciation of the beautiful in minerals culminated in his 
well-known fondness for gems; and these he did not value commer¬ 
cially, but only in proportion to their intrinsic beauty and scientific 
interest. This study forced upon his attention the unsatisfactory 
nature of the criteria, such as color and luster, commonly relied 
upon in the identification of cut stones; and led him to test more 
thoroughly than had been done before the relatively fundamental 
property of specific gravity. In his valuable paper on this subject 
he demonstrated to the satisfaction of Professor Dana and other 
high authorities that while each of the mineral species to which the 
gems belong varies notably in specific gravity, so that the several 
species overlap and are indistinguishable by this character, the gems, 
being in every instance the purest and most ideal forms of their 
respective species, are essentially constant, and only rarely so nearly 
of the same density as not to be readily and certainly distinguished 
by careful weighing. 
Mr. Bouv6’s later contributions to scientific literature relate chiefly 
to the geology of the Boston Basin, and especially of the South 
