AmAuS*m*m-}     Memoir  of  Edson  Sewell  Bastin.  3^7 
was  simply  his  natural  reserve,  and  that  he  possessed  a  warm  and  tender  heart, 
which  bestowed  its  affection  more  and  more  as  the  years  went  by. 
As  a  student  he  was  respected  by  professors  and  classmates  because  of  his 
deportment,  faithfulness  and  sincerity.  He  was  always  well  prepared  for  reci- 
tation or  examination,  and  never  did  things  in  a  slip-shod  manner.  The  testi- 
mony of  his  students  in  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  to  his  exacting 
demands  for  honest  work  from  them  fittingly  expresses  his  own  early  convic- 
tions and  habits  when  a  student. 
Professor  Bastin  was  a  modest,  unassuming  young  man,  and  never,  until  to- 
day, did  I  know  that  he  had  served  in  the  army  during  the  late  civil  war.  His 
record  as  a  soldier  is  one  of  which  any  man  might  justly  be  proud,  and  yet 
during  all  my  four  years'  acquaintance  with  him  I  never  heard  him  speak  of 
the  war. 
We  now  come  to  a  turning-point  in  the  life  of  Professor  Bastin, 
where,  instead  of  following  the  ministry,  for  which  his  education  had 
prepared  him,  he  became  interested  in  the  natural  sciences,  particu- 
larly the  science  of  botany.  This  subject  had  been  studied  by  him 
in  a  variety  of  ways  from  his  early  youth,  and  the  writer  has  heard 
him  speak  of  the  observations  he  made  on  the  flora  of  Arkansas, 
while  doing  duty  as  a  soldier  there ;  consequently,  "  true  as  the 
needle  to  the  pole,"  when  in  1 871  he  was  deciding  on  his  life-work 
he  came  back  to  this  same  subject.  He  selected  the  drug  busi- 
ness as  a  means  to  the  end  which  he  wished  to  accomplish,  and  for 
the  next  few  years,  while  engaged  in  the  duties  of  apothecary  in 
Chicago,  he  gave  much  time  to  the  study  of  botany  and  its  allied 
sciences.  In  1873  he  married  Christina  Boyd,  and  shortly  after  dis- 
posed of  his  drug  business.  His  reputation  won  in  the  civil  war 
secured  for  him  an  appointment  as  United  States  Marshal,  and  he 
moved  with  his  wife  to  the  scene  of  his  duty  in  Indian  Territory. 
The  experience  in  this  lawless  region  was  of  the  most  thrilling 
character,  and  often  exposed  him  to  great  danger,  but  his  cool 
judgment,  thorough  horsemanship,  as  well  as  his  ability  to  use  fire- 
arms to  the  greatest  advantage,  brought  him  safely  through  every 
conflict.  His  wife,  however,  could  not  endure  the  nerve  strain  of 
such  an  exciting  life,  and  after  nearly  a  year  of  service  he  returned 
to  Chicago,  where  he  accepted,  in  1874,  the  position  of  registrar  in 
the  University  of  Chicago.  In  this  institution  he  almost  imme- 
diately commenced  teaching,  first  as  Instructor  in  Botany,  and  two 
years  later,  in  1876,  as  Professor  of  Botany  and  Geology.  In  this 
same  year  he  was  chosen  to  lecture  on  botany  in  the  Chicago  College 
of  Pharmacy,  and  for  a  short  time  conducted  a  class  in  analytical 
