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AN ADDRESS

UPON THE LATE

JOSEPH LEIDY, M.D.,LL.D.,

HIS UNIVERSITY CAEEER.

BY
WILLIAM HUNT, M.D.

Delivered November 17tli, 1891,

BEFORE THE

ALUMNI AND STUDENTS OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

PHILADELPHIA:

COLLINS PRINTING HOUSE, 705 JATNE STREET,

1893.

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TWO ADDRESSES

JOSEPH LEIDY, M.D.,LL.D

BY
WILLIAM HUNT, M.D.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

Open Knowledge Commons

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AN ADDEESS

UPON THE LATE

JOSEPH LEIDY, M.D.,LL.D.,

HIS UNIVERSITY CAREER.

BY
WILLIAM HUNT, M.D.

Delivered NovemlDer IVtli, 1891,

BEFORE THE

ALUMNI AND STUDENTS OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

PHILADELPHIA:
COLLINS PRINTING HOUSE, 705 JAYNE STREET,

1892.

^^uJi.

'i-!,^^,■^. ?r/

Copyright, 1892.

By the Alumni Society of the Medical Department of the

University of Pennsylvania.

W3\

Dr. Alfred Stille, in introducing the speaker,
said : —

Gentlemen : Medical Alumni anb Students of the Uni-
versity OF Pennsylvania : —

We are assembled to listen to an address in com-
memoration of the late Professor of Anatomy in
the University. You will recall the shock that was
felt throughout the whole medical profession on the
announcement that Dr. Leidy was dead.

It is most fitting that here in the centre of the
University where he passed so many years of his
active and laborious, and yet serene and unselfish
life, and in the presence of those whom be enlight-
ened and stimulated, his career should be described
by one who was familiar with his character and
labors, and is competent to portray them.

No doubt he will tell you that Leidy, though
dead, still speaks to you. His living voice, indeed,
is silent forever, but the memory of the great works
he wrought in natural science, and the thoroughness
and impressiveness of his teaching, must long sur-
vive to stimulate sincere searchers after truth, and to
prove anew that the most consummate attainments
in science are in perfect harmony with humility of
character and simplicity of life.

Permit me to ask your attention to the address
now to be delivered by Dr. William Hunt.

( 5)

AK ADDRESS.

When first I was asked to speak before the
alumni about Dr. Leidy I declined, because I had
already spoken of his personal history at that re-
markable meeting held at the Academy of Natural
Sciences upon the evening of the 12th of May,
1891, only thirteen days after his death. I say
remarkable meeting, for it was one of true emotion.
Science was subdued in sorrow. The hall was
filled with people of both sexes ready to mingle
their tears in mutual sympathy at the realization
of the fact that each and all had sustained an
irreparable loss.

It was as much as we seven could do to get
safely through our allotted tasks, and the others
who spoke were equally affected. The programme
named the following seven, and from fifteen to
twenty-five minutes were occupied by each one : —

( 7)

William Hunt, M.D., " Personal History."
HARPasoN Allen, M.D., " Work in Vertebrate

Anatomy."
Henry C. Chapman, M.D., " Work in Invertebrate

Anatomy."
Prof. Angelo Heilprin, "Work in Paleontology

and Geology."
Joseph Willcox, " Work in Mineralogy."
James Darrach, M.D., "Work in Botany."
Edward J. Nolan, M.D., "Personal Character and

Services to the Academy."

Here are six branches of science mentioned in
this catalogue concerning which, if an ordinary
man of science makes a name in one of them, he
and others consider his life well spent, and yet Dr.
Leidy was an expert and authority in all.

Now, this is what made me, on second thought,
accept the invitation to appear before you to-night.
A small edition of my remarks was printed for
private circulation. In it I use the above unique
programme for a preface, for nothing more was re-
quired, and in it I also fortunately say, "The
personal history of Dr. Leidy is all that has been
assigned to me to talk about for these few minutes,
and, therefore, I leave to others the task of speak-
ing of his University scientific career." That
career, however, was not sufficiently spoken of, so
( 8 )

pressing were other matters, aud thus I have my
opportunity. The University career and other
allied matters that may occur to me in my intimate
association with Dr. Leidy, will, therefore, occupy
us this evening.

But, before going on, there is one to whom full
thanks must be given for setting forth Dr. Leidy's
work in his University professorship, as well as
his other vast work in science.

This was not done on the evening referred to,
but the Academy, whilst retaining in its possession
the almost impromptu essays of the evening, con-
cluded, by resolution, not to publish them, but to
have prepared a more complete memoir for publi-
cation in its proceedings. This task was assigned
to Professor Henry C. Chapman, now of the Jeffer-
son Medical College, but who was for a long time
connected with this University, from which he is
a graduate as his grandfather was, and chiefly in
association with his beloved friend, Dr. Joseph
Leidy. In the last number of the Proceedings of
the Academy of Natural Sciences this more com-
pleted memoir appears. Right well has the task
been done, and great labor was expended in the
doing of it. At the conclusion the writer says :
" The following catalogue of volumes, papers, and

(9)

communications, published by Dr. Joseph Leidy,
illustrates the extent, variety, and value of his
contributions to science. " And then follows a
bibliography containing the titles of, and references
to, jive hundred and fifty-three of these books,
papers, and essays, published from the time just as
he had reached manhood, almost unto the day of
his death. Think of this, you men, who have
groaned at one graduating essay ! There is another
thing to reflect upon. I take it, that possibly
with the exception of some little pay for his early
translations and pay for his Treatise on Human
Anatomy, all or nearly all of this vast literary,
critical, searching, scientific work was done with-
out pecuniary fee or reward. It may be that is
the reason most of you do not like that kind of
work, and my jibe is unjust. I am sure I have
often said to myself, after toiling for days and
nights at some paper of scientific or literary research
and interest, and then getting a petty check for it,
or, what is more common, nothing at all, " What
fools we mortals be." To be sure, we do not do
our great worJc for money, but the " Bes angusta
domi" are always calling for bread from some-
where.

Dr. Leidy was born on September 9th, 1823,
( 10 )

and died on April 30th, 1891, in the GStli year of
his age. He was of German extraction, the son
of Philip Leidy, a hatter, of North Third Street,
Philadelphia, and Catharine, his wife. The mother
died while he was yet a baby. The father married
Christiana Mellick, a sister of his first wife. She
proved to be a most loving and faithful mother to
her stepson, and he often said that he owed all he
was to her.

How he began very early to notice natural ob-
jects of every kind, to roam in the fields and the
woods, and upon the streams is fully noticed in
the sketches of him already published.

For this occasion we will take up his life when
he began to study medicine. He did not do this
without opposition from his father, although his
mother favored the project.

Finally the boy and the mother won. In those
days all students of medicine had to have a pre-
ceptor in name, if not in fact. Leidy entered the
office of Dr. James McClintock, a noted lecturer
on anatomy. He did not remain in that office
throughout his pupilage, but for some reason left
it and entered with Dr. Paul B. Goddard, a most
noted anatomist, author, and teacher, a Lecturer
and Demonstrator of Anatomy in this University ;

( 11)

a genius, well traiued by nature and opportunity
in the use of his perceptive qualities, and withal
very congenial and instructive to a young man
having the receptive temperament of Dr. Leidy.

Dr. Leidy graduated in 1844. His thesis
showed his tendencies. It was upon " The Com-
parative Anatomy of the Eye of Vertebrated
Animals."

He became prosector at the University for Pro-
fessor Horner, who filled the Anatomical Chair.
For one year (1846) he left the University to take
the place of Demonstrator of Anatomy in the
Franklin Medical College, a new institution in
which Dr. Paul B. Goddard, his former preceptor,
whom he thought it was his duty to follow, was
Professor of Anatomy. The school had but a
short life, and the doctor soon returned to his for-
mer place with Dr. Horner. With this exception
he never broke his allegiance to the University
from his graduation until his death. He had
several great temptations, notably one of a pro-
fessorship in Harvard, but, after much considera-
tion, he chose to stand by his old colors.

It was at this time (1846) that I began the
study of medicine with the late Dr. George B.
Wood, then in his prime, as my preceptor. Had
( 12)

it not been for such a man as he was, together
with the introduction of some young blood, as in
the case of John Neill, the energetic Lecturer and
Demonstrator of Anatomy, and Joseph Leidy the
prosector, I can assure you that the University
Medical School at that time was in a state of " in-
nocuous desuetude," or, if you choose, of medical
dotage or senility. This is said with no disrespect,
but simply as an illustration of the axiom, " that
few die and none resign ;" the school was living
on the past ; and with few exceptions we sought
our information outside of, instead of within it.
There were several corps of first-rate young teach-
ers on the outskirts, most of whom rose to distin-
guished positions afterwards. Dr. Wood knew
these well, and through his students patronized
the practical branches without stint. This was
almost a heresy, but the fact is that Dr. Wood at
that early day was a pioneer in the present methods
of teaching.

He was always practical and demonstrative, and
being blessed with wealth he spared nothing to
illustrate what was worth knowing. His materia
medica lectures were illustrated with medical
plants in profusion from his own green-houses,
and when he became Professor of Practice in 1849,

( 13 )

Dr. Leidy went to Europe with him in order to
assist him to make a pathological collection. We
have what I may call the remnant of that collec-
tion in the museum of the University now. Dr.
Leidy mounted and had charge of the early speci-
mens, and after he became Professor of Anatomy,
they fell under the charge of Dr. Levick and my-
self. When I go through the museum now I still
recognize some of my old work. Understand,
besides being kept up by importations from abroad
during Dr. Wood's incumbency of the Chair of
Practice, the collection was constantly enriched by
contributions from home. Dr. Leidy, the year be-
fore, had gone to Europe with Dr. Horner.
Young as he was, he had already won such a
reputation in science that he was received every-
where with eclat by the most noted savants both
old and young. Horner's lectures, now enriched
by Leidy's magnificent dissections, and John
Neill's practical recapitulations in the evening,
made the study of anatomy a pleasure instead of
a toil, and in that branch also we now got more
from within the building than from without.

You must bear in mind that what I personally
have knowledge of in my intimate association
with Dr. Leidy mostly happened at the old
( 14 )

building in Ninth Street, where the Post-office
now stands. Owing to the failure of Professor
Horner's health in 1852, Dr. Leidy was appointed
by the trustees to finish the course of lectures for
that year. In 1853 Professor Horner died, and
Dr. Leidy, then only thirty years of age, was,
after a sharp contest, elected Professor of Anatomy
in the University of Pennsylvania. He appointed
his old friend. Dr. Fitzwilliam Sargent, his De-
monstrator of Anatomy, but he only served for
one term. Dr. Sargent left Philadelphia and spent
the rest of his days in Italy and Paris, now and
then paying a visit to this country. He has re-
cently died, but has left to the world a son, a most
distinguished artist, John S. Sargent. Dr. Leidy
in 1854 chose me for his successor. I filled the
place as Demonstrator and Lecturer for ten years,
and hence arose my close intimacy with our great
professor, both as a sitter at the feet of Gamaliel
in science, and as a companion and friend.

Untiring industry and systematic punctuality
were the secrets of Dr. Leidy's life, and of its
great results. I never even by chance dropped
in upon him at his home, or in the University,
and found him idle. He was always at work,
and mostly at important work; but, whatever

( 15 )

the work might be, he would stop and explain,
or go on and explain, and having, as he thought at
least, an appreciative listener, I always found my-
self learning something that I did not know
before. There was never any pretence at mystery,
or any seeking for seclusion. Are not these quali-
ties, after all, among the real distinctions between
genius and mediocrity ?

My, my ! think of the time most of us waste !
Leidy took his holidays mindful of the old
precept, "All work and no play," but his play
even was but a variation of his home work, the
sea, the mountains, and the woods being his play-
grounds. Some of his most beautiful and in-
teresting contributions to knowledge arose from
these recreations.

Two rooms on the second floor of the old Uni-
versity, with a passage-way leading to the museum,
the lecture, and dissecting-rooms, were the seat of
Dr. Leidy's labors on Ninth Street. In a cor-
ner of the passage-way near the window were
Fred. Schafhirt's tables, where he dissected and
prepared reptiles, birds, and mammals, and ate
Schweitzer and drank schnaps, and sang German
sentimental and patriotic songs. In the room ad-
joining was Leidy, may be dissecting a subject,
( 16 )

and waited upon by the noiseless Johnny Brown,
and the hinkende Mepliistopheleau Bob Nash.

Nothing could exceed the splendor of Leidy's dis-
sections. Call to mind you who remember them, in
his palmy days, the display of the diaphragm, the
muscles of the abdomen and chest, and the wonders
of the hand, the thoracic and abdominal viscera,
and the clear and concise explanation and exhibi-
tions of the human brain ! Leidy did very little
in topographical anatomy (that he left to his de-
monstrators) so tliat what he displayed was the
thing itself, whether it was bone, muscle, ligament,
tendon, viscus, vessel, or nerve, and he spared
nothijig that came in the way of showing that
thing. He was a fine free-hand draughtsman,
and made much use of the blackboard to enforce
his demonstrations.

I need but refer you to his work on the rhizo-
pods to convince you that he was also an advanced
artist in the delineation and colorino; of micro-
scopic objects than which, in the whole range of
artistic procedures, there is nothing more difficult
and absolutely requiring most special knowledge.

It was in these rooms (about 1858) that the fossil
bones of the great lizard, the Hadrosaurus Foulkii,
were studied and placed in position. They had

( 17 )

recently been discovered in the marl near Wood-
bury, New Jersey, and were presented to the
Academy of Natural Sciences by Wm. Parker
Foulke, then one of its most active members.
The studies of Dr. Leidy gave Mr. Waterhouse
Hawkins an easy key for the restoration of the
skeleton of the animal, which now forms such a
conspicuous object in the collection of the Academy.

Some years before this, and before Dr. Leidy was
professor (about 1846), he made his most important
discovery, as far as regards the health and happi-
ness of his fellow-beings, and also one at the
present moment involving questions of the gravest
import in international comity, and seriously at-
tracting the attention of sovereigns, presidents, and
ministers, millions of money being at stake in the
results. I allude to the discovery of the trichina
spiralis in the hog, the study of which the dis-
coverer followed out in these rooms for years at
every opportunity.

The trichina is a small nematoid worm about
one-eighth of an inch long. Paget found it in
human muscles in 1835, and Owen described
and named it, but they, nor no one else knew
or suspected from whence it came. Dr. Leidy,
with characteristic modesty, in his description
( 18 )

of it in Pepper's System of Medicine and calling
himself "the writer," says, "In 1846 the parasite
was found by the writer in the muscles of the hog,
but neither he nor others for some time afterwards
suspected the significance of the discovery." We
now know that the immature trichina are swal-
lowed by man whilst eating raw or underdone
pork, the sick hog having most probably gotten
them from devouring infected rats, and that the
embryos undergo rapid development in the in-
testines, and actively migrate in myriads to the
human muscles, thus giving rise to the painful,
often fatal, disease, trichinosis. Dr. Leidy says a
single ounce of the infected meat will often con-
tain from 50,000 to 100,000 of the worms. (I
was with and assisted Dr. Leidy once at the dis-
section of a man who had died of trichinosis.) He
also says in his account, "The writer may also add
that it was in a slice of boiled ham, from which he
had partly made his dinner, that he first discovered
trichina in the hog."

The simple preventive is : 1st, never to eat in-
fected pork ; you may suspect it when you see
very small white specks in the meat, these may be
the trichina capsules ; and 2d, whether infected or
not, never eat pork or any of its belongings unless

( 19 )

it is thoroughly cooked, for a " boiling temperature
surely kills all animal parasites." The same may
be said of other meats infected with other para-
sites, Europeans, especially Germans, are much
more inclined to eat raw, or half done, pork than
we are. The great German helminthologists, Leuc-
kart, Cobbold, and others have fully acknow-
ledged the discovery as due to Dr. Leidy, and
cheerfully accord him the credit of it.

Just as I had written this, I read from a morn-
ing paper the following, and I repeat it both for
your information and consolation : —

Paris, Oct. 29, 1891. — The Senate to-day declared urgent
the discussion on the question of duty on salt meats. Roche,
Minister of Commerce, read a number of reports, showing
that trichinosis did not exist in Great Britain and Belgium,
which countries were freely importing American pork. The
existence of this disease in Germany, therefore, he said,
was due to native meats. All learned bodies, Minister Roche
declared, have agreed that American meats were innocuous,
and the admission of these meats into France would be the
greatest boon to the working people of the country. It was
more needful to beware of German meats entering France
duty free. Furthermore, in spite of the prohibition on Am-
erican meats, they actually entered France by indirect means.
Other members having spoken for and against the bill,
the Government demanded its adoption, on the ground that
the demand of the United States was legitimate, and that
( '-^0)

France ought lo comply with it in the interests of the trade
of the two countries.

The motion was then adopted by a vote of 1 79 to 64, and
the Senate proceeded to the discussion of the clauses of the
measure.

I wonder whether the sovereigns, presidents, and
ministers aforesaid know that the primary cause
of the present differences was the quiet man from
Filbert Street ?

It is not my purpose here to discuss Dr. Leidy's
contributions to a better understanding of human
anatomy ; in fact, it would make a respectable course
of lectures to do so, and I can but indicate them.

He spent his time at the University in eluci-
dating and illustrating them, M'henever he could
spare it from the preparation of his lectures in or-
dinary course. You will find them fully set forth
in his admirable treatise on Human Anatomy, which
he calls Elementary.

I was with him during many of these investiga-
tions, and many charming hours we have spent to-
gether in discussing them. I need but allude to
the comparative anatomy of the liver^ the develop-
ment of the Purkinjean corpuscles in bone, and the
development of the intermaxillary bone.

The structure of the temporal bone — here I

( 21 )

must stop for a moment to ask who would have
thought of anything new in the description of that
much-studied remarkable bone, and in the anat-
omy of the ear ? And yet, see Dr. Leidy's won-
derful display of them in specimens from his hand,
now in the museum, and read carefully his accounts
of them. There was a time, it seems to me, when
he always had a temporal bone in one hand and a
knife in the other. He aided me to select Politzer's
fine case of ear specimens at the Centennial, which
I purchased for the Mutter Museum, and when
we obtained Hyrtl's preparations of the compara-
tive anatomy of the ear, he was delighted. I must
confess, however, that, for preparations of the
human temporal bone, I greatly prefer those by
Leidy himself, our own great master ; for, v/ith-
out egotism, I profess to belong to the few who
know what a good preparation is when they see it.
Dr. Leidy's description of the vocal membranes
of the larynx is admirable, and that of the struc-
ture of the larynx and the attachment of its
muscles is equally so. Thus, this many-sided
man went on. To quote Dr. Chapman, " The
variety, extent, and exactness of Dr. Leidy's know-
ledge of nature were unsurpassed, if equalled
by any living naturalist. It was this famil-
( 22)

iarity with all natural objects, which invariably
impressed those brought in personal contact with
him. If some minute infusorian were casually
mentioned in conversation, one would have sup-
posed from his remarks that he had devoted his
life to the study of the protozoa ; an intestinal
worm being the subject of discussion — from his
description of its structure, origin, and mode of
life, it would have been inferred that helmin-
thology was his exclusive specialty. The oppor-
tunity of seeing him dissect an insect, mollusk,
or vertebrate, would soon convince one that he
was a most skilful anatomist. A fragment of
rock, a plant, a shell submitted to him, called
forth criticisms worthy of the professional miner-
alogist, botanist, or conchologist."

"Profound as was his knowledge of living plants
and animals, it can be truly said that his acquaint-
ance with the extinct forms of life was equally so.
Indeed, it was his great familiarity with the ex-
istent types of vegetable and animal life, that so
eminently qualified him to determine fossil forms."

When the Biological Department was established
Dr. Leidy took a most active interest in it, and his
work over here was much increased. He was a
director in it and the Professor of Zoology. When it

( 23 )

was fully organized, Dr. Jayne tells me, the doctor
always occupied the chair and directed the pro-
ceedings. It was the hope of his life, Dr. Jayne
also says, to bring the Academy of Natural Sci-
ences and the Biological Department of the Uni-
versity closely together. That hope has not been
realized as yet. Dr. Leidy's studies of the para-
sites and his work on the tertiary fossils of Florida
were done in the Biological building. Dr. Dolley
is now engaged in classifying and arranging the
former. I had ample evidence the other day of
the Biological being now able to stand alone, not-
withstanding Dr. Leidy's disappointments about
it and the Academy. The crowds of enthusiastic
young men and some women (I am glad to say),
each at their places at the tables, in the great
working-room, and each with a microscope work-
ing out the lesson for the day, gave full proofs of
prosperity.

Dr. Jayne's letter concludes : " His love for us
was especially great, and he is missed every day.
We expect to see his familiar form turn the
corner of the street, and it is almost impossible to
realize that another has his room and another
gives his lectures."

At the Veterinary Department too, where the
( 24)

doctor was Professor of Zoology, he was equally
valued. No one had a more thorough knowledge
of the structure and history of the domestic ani-
mals treated there than he. His knowledge of the
horse from its origin in prehistoric days, gained
from a profound study of the marvellous chano-es
its fossil remains show that it had undergone be-
fore the peerless animal of to-day was produced,
was incomparable. When I go over all of these
matters I ask myself the question, " Did we work
the doctor too hard ?"

Were I to write to Swarthmore and to the
Wagner Free Institute, I know that I would get
the same kind of answers. A pretty Swarthmore
story is told of Dr. Leidy, showing his dislike of
inflicting unnecessary pain upon or taking tlie
lives of animals he used for demonstration at his
lectures. On a certain Saturday he caught some
small creatures from the brooks and creeks near
by for this purpose, and when he was thi'ough with
them he laid them aside intending to return them
to their native streams. He forgot to do this, and
took the train for home. On Sunday morning he
thought of them, and from their habits he knew
they would not live till Monday unless furnished
with water. Car communication with Swarth-

( 25)

more was slow on Sunday at that time. The
morning train had gone^ so the doctor walked all
the way to Swarthmore and rescued his prisoners.^

' The Wagner Institute expressed their loss in the fol-
lowing minute : —

With feelings of deep sorrow we record the death of
Dr. Joseph Leidy, who, for the past six years, has stood
at the head of the science work of our Institute, as Presi-
dent of the Faculty, and Director of the Museum.

The death of this true and honest man, as gentle as he
was strong, as humble as he was great, is to the whole
civilized world, as it is to our own country, the loss of one
of the most distinguished scientists of the day ; while to
Philadelphia, the city of his birth and his life-long home,
it is the loss, not only of one of her greatest men, but as
well of a true and faithful son, who loyally spent his whole
life in her service, and who died, as he lived, in entire
devotion to duty, wholly forgetful of himself, and mindful
only of the welfare of others.

To the Wagner Free Institute of Science the loss occa-
sioned by his death is beyond repair. The place he has
left vacant cannot be filled. To him, more than to any other
man, and to his good guidance more than to anything else, is
due whatever has been accomplished by the Institute, since
the death of its founder, in the organization and conduct of
its work in the cause of science. It is impossible to express
in words the debt of gratitude we owe to him ; only by
deeds can we give expression to it, by striving to so carry
out the work which he has planned for us with such con-
( 26 )

How the doctor mourned the loss of his nucleus
of a museum of natural history at Swarthmore
when it was destroyed by fire a few years ago !
He had grand but simple ideas of what a museum
should be for the purposes of instruction, and
many of them are now being carried out at the
Biological. I could say much on this subject, but
to enter upon it now would take up too much time
for a discourse like that I am giving.

The only instance I ever knew of Dr. Leidy's
departure from strict truth was, to a medical man's
way of looking at it, a very amusing one. Some
years ago he came to my house in quite an enthu-
siastic mood, and said, " Dr. Hunt, do you know
that they are moving the bodies from a very old
burying-ground down town to make way for im-
provements ?" " Yes," I said. " Well," he went on,
" two bodies turned into adipocere are there [this is
an ammoniacal soap, and the bodies are commonly
called petrified bodies]. They have been buried
for nearly a hundi-ed years, an old man and an old
woman ; nobody claims them, and they would be
rare and instructive additions to our collections.

summate skill, that it may become a living memorial of his

earnest labors, his broad intelligence, and his commanding

knowledge.

( 27 )

Now, I think I can get them, and if you will take
one for the Miitter Museum, I will take the other
for the Wistar and Horner Museum." All right,
I said, I shall be delighted. So down Leidy went,
full of the idea of securing the prizes. When he
spoke to the superintendent or caretaker of the
ground, that gentleman put on airs, talked of
violating graves, etc.; so the discomfited doctor
was about going away quite chapfallen. Just
then the caretaker touched him significantly on
the elbow and said, "I tell you what I do ; I give
bodies up to the order of relatives !" The doctor
immediately took the hint. He went home, hired
a furniture wagon, and armed the driver with an
order reading, " Please deliver to bearer the bodies
of my grandfather and grandmother."

This brought the coveted prizes, and one is now
in each of the museums, and the virtuous caretaker
was amply compensated.

But they all do it. The great Hyrtl, of Vienna,
he, whose work on Topographical Anatomy, I often
say is my guide, philosopher, and friend, sent us
over a catalogue some time ago of articles he wished
us to purchase, and with great effrontery or great
honesty, possibly that we should not doubt the
verification, has these words affixed to the state-

( 28 )

ment of the skull of some notable character,
"Stolen by myself." I had occasion to write some
lines to a lady, not long since, one who was much
interested in a certain mortuary, and this is the
way, in strict confidence, I tell her about this
peculiar tendency in men medical.

I admit the fact, you will notice, and discuss
the law — that is, the metaphysics of it, for I be-
lieve jurists have frequently declared there is no
property in a dead body.

Now, I'll tell you a secret,

That makes me grieve !
The fellows who post

Will always thieve !

Though the corpus delicti is not quite clear,

For 'tis plain a dead body can't say, " I am here,"

Or "It is I," "homo sum," "me too," or "Ego,"

For all are agreed he's above, or below.

So the posters don't worry as to tuum and meum.

But take the specimens for the museum.

I am in negotiation for some mummies now.
The Egyptians hold on to them more tightly than
they did to the Israelites. I have personally, and
to my regret, found out that they will not give
them up to the order of relatives.

( 29)

What a delight it was to take an excursion with
Dr. Leidy as one of the company ! It made no
difference in what direction ; near home, as down
in the Neck, where the nelumbium grew, or upon
the Wissahickon Hills, or even about the city. I
have heard him talk on cobblestones in a most
instructive and delightful way. The stones of
various buildings, the mineral and fungus deposits
on the walls and pavements, the various layers of
soil where cellars were being dug, the loams, clays,
etc., he knew all about them. Sometimes we went
to the mountains ; sometimes to the coal regions ;
sometimes to the sea. In all he was equally at home.
The botany, the geology, the paleontology, and min-
eralogy were at his finger-ends, and without any more
assumption of superior knowledge than an infant.

How far he was from sordid thoughts ! Like
Agassiz, he had no time to make money !

On several occasions, when passing through
places rich in mineral deposits, and full of the
roar and bustle of industry, some one has said :
" Why, Joe, you knew all about this years ago ;
you told me about it. Why did you not buy some
of the land ?" " Well, now, do you know I never
thought of its having any money value ; and
should I have done so, I did not have the money !"
(30)

In September, 1881, we made a memorable
excursion to Virginia. Its piirijose was to dedi-
cate one of the splendid columns and a stalactite
to Dr. Leidy in the Cave of Luray, and to visit
the Natural Bridge. The weather was fine, and
the ladies and gentlemen of the party were much
interested. One beautiful Sunday morning we
went into the cave, and after inspecting its won-
ders we assembled in the chamber containing the
objects to be dedicated. Miss Ally Leidy, the
doctor's daughter, was furnished with a bottle
filled with clear water from one of the pools in the
cave. She was to break it at the appropriate
moment on the column, in the same manner as at
the launching and naming of a ship. The assem-
bly was formed ; the torches held aloft, lighted up
the scene made brilliant by the reflections from the
glittering stalactites and stalagmites. I was ap-
pointed orator, and my speech was short. I said : —

This column and that stalactite, in the Caverns of Luray,
are dedicated to Dr. Joseph Leidy. From now on they
■will be known as the Leidy Column and the Leidy Stalac-
tite. May they thus aid to perpetuate the name of one
who, holding "communion with the visible forms of na-
ture," has so learned to interpret her grand simplicity that
to hear him is to understand.

(31 )

Miss Ally did her part beautifully. The doctor
made a few remarks, stating that he could not
have been more highly honored than in having
such grand objects named after him. (By the
way, I should have stated that the purposes of the
expedition were until this moment most success-
fully kept from the knowledge of the doctor.)

Quite different was the account of the cere-
monies given outside by one of the young natives.
We had it from one of the ladies of the party,
who, having been in the cave before, did not go
in now, but stayed outside upon the sunny porch.
Her narrative amused Dr. Leidy hugely, both
for itself as well as for the racial peculiarities
which it showed.

About the entrance to the cave was a tribe
of little darkies, mostly of pure blood. They
blacked the boots and brushed the clothes of
the visitors, for going into the cave is not a
clean matter. Among them, however, was one
very light mulatto, almost white, who went in
with the party to see all that was to be seen, and
he ran out ahead to join his fellows after the cere-
monies were over. The lady said, " I know all
about it ; I've been listening to that little fellow
who has been telling the others what he saw and
(32)

heard. ' Great doin's in dar/ he said ; ' I runned
out to tell you'uns bout it. Dey all got togeder ia
de big room, whar de big pillars is. De young misse
hab a bottle full ob de cabe water. One genlra'n
said suffin, anoder genlm'n said suffin, den dey all
look solem like. Now, bust your bottle, says one
ob de genlm'n, says he, and de misse bust de
bottle, and name de pillar fur de genlm'n.' "

All were delighted with this description, and
the ladies at once began to throw nickels and
pennies to the boys who were down on the ground
at the foot of the porch. The mulatto now began
antics in every shape ; he threw wheels, and sum-
mersaults, and started everything prehensile in
his body, even to his toes, and picked up by far
most of the cash, showing that he was much
sharper thail his more deeply colored companions.

The excursion was extended to the Natural
Bridge. Dr. Leidy said, I remember, that he had
travelled much both at home and abroad, had
seen many noted fine things, but he thought that
the Natural Bridge and Niagara Falls were the
two grandest single objects in nature that he had
yet seen or heard of. The Falls are known the
world over; the Bridge is not nearly so well
known, as it deserves to be.

( 33 )

Dr. Leidy has by no means been forgotten in
dedications of grand natural objects to his memory.

Projecting into the solitudes of the icy northern
seas from the east coast of Grinnell Land, the
highest known land of the globe, in latitude 79°
45' north, are two prominent capes bounding a
bay between them. Drs. Elisha Kent Kane and
Isaac I. Hayes discovered and named these in the
famous expedition of 1854-5. They were faith-
ful to their alma mater, for one was christened after
their beloved friend and promising young natu-
ralist. Cape Joseph Leidy, and the other after the
learned and genial Professor of Chemistry in the
Arts Department, Cape John Frazer. There was
no need of bottles of water at these baptisms, for
the breakers of those seas, except when stilled by
ice, are eternally dashing on its shores. Thus
you see the old University is remembered, through
its professors and her alumni, even where the foot
of man has rarely trod.

On the western slope of the Rockies, between
43° and 44° of N. latitude, and 110° and 111° of
W. longitude, south of the Great National Park,
in the State of Wyoming, stands Mount Leidy.
It was named by Dr. F. V. Hayden, the distin-
guished explorer and geologist, in honor of his
( 34)

treasured friend. We, of the Biological Club, re-
call with the greatest pleasure our meetings from
time to time with Dr. Hayden as a welcome guest.
Senator Penrose tells me that, with the exception
of the Tetons, Mount Leidy is the finest object in
the neighborhood, snow-capped and rising in soli-
tary grandeur above the plain. This past summer
he hunted over it with great satisfaction. By the
way, I must tell you that a recent graduate of the
University, and afterward a resident of the Penn-
sylvania Hospital, is now Governor of Wyoming,
Dr. Barber. Thus, Dr. Leidy, who has erected a
monument for himself more enduring than brass,
has had his name impressed by loving friends
deeply under the soil, as at Luray ; high in the
Arctic regions, as by Kane and Hayes ; and in the
wilds of Wyoming, as by Hayden. What his own
community at home will do to perpetuate his
memory remains to be seen.

Leidy was nothing if not Darwinian. He was
a firm believer in the doctrine of evolution, natural
selection, and the survival of the fittest. Dr. Chap-
man has, in his memoir, given a quotation from
Dr. Leidy before Darwin's Origin of Species ap-
peared, foreshadowing the same ideas.

Of course, the credit of fixing an idea through

( 35 )

experiment and observation remains, as it should
do, with the fixer, but as in almost everything we
find that the same ideas have dominated other
minds. In my reading last winter I came across
two passages from Addison which I copied fi^r Dr.
Leidy. He was greatly surprised, and put them
carefully away, to use at some lecture this winter.
Alas ! we shall never hear of them through him.

Who would have thought of the great essayist
and poet being a Darwinian ? He says, in paper
120 of The Spectator, " My friend. Sir Eoger,
is very often merry with me upon my passing so
much of my time among his poultry. He has
caught me twice or thrice looking at a bird's
nest, and several times sitting an hour or two
together looking at a hen and chickens. He
tells me he believes I am personally acquainted
with every fowl about his house ; calls such a par-
ticular cock my favorite ; and frequently complains
that his ducks and geese have more of my company
than himself I must confess I am infinitely de-
lighted with those speculations of nature which are
to be made in a country life ; and as my reading
has very much lain among books of natural history,
I cannot forbear recollecting upon this occasion
the several remarks which I have met with in
( 36 )

authors and comparing them with what falls under
my own observation, the arguments for Providence
drawn from the natural history of animals being,
in my opinion, demonstrative." Addison became
more of an evolutionist, and it is in paper 519 that
the true Darwinian thought is most felicitously
given. It is no wonder that Johnson said, " Who
wishes to attain an English style familiar, but not
coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give
his days and nights to the volumes of Addison."
Mark the last passage of the following quotation ;
Dr. Leidy enjoyed it much : " There are some
living creatures which are raised just above dead
matter. To mention only that species of shell-fish
which are formed in the fashion of a cone, that
grow to the surface of several rocks, and immedi-
ately die upon being severed from the place upon
which they grow. There are many other creatures
but one remove from these which have no other
sense besides that of feeling and taste, others have
still an additional one of hearing ; others of smell
and others of sight.

" It is wonderful to observe by what a gradual
progress the world of life advances through a
prodigious variety of species before a creature is
formed that is complete in all its senses ; and even

( 37 )

among these there is such a different degree of
perfection in the sense which one animal enjoys
beyond what appears in another that, though the
sense in different animals be distinguished by the
same common denomination, it seems almost of a
different nature. If after this we look into the
several inward perfections of cunning and sa-
gacity, or what we generally call instinct, we find
them rising after the same manner imperceptibly
one above another, according to the species in
which they are implanted. This progress in
nature is so very gradual that the most perfect of an
inferior species comes very near to the most imper-
fect of that which is immediately above it.'' How
like Darwin in the first extract, making observa-
tions at home among homely animals ! How very
like him in the last, making, to my mind, deduc-
tions fully in accord with the doctrine of evolution !

Now Addison was born in 1672 and died in
1719. Lamarck, the great French naturalist,
who was closely on the track of Darwin, was
born in 1744 and died in 1829 ; and Darwin him-
self was born in 1809 and died in 1882. So the
poet and man of letters preceded the others for
many years in the same line of thought.

Any thing from the smallest to the greatest
( 38 )

that bore upon the theory of evolution interested
Dr. Lcidy extremely. This walking-stick [show-
ing stick] greatly awakened his interest. It M^as
brought from abroad by a friend of mine and
given to me on the condition that it must be first
shown to Dr. Leidy, and if he could not tell what
it was I would be told. I saw that it was herba-
ceous and said so. Dr. Leidy was puzzled for
once, and got no further in a diagnosis, where-
upon I wrote to my friend, and he answered,
telling what the cane is. It is a strip or shoot of
the wild cabbage. The cabbages (genus Brassica)
are originally sea plants. Among other places
near the sea this wild form grows upon the Chan-
nel Islands, and sometimes at certain stages it
sends up these shoots. Those fit for walking-
sticks are selected by the natives and sold as
curiosities. So I learnedly write to Dr. Leidy an
extract from Knight's Eucyclopsedia (the writer
must have been a good Darwinian) : " This glau-
cous plant has a somewhat woody stem, having
but slender likeness to its cultivated progeny ;
and it is difficult to conceive by what original
discoverer the species was brought under the
influence of domestication so as to have been
prepared for the numerous changes and improve-

(39)

ments it had to undergo before the races of cab-
bages, savoys, borecoles, cauliflowers, and broc-
colis could have been produced." I received this
answer : —

Dear De. Hunt : I am not surprised to hear
the cane is from the " wild cabbage," which I had
never seen, nor would I have guessed its origin.
A number of cultivated plants which are tender
and succulent are woody in the wild condition,
instance the root of the carrot, etc. Do not the
many varieties of cabbage you mention favor the
evolution theory ?

Yours respectfully,

Joseph Leidy.

The doctor's singleness of purpose in his devo-
tion to science, no matter what might be the asso-
ciations, is illustrated in the following incident for
which the Rev. Mr. Burk, our secretary, is re-
sponsible. Burk and Leidy met in a street car.
They sat down together and Leidy began at once :
" I have wanted to see you, to know if you still
keep your little church in the country." Burk
answered solemnly, " Yes, I am still able to retain
it." Burk was surprised, for he thought that
Leidy had experienced a change and was about
opening a conversation on the soul's state of the
average Jerseyman. Now, it so happens, that Mr.

(40)

Burk's church and residence are in a neighbor-
hood where there are marl pits, and in those having
water in them, a large thin-shelled mussel, or unio,
grows which is very interesting, as to its origin
and mode of development in that place. So this
was the Jerseyman that Dr. Leidy was after, and,
with a pause showing much relief, he said, " I am
very glad, indeed, to hear that you still have the
church — very glad. You will keep your eye on
that unio fragilis, I hope."

How fond Dr. Leidy was of gems ! He knew
as much or more about them than the most finished
jewellers. He had quite a valuable collection of
them which he sold some time before his death.
His liking for them came not only from their in-
trinsic beauty, but because they were natural ob-
jects, and for all such objects we have seen that his
appetite was omnivorous.

Various stories are told of ladies driving to the
doctor's house in order to get his judgment upon
diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and other precious
stones before purchasing, and he always gave the
information unerringly and was amused at the fees
tendered by the callers who innocently thought it
was his business.

A gentleman told me that a few days after the

(41 )

doctor's death he was in a shop kept by a lapidary
quite learned in his calling. A stranger to my
friend came in, and the lapidary asked him if he
knew what a certain fine stone was. The stranger
answered he did not, and the lapidary said, "I
also don't know. Ah ! there was only one man who
could have told you what it is, but he is dead."

Dr. Leidy was a giant in intellect, a saint in
disposition. I often marvel at what the world
calls greatness. Who understands the mystery of
why he who constructs a gun, or invents a shell
which will kill, crush, and mangle more at a shot,
than the gun that was in use the year before, is
enriched, ennobled, and glorified, and made the
associate of princes, whilst the practical dis-
coverers of ansesthesia died in poverty and neglect ?
Who of you would not rather have his name asso-
ciated in the humblest way with the introducers of
that great boon to humanity, than to have all the
wealth won from guns, and shot, and shell ? It is
truly a mystery ! It seems to be more praise-
worthy to destroy than to save, " Aus Finsterniss
zum lAcht, durch Blut," is the grim legend of the
black, white, and red Prussian flag — out of dark-
ness into light, through blood ! — and this seems
to be an epitome of the history of the world's
( 42)

progress. Leidy rightly called it a process of
evolution. The thoroughly subdued races and
tribes, " the dead nations, never rise again ;" they
make the paleontology of peoples! The conqueror
moves on a higher plane, and adds in time some-
thing to the general good ; surely it is a mystery !
Is war then the natural state of man ? We who
are old enough to have participated in it, to a
greater or less degree, and to have heard and seen its
" loud lament and dismal miserere," want no more
of it, but we fondly look forward to a realization,
however remote, of what Love says to Death in
the fine sonnet of Tennyson, which, I know from
conversations, expresses the hopes and views of

Dr. Leidy : —

"This hour is thine :
Thou art the shadow of life, and as the tree
Stands in the sun and shadows all beneath,
So in the light of great eternity,
Life eminent creates the shade of death ;
The shadow passeth, when the tree shall fall,
But /shall reign forever over aU,"

And thus our Leidy passed through life, with
peace and love in his heart, leaving to us who
honored him for his intellect, and loved him for
the gentleness that made him great, the right to
laud him as a beacon light of science !

( 43 )

In il\emoriam.

DR. JOSEPH LEIDY

B. Sept. 9, 1823. D. April 30, 1891.

PERSONAL HISTORY.

BY
WILLIAM HUKT, M.D.

READ AT THE ACABE3IY OF NATURAL SCIENCES,
MAY 12, 1891.

acairtm^ of Natural Ztinxtts of ^ttlabHpfiia.

Logan Square, May 7, 1891.
A MEETING in commemoration of Joseph Leidy,
M.D., LL.D., the late President of the Society, will
be held in the Hall of the Academy, Tuesday, the
12th inst., at 8 P.M. Addresses will be made as
follows : —

William Hunt, M.D., " Personal History."
Harrison Allen, M.D., "Work in Vertebrate

Anatomy."
Henry C. Chapman, M.D., " Work in Invertebrate

Anatomy."
Prof. Angelo Heilprin, "Work in Paleontology

and Geology."
Joseph Willcox, " Work in Mineralogy."
James Darrach, M.D., "Work in Botany."
Edward J. Nolan, M.D., " Personal Character and

Services to the Academy."

It is expected that further remarks will be made

by other members.

Edward J. ISTolan,

Recording Secretary.

The meeting was large, and attended both by
men and women. It was a most remarkable occa-

(47)

sion. The originals of the addresses, which were
limited to fifteen or twenty minutes each, are pre-
served in the archives of the Academy.

Dr. Henry C. Chapman has been appointed to
write a full memoir of this great student of nature,
which will be published in the Proceedings of the
Academy. /

W. H.

( 48 )

Kn JHemovfam*

DR. JOSEPH LEIDY.

By WILLIAM HUNT, M.D.

It is fitting that we imagine the beloved subject
of our discourses this evening to be with us in
spirit, as he doubtless is in influence, and to let
him introduce himself, as I heard him do in Asso-
ciation Hall some years ago, where he was about
to give a popular lecture. I was unexpectedly
called upon to introduce him: "What!" said I.
" Who is to introduce the introducer ? Here 's a
man more widely known to the city and to the
world than any of us ! " Dr. Leidy, hearing the
conversation, said : " Oh ! Dr. Hunt, keep your
seat ; I don't wish to be introduced ; I'll introduce
myself." And, stepping to the rostrum, he spoke
in this way :

" My name is Joseph Leidy, doctor of medicine.
I was born in this city on the 9th of September,
1823, and I have lived here ever since. My

(49 )

father was Philip Leidy, the hatter, on Third
Street, above Vine. My mother was Catharine
Mellick, but she died a few months after my birth.
My father married her sister, Christina Mellick,
and, she was the mother I have known, who was
all in all to me, the one to whom I owe all that
I am. At an early age I took great delight in
natural history, and in noticing all natural objects.
I have reason to think that I know a little of natural
history, and a little of that little I propose to teach
you to-night."

This, of course, brought down the house. I
never heard such a good introduction ; but I
little thought that the incident would serve
me to introduce him on this mournful occa-
sion.

"When a boy, so great was his love for the
country that it was difficult to keep him at school.
He took every opportunity for a run or walk in
the fields, and is said to have left school without
permission for this purpose. His mother employed
a colored attendant to look after him, for off he
would go if he could, and he took the chances of
punishment or reproof at home. When ten years
old he sketched pictures of natural objects. A
book of sketches of shells, made when he was
( 50 )

twelve, is in the possession of his nephew, Dr.
Joseph Leidy, Jr.

Dr. Leidy's mother was intelligent, ambitious,
and literary. She regarded a good education as
the best heritage for her children. She wished her
sons to study the professions. I saw her once,
and I remember her as a noble-lookino- woman.

It is well that she was the ruling spirit, for the
father, I am told, had rather a contempt for pro-
fessional men, and wished his sons to learn trades.
Noticing Joseph's facility with the pencil, he wished
him to be an artist. The mother's wishes, how-
ever, prevailed ; but the father was not wholly con-
vinced of the correctness of her judgment until
years after.

She had several sons, and when the war came
she decided that all should go. Even the doctor
took his'part, and became an acting surgeon of the
U. S. Army. He was assigned to hospital duty,
and was chiefly occupied in the study and prepara-
tion of pathological specimens. The Army Medical
Museum at Washington contains some of these,
which are fully described in its records.

Dr. Leidy began the study of medicine in 1840,
and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania
in 1844. His graduating thesis showed the bent

(51 )

of his mind. It was upon the "Comparative
Anatomy of the Eye of Vertebrated Animals."
He became Demonstrator of Anatomy in the
Franklin Medical College, to which new institu-
tion he was no doubt attracted by the genius and
reputation of Dr. Paul B. Goddard, who was his
preceptor. He gave lectures on Microscopic Anat-
omy. His advance now was rapid, for, in 1852,
when it was necessary at the University to appoint
an assistant for Dr. Horner, whose health was
failing. Dr. Leidy was chosen for the place. Dr.
Horner died soon after ; and in 1853 Dr. Leidy
was elected Professor of Anatomy in the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, when he was in the
thirtieth year of his age. He was holding this
position at the time of his death, and, therefore,
held it for thirty-eight years. In 1 8 54 he appointed
me Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University,
and thus, by this choice, I was for ten years,
during the sessions at least, necessarily brought
into daily intercourse with him, which intercourse
ripened into loving and lasting companionship.
During all this association I never had an un-
pleasant word with him ; and yet he could be
indignant, but his indignations were with ideas
and not with persons.
( 52)

This angelic amiability never for a moment
brought disrespect; there was a dignity with it that
mastered all. I cannot recall a single attempt to
play a student's trick upon him ; and I never saw
upon the walls or in the class-rooms any ridicule
of him, either in doggerel or in drawing. The
stories told of him were all beauties, or marvels at
his wondrous learning, or at what he could do
with his eyes, his hands, and his microscope.

Dr. Leidy taught pure anatomy ; others of us
applied the knowledge he gave. This was all he
said he would do, or engage to do. I mention this
for you who are not familiar with such matters.
Think of this ! Could a man enjoy higher praise
than to know that for thirty-eight years he filled
without objection a practical chair in an essentially
practical school for science, and science alone?
In all that time, no jealous aspirant even whis-
pered, "This chair must be practically filled."
The lustre he threw upon the University dimmed
or quenched all jealousies by its brightness. Pro-
fessors, students, and all, behold how they loved
him !

The personal history of Dr. Leidy is all that
has been assigned me to talk about for these few

(53 )

minutes ; and, therefore, I leave to others the task
of speaking of his University scientific career.

Such a pronounced character could not but have
its peculiarities. He was emotional to a degree.
Music and the gentler sentiments stirred him
deeply. If I were talking of a dear friend of his
in his presence, as I am now talking of him, his
eyes would be brimful of tears at the thoughts of
that friend. Yet he professed to dislike poetry,
and could not understand how we enjoyed the
" rhyming stuff." At the Biological Club, a social
organization of which he was President, he would
sit at table either amused or absent-minded or lost
in thought whilst poetical recitations were being
given. Whilst, then, he did not read poetry in
general, some of it touched him deeply. Whit-
tier's poem, " The Prayer of Agassiz," a " word-
less prayer" upon the opening of the Anderson
School of Natural History, at Penikese, stirred
him and pleased him wonderfully ; over and over
he read it, and spoke of it again and again. He
greatly admired the "Chambered jSTautilus" of
Holmes. I recommended him to read the " Than-
atopsis," which he had never done, and that grand
poem also, as Friends say, "met the witness
within." The motion of the hidden fire was there,
{ 54)

and, I have no doubt, at times trembled in his
breast. I am reminded, through speaking of the
" wordless prayer," how Leidy's connection with
Swarthmore brought him in contact with Friends,
and he frequently spoke in admiration of the sim-
plicity of their ways and then- methods of worship.

To any analyzer of mind, it would be rather
absurd to say that this lover of flowers and fields
and woods and brooks, this man who gloated over
jewels and named some of his pretty polyps after
beautiful women, had no poetry in his soul.

The imagination, in fact, properly directed, is a
handmaid of science. I have elsewhere said that
the great Goethe, one of the early leaders of scien-
tific thought, mixed science and poetry in the same
crucible, and, subjecting it to the heat of his
imagination, poured out immortal ingots.

Leidy admitted this, but insisted on the proper
direction towards Nature's facts, and not towards
unreasoning or grotesque fancies. The conven-
tional angel, for example, being a six-limbed
mammal, was an impossibility for him, and he
marvelled how it had been perpetuated from time
immemorial by artists, sculptors, and the Church.

Dr. Leidy wrecked more mare's-nests than any
man I ever heard of. It would take a volume to

( 55 )

record the wonderful discoveries and the more
wonderful specimens that were reported or brought
to him almost daily, either personally or by mail.
Petrified eggs, and tumors of orange pulp, and
living worms of the same material were common
incidents. New old animals, unknown minerals,
mostly artificial, invaluable jewels, mostly of no
value at all, and cures for all evils were presented
for his opinion, his inspection, his name and
patronage.

The quick and quiet way with which he would
expose these wonders and treasures was a sight to
see. And yet he did it with a grace and ease that
had no pretension about it, so that the disappointed
visitor went away under no provocation, but simply
a sadder and a wiser man.

When anything really new was brought for his
opinion he was much interested and most gracious.

It was by no means always the ignorant who
were confounded. Many of us have heard him tell
with glee of the incident (I think at Charleston,
S. C.) where he was entertained at dinner by emi-
nent scientific men. One of the luxuries was the
tail of a drumfish, and even it had its tidbit, or
choice part with the epicures, in the shape of a
peculiar gelatinous mass. A part of this was
( 56 )

helj)ed with high praise to Dr. Leidy. He ate it,
but his suspicions were aroused. He confirmed
the truth of them fully by going to market next
morning and examining a drumfish's tail. He
found that the choice part was a huge parasite
which, I think, he afterwards described. As the
piece was well cooked, he said the eating of it did
no harm.

On the other hand, when caught himself (which
rarely happened), he behaved beautifully. I re-
member walking with him along the grassy path
by the seaside, at Bar Harbor, one summer day.
We were on our M^ay to visit a Philadelphia lady
who was herself an amateur botanist, and particu-
larly well acquainted with the region about us.
Suddenly, Dr. Leidy said, raising his hands,
" Dear me ! There is a plant which Gray says only
grows high on the mountains, and here it is by the
sea." He gathered a portion of it with great care
and put it in his pocket. When he got to the

house he spoke of his find, and showed Mrs.

the specimen. " Why, doctor," she said, " that is
MnpetrumJ' The doctor looked carefully at it
and said, '' Why, so it is ; I thought it was Loise-
leuria,'^ and he laughed heartily, receiving the cor-
rection as though it had come from Gray himself.

(57)

Dr. Leidy loved dearly the company of his
friends, in a social way. Besides presiding at the
Biological Club, he was a Director of the old Con-
tributionship on Fourth Street, and enjoyed the
monthly meetings very much.

His place at table was always a point of interest,
and many regarded it as a privilege to sit near him,
so attractive was his instructive conversation, and
so frequent were the appeals made to him from all
sides for information. The late lamented Sydney
Biddle, the youngest member of our Club, Dr.
Leidy told me, with much feeling, made the request
at my house that at the next meeting he might
have the privilege of sitting by him. Both now
are gone !

In person Dr. Leidy was a blonde, of medium
height and stout frame. He wore a full beard, and
had fine, silken, flowing hair. His forehead was
beautiful, but by no means pronounced. His
almost straight brows overhung rather deeply set,
very thoughtful, and somewhat pensive blue eyes.
His nose was of the aquiline order and finely cut.
His mouth, medium in size, with flexible, well-
formed lips backed by fine teeth, had great range
of expression.

In early manhood Dr. Leidy's face bore a
C 58 )

striking likeness to the familiar pictures of the
Saviour, and several pretty stories are told of con-
fiding little children coming unto him attracted by
the resemblance. One of these I have direct.
The doctor was being entertained one Sunday in
the country by a former member of this Academy,
now dead. The company started out for a
walk. A little daughter of the host joined them
and walked with her father ; suddenly she broke
away and ran over the grass in chase of a butter-
fly. After much exertion she caught it, brought
it back to the company, and whispered in her
father's ear that it was for Jesus Christ, and tim-
idly gave it to the doctor.

In reviewing what I have written, I see that it
would be natural for some one to say, " You have
described a perfect man ! Had he no faults ?" As
there is but One all-perfect, of course he had
faults, but I do not know them.

No one disbelieves the sentimental " De mortuis
nir more than I do. I have declaimed against it,
for, if it prevailed, history and biography would be
useless. In this case, however, I can simply
repeat, after much thought, " I find no fault in this
man."

The end was approaching. Dr. Leidy worked

( 59 )

through the past session of the University feeling
the mental and physical effects of his labors more
and more. Frequently he sat down during half of
his lecture. The examinations came on, and they
exhausted him greatly. He said, " The old ma-
chine is breaking up."

About two weeks before he died he attended the
funeral of Aubrey H. Smith, also one of the hon-
ored members of this Academy. I occupied a seat
during that " hour's communion with the dead,"
which gave me a full view of the doctor, who sat
at one end of a sofa near the coffin, his face buried
in his hands. He was evidently in deep thought.
He left the house and turned up Pine Street alone,
much bowed down, and possibly contemplating
his own near call.

On the Thursday following he took to his bed.
On Saturday, whilst he was still sensible, his
daughter showed him a sprig of Mayflower.
" What beautiful Epigea .'" he said ; " do you re-
member what the name means ?" He shortly after
lapsed into unconsciousness, which became deeper
and deeper until he died.

In truth, then, at the close, he laid down in
green pastures.
( 60 )

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