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Appendix I. Biographical and Bibliographical Sketches of Fifty-five Leading American Scientists of the Period 1815 to 1845
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APPENDIX I Biographical and Bibliographical Sketches of Fifty-five Leading American Scientists of the Period 1815 to 1845 The men covered in this appendix were the most proMc contributors to the sixteen scientific journals which were indexed for this study. As such, they form the nucleus about which this study is built. One other man should appear in the list, but he flourished only briefly and I could find no information about him; not even so much as an obituary notice.· The relative lengths of the sketches should not be considered as indicative of a judgment of the scientist's importance. Instead, I have tried to give more complete information concerning less well-known figures than those that are already better known. There is very little, for example, that one could add to scholarly knowledge of James D. Dana in a sketch of one or two pages; for some others, like John D. Godman, a great deal of generally unknown information can be presented. I have not duplicated information found in the text. The same considerations dictated the number of bibliographical entries allotted to a subject; generally speaking, where a major scholarly biography has been written, I have listed only one or two contemporary memoirs, if any were written, in addition to the biography. On the other hand, where no major biography has been written, I have listed all the sources which have come to my attention, except those that were obviously based upon previous works and add nothing new about the man. • A. B. Quinby, who published articles on mechanical power conversions and steam engines in the American Journal of Science and Arts between 1824 and 1827, is the man whose sketch is missing. The only information I have about him is that he lived in New York at the time he was publishing. There is no record that he ever wrote a book, and I found no mention of him in any other journals of the period. 202 FIFTY-FIVE AMERICAN SCIENTISTS Similarly, I have only listed manuscript sources which, to my knowledge, have not been used by scholars. In some cases, however, brevity does indicate a poverty of source material, rather than adequate coverage elsewhere . The following abbreviations or short forms are used throughout for works frequently referred to: AAAS Proc. AJS APS, Proc. Bell Drake's DAB CAB CAMB DAB Gross, Autobiog. Gross' Lives NAS Biog. Mem. Proc. AAA&S Simpson Youmans American Association for the Advancement of Science, Proceedings American Journal of Science and Arts American Philosophical Society, Proceedings Whitfield Bell, Early American Science: Needs and Opportunities for Study Francis S. Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, Including Men of the Time. ... (Boston, James R. Osgood and Co., 1876). Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography Howard A. Kelly, A Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography , Comprising the Lives of Eminent Deceased Physicians and Surgeons from 1610 to 1910 (Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company, 1912), 2 Vols. Dictionary of American Bio~raphy Autobiography of Samuel D. Gross, With Sketches of His Contemporaries, 2 Vols. (Philadelphia, 1861). Samuel D. Gross, Lives of Eminent American Phusicians and Surgeons of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, 1861). National Academy of Science, Bioeraphical Memoirs. Proceedings of the American Academq of Arts and Sciences Henry Simpson, Lives of Eminent Philadelphians Now Deceased (Philadelphia, 1859). William J. Youmans, Pioneers of Science in America (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1896). For those works which are in dictionary form I have not given page numbers. ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE (1806-1867), the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was born in Philadelphia, and after attending a classical school graduated from West Point with highest honors at the age of 19. He then taught for three years, served briefly as a Lieutenant of Engineers , and in 1828 became professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon being appointed head of the newly founded Girard College, he went abroad to study educational institutions , and upon his return published Education in Europe, which is said to have done much to improve educational methods in the United States. During the period 1829-1837 he published articles in astronomy, meteorology, chemistry, and physics, more than half of which were in astronomy . He had early developed an interest in terrestrial magnetism, and lare:ely throue:h his efforts the first ma!!netic observatorv in the FIFTY-FIVE AMERICAN SCIENTISTS 203 United States was established at Girard College in 1840. In 1843 he succeeded Hassler as superintendent of the United States Coast...