Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/403

 EMMET

2S5

ENGELMANN

Neven, while studying medicine. In 1825 he was offered the Chair of natu- ral history, as it was then termed, com- prehending zoology, botany, mineralogy, chemistry and geology, in the University of Virginia, which he accepted. In 1827 his chair was changed to that of chem- istry and materia niedica, and this he filled until his health gave way in 1S42. Before his marriage he filled his resi- dence with pets, accumulating in one room a number of live snakes and other reptiles, and a large white owl and brown bear had the liberty of the house and grounds. These were banished in the house-cleaning made by his mother pre- paratory to his marriage. In 1S34 he purchased a tract of land adjoining the University grounds, built a house, call- ing the place Morea, and here passed his time in the fullest enjoyment of giving play to the exercise of his ingenuity, chief- ly in the line of horticulture. He plant- ed and experimented with flowers and fruits in great variety; gave the neigh- borhood its noted stock of apples and peaches; established the cultivation of the grape and the making of wine and brandy in that section. He grew hedges of the morus muUicaulis and raised silk- worms, and after several years suc- ceeded in making sewing silk of the best quality. Discovering on his place a vein of fine kaolin, he used this earth in mak- ing pottery and porcelain vessels, devising the necessary methods for doing so, and also made from it a fine hone and a va- riety of water-proof cements.

He married, in 1827, Mary B. F. Tuck- er, a native of Bermuda, who was then on a visit to her uncle, Mr. George Tuck- er, a colleague in the faculty. Thomas Addis, one of Emmet's sons, became a doctor.

In January, 1S42, the condition of his health necessitated a trip to Florida, where in the milder climate he so im- proved that in May he with his wife were able to take passage on a vessel sailing for New York. I

ed in a storm off Cape Hatteras and drifted for thirty-eight dayi before she

was picked up and taken into New York. The incident privation and exposure so greatly reduced his strength that he died in New York, August 15, 1S42.

For ten years after 1S30 he was a frequent contributor on various scientific subjects to "Silliman's Journal." He also wrote often for the different liter- ary publications, including the " Vir- ginia Literary Museum," then edited and published at the University of Virginia.

A portrait done in July, 1842, just be- fore his death, is in the possession of his son, Dr. T. A. Emmet. R. M. S.

Memoir of Prof. John Patten Emmet. By his son, Thos. Addis Emmet, M. D. The Alumni Bulletin, University of Va., vol. i, No. 4, Feb., 1895.

Engelmann, George (1S09-1SS4).

George Engelmann, best known as a botanist was born in Germany on Feb- ruary 2, 1809, in the old and wealthy city of Frankfort-on-the-Main, and died of Bright's disease in St. Louis on February 4, 1SS4. His father was a burgomaster in Frankfort, and was able to give his son a university education. He was the eldest of thirteen children, and left only one son, George J., a scien- tific gynecologist.

He entered as a pupil at the Univer- sity of Heidelberg, where he met and formed an intimate association with Louis Agassiz and Alexander Braum and graduated as doctor of medicine at Wiirzburg, after attending in Berlin the lectures of the genial Prof. Schonlein and others. His inaugural dissertation created quite a sensation among the ac- quaintances of the young scientist. It was called "De Antholysi 1'rodromus" and treated of morphological monstrosi- ties of plants and their metamorphoses. It was written in elegant Latin, and showed evidence of deep insight into the nature and cause of the deviations from the ordinary conformations of plant Engelmann, however, did not deduct from his researches the shallow hypoth- eses attempted since by Darwin. His work was purely scientific, differing in