Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/387

NAME ENGELMANN 365 ENGELMANN a number of live snakes and other reptiles, and a large white owl and a brown bear had the liberty of the house and grounds. These were banished in the house-cleaning made by his mother, preparatory to his marriage. In 1834 he purchased a tract of land adjoining the University grounds, built a house, calling the place Morea, and here passed his time in the fullest enjoyment of giving play to the exer- cise of his ingenuity, chiefly in the line of horticulture. He planted and experimented with flowers and fruits in great variety ; gave the neighborhood 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 multicaulis and raised silk-worms, and after several years succeeded in making sewing silk of the best quality. Discovering on his place a vein of fine kaolin, he used this earth in making pottery and porcelain vessels, devising the necessary methods for doing so, and also made from it a fine hone and a variety of water-proof cements. He married, in 1827, Mary B. F. Tucker, a native of Bermuda, who was then on a visit to her uncle, Mr. George Tucker, a colleague in the faculty. Thomas Addis, one of Emmet's sons, became the noted gynecologist of New York, who died March 1, 1919, at the age of ninety. In January, 1842, the condition of his health necessitated a trip to Florida, where in the milder climate he so improved that in May he with his wife were able to take passage on a vessel sailing for New York. This vessel was dismasted in a storm off Cape Hatteras and drifted for thirty-eight days 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 IS, 1842. For ten years after 1830 he was a frequent contributor on various scientific subjects to SilUman's Journal. He also wrote often for the different literary publications, including the Virginia Literary Museum, then edited and published at the University of Virginia. A portrait done in July, 1842, just before his death, was in the possession of his son, Dr. T. A. Emmet, of New York. Robert M. Slaughter. Memoir of Prof. John Patten Emmet, by his son. Thos. Addis Emmet, M. D. The -Mumni Bulletin. University of Virginia, vol i, No. 4, Feb., I89S. Engelmann, George ( 1 809- 1 884 ). George Englemann, best known as a botan- ist, was born in Germany February 2, 1809. in the old and wealthy city of Frankfort-on-the- Main, and died of Bright's disease in St. Louis on February 11, 1884. His father was a burgo- master 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. (q. v.), a scientific gynecologist. He entered as a pupil at the University of Heidelberg, where he met and formed an inti- mate association with Louis Agassiz (q. v.) and Alexander Braun and graduated as doctor of medicine at Wiirzburg, after attending in Ber- lin the lectures of the genial Prof. Schonlein and others. His inaugural dissertation created quite a sensation among the acquaintances of the young, scientist. It was called "De An- tholysi Prodromus'' and treated of morpho- logical monstrosities of plants and their meta- morphoses. 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 plants. Engelmann, however, did not deduct from his researches the shallow hypotheses attempted since by Darwin. His work was purely scientific, dif- fering in this from Darwin's conceptions, whch, as Virchow proved, are not founded upon a scientific basis. This essay was soon followed by a monograph, also in Latin, on ihe habits of a little creeper he found on a hazel bush. It was printed in Germany, delighted scientists on account of the minuteness and perfections of the observations. Largely due to him is the honor of having introduced the present method of classification of plants based on micro- scopical examinations and investigations. His whole heart was given to this work. He always investigated systematically and accepted nothing for granted in science until it had passed through the searching crucible of his analogical mind. After thorough observations he published in America his masterpiece, "The Monography of North American Cuscutinae," this production being republished by botanical periodicals in England and Germany, also in America in 1842 by the American Journal of Science. His descriptions of the cactacae of the Pacific Railroad survey followed, and several years later came his most renowned work on the cactaoas of the boundary, which forms a highly interesting portion of "Emory's Report of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey" (1858), the magnificent illustrations of which were engraved in Europe under Engelmann's direction. Many other papers on botany were also pub- lished by him at different times, "The Yucca," "The Agave," "The Conifera," "The American