Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/718

680 studied medicine under Dr. Paul B. Goddard. and was graduated in that department at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania in 1844. At first he became assistant in the chemical laboratory of Robert Hare and James B. Rogers, also practising medicine, but in 1846 he wholly relinquished the practice of his profession, excepting during the civil war, when he entered the U. S. volunteer army and served as a contract surgeon in the Satterlee general hospital in Philadelphia, Pa. Meanwhile, in 1845, he be- came prosector to the chair of anatomy in the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, which was then held by Dr. William E. Horner, and in 1846 became demon- strator of anatomy in Franklin medical college. The latter appointment he held for one session only, arid then he renewed his association with Dr. Horner, with whom he also gave a private course of anatomical lectures. He visited Europe in 1848, examining the museums and hospitals there, and on his return lectured on microscopic anatomy, and in 1849 began a course of lectures on physi- ology at the Medical institute. In 1852 he took Dr. Horner's place, and delivered his lectures to the completion of the course, and on the death of the latter in the following year Dr. Leidy was elected to the chair of anatomy. In 1871 he was also called to the chair of natural history in Swarth- more college, and for many years held both those posts. Prof. Leidy, in 1884, on the establishment of the department of biology in the University of Pennsylvania, became its director, which office he long held. He was an accomplished draughtsman, and in 1844, when Dr. Amos Binney was about to publish his work on the terrestrial air-breathing mollusks, he selected Prof. Leidy to dissect and draw the internal organs of the species that were to be described. Prof. Leidy obtained the Walker Erize of $1,000 from the Boston society of natural istory in 1880, and also the Lyell medal with the sum of £25 from the Geological society of London " in recognition of his valuable contributions to Ealaeontology," and received in 1886 the degree of iL. D. from Harvard. He was a member of numer- ous scientific societies, in 1884 was elected to the National academy of sciences, and was president of the Philadelphia academy of natural sciences. The titles of his published papers exceed 800 in number all on biological subjects, of which many are from specimens obtained on the various surveys under the U. S. government and submitted to him for study and report. His first palaeontological paper, published in 1847, was " On the Fossil Horse," a subject which later, in the hands of Thomas H. Huxley and Othniel C. Marsh, has been used in the illustration of the theory of evolution. Prof. Leidy's principal works are " Memoir on the Ex- tinct Species of American Ox " (1852) ; " A Flora and Fauna within Living Animals" (1853); "An- cient Fauna of Nebraska " (1853) ; u On the Extinct Sloth Tribe of North America " (1855) : " Creta- ceous Reptiles of the United States" (1865); "The Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Ne- braska" (1809); "Contributions to the Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of the Western Territories " (1873) ; " Description of Vertebrate Remains from the Phosphate Beds of South Carolina " (1877) ; "Fresh -Water Rhizopods of North America" (1879) ; " The Parasites of the Termites " (1881) ; "On Manayunkia speciosa" (1883): and "Tape- Worm in Birds " (1887). The foregoing have been issued by the Philadelphia academy of natural sci- ences, the Smithsonian institution, and under the auspices of the National government. He was also the author of " An Elementary Text-Book on Hu- man Anatomy " (Philadelphia, 1861).

LEIGH, Benjamin Watkins, senator, b. in Chesterfield county, Va., 18 June, 1781 ; d. in Rich- mond, Va., 2 Feb., 1849. He was graduated at William and Mary in 1802, and at twenty-one years of age was admitted to the bar. He prac- tised successfully till 1813 in Petersburg, Va., was a member of the legislature from that city, and presented a series of resolutions that asserted the right of the legislature to instruct the U. S. sena- tors from Virginia. He then removed to Rich- mond, where he at once took a high place at the bar, was one of the commissioners to revise the statutes of the state, and became reporter to the court of appeals. In 1822 he was sent as commis- sioner to Kentucky, and in concert with Henry Clay, on the part of that state, made an agreement concerning the "occupying claimants" law, which threatened to annul the Virginia title to lands in Kentucky. He was an active member of the State constitutional convention in 1829-'30, and in 1834 was elected to the U. S. senate, as a Whig, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William C. Rives, Democrat, who had refused to obey the instructions of the legislature. Mr. Leigh was re-elected at the next session of the legislature, but in 1836. the political complexion of that body having changed, he could not obey his instruc- tions, and in July of this year he resigned and re- tired to private life. William and Mary gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1835. He published " Re- ports of Cases in the Court of Appeals, and in the General Court of Virginia " (Richmond 1830-'44). — His cousin, Hezekiah Gilbert, clergyman, b. in Perquimans county, N. C, 25 Nov., 1795 ; d. in Mecklenburg county, Va., 18 Sept., 1858, was edu- cated in Murfreesborough, N. C, taught for two years, in 1818 joined the Virginia conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, and for thirty-five years occupied responsible charges in that state and in North Carolina. In 1829 he was a founder of Randolph Macon college, Va., and subsequently he was one of its principal supporters. In 1849 he was an organizer of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. Randolph Macon college gave him the de- gree of LL. D. in 1858.

LEIGHTON, William, poet, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 22 June, 1833. He received the degree of B. S. at Harvard in 1855, and engaged in the manu- facture of glass. In 1868 he removed to Wheel- ing, W. Va. He is the author of " The Sons of Godwin," a tragedy (Philadelphia, 1876) ; " Change : the Whisper of the Sphinx," a philosophical poem (1878); "A Sketch of Shakespeare" (Wheeling, 1879) ; " Shakespeare's Dream, and other Poems " (Philadelphia, 1881) ; " The Subjection of Hamlet," an essay on the motives of thought and action in that tragedy (1882) ; and " The Price of the Present Paid by the Past," a poem that he delivered at the dedication of a soldiers' monument in Wheeling (printed privately, 1883).

LEIPER, Thomas, b. in Strathaven, Lanark, Scotland, 15 Dec, 1745; d. in Delaware county. Pa., 6 July, 1825. He was educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh, and emigrated to Maryland in 1763. In 1765 he removed to Philadelphia, where he engaged in the storing and exportation of tobacco. When the Revolution began the principal tobacco-house was interdicted, and Mr. Leiper, seizing this opportunity, pushed his connection so that he soon became the principal factor in Philadelphia. A few years later he built in Delaware county. Pa., several large mills for the manufacture of tobacco and snuff, and in 1780 he bought and operated quarries in the neighborhood of his mills. By these means he amassed a large fortune, which