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288 to teach physiology experimentally in any of the medical colleges of Philadelphia. During the civil war he devoted himself exclusively to practice, resigning from his professorships, but in June. 1866, he delivered a series of lectures on the physiology and pathology of the blood and circulation at Jefferson medical college, and in 1868 became professor of the institutes of medicine and medical jurisprudence there. He was physician to the department of diseases of the chest in Howard hospital and infirmary for incurables in 1855-'68, and was appointed physician of the Pennsylvania hospital in 1868. Dr. Meigs was a member of medical societies in the United States and Europe, and was president of the Philadelphia county medical society in 1871, also librarian of the Philadelphia academy of natural sciences in 1856-'9, and a delegate to the International medical congress in Philadelphia in 1876. His bibliography was extensive, and was chiefly devoted to ethnological and craniological subjects. He prepared an appendix for the first American edition of William B. Carpenter's "Microscope and its Revelations" (Philadelphia, 1856); and the article on "The Cranial Characteristics of the Races of Men" in Nott and Glydden's "Indigenous Races of the Earth " (1857); and he also edited an American edition of Kirke's "Manual of Physiology" (1857).

MEIGS, Return Jonathan, soldier, b. in Middletown, Conn., 17 Dec. 1734; d. in Cherokee agency, Ga., 28 Jan., 1823. He marched with a company of light infantry to the vicinity of Boston immediately after the battle of Lexington, and was assigned to duty under Col.

with the rank of major. He accompanied the expedition through Maine to Canada, and was captured in the assault on Quebec, but was exchanged during the following year. He then devoted his energies toward raising a regiment, and in 1777 was promoted to colonel. In May, 1777, at the head of 170 men, he attacked the British troops at Sag Harbor, L. I., making ninety prisoners, and destroying twelve vessels and much forage without the loss of a man. For this brilliant exploit, congress voted him thanks and a sword. Col. Meigs commanded a regiment under Gen.

at the storming of Stony Point, and was honorably mentioned by Washington. Subsequently he served in various places until the close of the war. He was one of the earliest settlers of Ohio, going there in 1788, and he drew up a system of regulations for the first emigrants, that was posted on a large oak-tree, near the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. In 1801 he was appointed Indian agent of the Cherokees, among whom he passed the remainder of his life. The origin of his name is of peculiar interest. His father, when a young man, was very attentive to a fair Quakeress, who resided in the vicinity of Middletown, but he was unsuccessful in his suit and repeatedly rejected with “Nay, Jonathan, I respect thee much; but I cannot marry thee.” But on his last visit, as he slowly mounted his horse, the relenting lady beckoned him to stop, saying: “Return, Jonathan ! Return, Jonathan !” These, the happiest words he had ever heard, he gave as a name to his first-born son. Col. Meigs journal of the expedition to Quebec, which is said to be the best account extant, appeared in the “American Remembrancer” of 1776, and was published with and introduction and notes by Charles L. Bushnell (New York, 1864). - His son, Return Jonathan, senator, b. in Middletown, Conn., in November, 1765; d. in Marietta, Ohio, 29 March, 1825, was graduated at Yale in 1785, and then studied law. In 1788 he went to Ohio with his father and settled in Marietta. He was sent on a commission to the British commander at Detroit by Gen.

in 1790, and subsequently participated frequently in the Indian fights of that period. During 1803-'4 he was chief justice of the Ohio supreme court, and he then had charge of the St. Charles district in Louisiana until 1806, with the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel in the U.S. army, being also judge of the supreme court in that district during 1805-'6. Mr. Meigs was appointed judge of the U.S. district court of Michigan in April, 1807, and continued in that office until 1808, when he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. senate from Ohio, serving from 6 Jan., 1809, till 1 May, 1810. He was elected governor of Ohio in 1810, and held that office until 1814. During the war with Great Britain in 1812-'15 he did more than any other governor to aid the country during that conflict by the prompt organizing of militia, by garrisoning the forts and securing safety to the exposed settlements, and by the aid that he rendered to the army under Gen. . On the resignation of Postmaster-General Gideon Granger in March, 1814, President Madison invited Col. Meigs to fill that place in the cabinet, and he continued in office under Monroe until December, 1823, when he retired to Marietta, Ohio, and there passed the remainder of his life. - The second Return Jonathan's nephew, Return Jonathan, lawyer, b. in Clark co., Ky., 14 April, 1801, was educated at various academies and after studying law was admitted to the bar in Frankfort, Ky., in October, 1822. He then visited his grandfather, who was stationed at that time as Indian agent in Hiawassee garrison, East Tenn., and subsequently, after that relative's death, administered his estate. He was made special agent to the Cherokee and Creek Indians in 1834, and was appointed in March, 1841, U.S. district attorney for the middle district of Tennessee. Later he served for one term as state senator. In 1863, on the organization of the supreme court of the district of Columbia, he became its clerk, which office he still (1888) holds. He has published “Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Tennessee” (Nashville, 1839); “Digest of all the Decisions of the Former Superior Courts of Law and Equity, and of the Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals in the State of Tennessee” (1848); and “The Code of Tennessee,” prepared in connection with William F. Cooper, under enactment of the legislature of Tennessee (1858). His son and grandson, who are residents of Washington, D.C., bear the same name. - Return Jonathan's brother, Josiah, educator, b. in Middletown, Conn., 21 Aug., 1757; d. in Washington, D.C., 4 Sept., 1822, was graduated at Yale in 1788, where among his classmates, were , Uriah Tracy, , and Oliver Wolcott. In 1781 he was appointed tutor in mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy in Yale, and at the same time studied law, being