Page:Biographical Memoir of Samuel George Morton - George Bacon Wood.djvu/7



accepting the appointment with which the College honored me, of preparing a biographical sketch of our late Fellow, Dr. Samuel George Morton, it may be remembered that I requested indulgence on the score of time; as the urgency of my then existing engagements rendered immediate attention to the duty impossible. The delay has been longer than I could have wished; but, happily, there was little occasion for haste, as the Academy of Natural Sciences, with which, through official position and long cooperation, Dr. Morton was more closely connected than with any other public body, had already provided for that commemoration which society owed to him, as to one who had faithfully and honorably served it. In what manner this duty was fulfilled need not be told to those who have perused the memoir prepared by Dr. C. D. Meigs, so characteristic of the author in its easy and copious flow of expression, its genial warm-heartedness, its glowing fancy, and the cordial, unstinted appreciation of the merits of its subject. It may be proper to mention here, that to this memoir I am indebted for many of the following facts. Having been prepared under the auspices of an association devoted to the natural sciences, though treating of our departed colleague with greater or less fulness in all his relations, it very appropriately directs a special attention to the scientific side of his life and character. With equal propriety, as appears to me, a professional body like the present may expect a particular reference to his medical history; and I shall, accordingly, endeavour to place him before you rather as a physician than as a man of general science. It was in the former capacity that Dr. Morton was best known to the writer, who had the honor of aiding in the conduct of his early medical studies, was afterwards for a time associated with him as a medical teacher, and,