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486 to disperse other delusions regarding the "profits" of that "tour." Such statements are credible to the mean, incredible to the high-minded, and were therefore never thought worthy of refutation by me. And why should I now waste a word upon your critic's closing sentences? It will not make him noble to be told that envy is ignoble; that, if ever "praise" has been adjudged to me by his country-men, it is not because I went out of my way to seek it. It came to me unasked—an incident, not an aim—shining, as your own Emerson would put it, pleasantly because spontaneously, upon the necessary journey of my life. It was not, I can truly say, the applause of large assemblies that constituted my chief happiness in the United States, but the ever-growing proof, for the most part undemonstrative, that, without swerving from my duty, I had gained a modicum of the affection of the American people. That I prized, and that I have sought to keep free from fleck, material or intellectual. For reasons best known to himself, your critic does not relish this relation; and he will damage it if he can, I cherish the belief that he will be unsuccessful.I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 2em 2em



HE subject of the present notice, of whom an excellent portrait appears in this number, although still in middle life, has made extensive contributions to American science during the past generation, and has permanently identified his name with its progress and development. Choosing two of the most rapidly-advancing sciences, chemistry and geology, as his field of work, and studying them especially in their intimate and extensive interactions, he has had a large and honorable share in giving form to our present knowledge upon these subjects. Although an indefatigable experimenter and an extensive observer. Dr. Hunt is also eminently an original and philosophic thinker, and has taken an influential part in the establishment of the most matured scientific theories. He was early in the field of chemical speculation, and aided essentially in that revolution of views which has ended in the establishment of the "new chemistry."

was born on the 5th of September, 1826, in Norwich, Connecticut, where he received his early education. He began the study of medicine, but soon abandoned it for chemistry and mineralogy, and in 1845 became a private student with the present Prof. Benjamin Silliman at New Haven, acting meanwhile as chemical assistant to Prof. B. Silliman, senior, in the chemical laboratory of 