HAZARD'S

REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA.

DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE.

EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD.

VOL. XV.--NO. 9.

PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY 28, 1835.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE
THOMAS SAY, ESQ.

A Biographical Sketch of the late Thomas Say, Esq.
Read before the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia, December 16, 1834. By BENJAMIN H.
COATES, M. D.

No. 373.

the respect paid to his religious character; although, as appears by a memoir of his life, published by his son, he differed from the religious association with which he was connected in certain doctrinal principles, inclining strongly to universalism. Dr. Benjamin Say, the immediate progenitor of the subject of these notes, was long known in this city as a skilful and benevolent practitioner of medicine, and enjoyed in that capacity a large share of public confidence and patronage. Having been connected with military proceedings during the war of independence, he joined that seceding portion of the society of Friends, known by the name of Free Quakers.

During the twenty-two years which have elapsed since the first institution of the Academy, it is remarka. ble that our body has seldom, till the present occasion, been called upon to lament the death of one of its founders. That which, according to the usual course of human events, might have been expected to take precedence in the order of time, has occurred in the The immediate subject of our memoir was born July second place; and while we have had to deplore the 27th, 1787, and was the eldest son of Dr. Benjamin loss of many of the brightest ornaments and most use- Say and Anna, his first wife, a daughter of Benjamin ful labourers of our association, the shaft of death has Bonsall, Esq. of Kingsessing. In his early youth he been but rarely directed towards that little band who was brought up in rigid compliance with many of the first brought it into existence. The body which I peculiar observances of the society of Friends or Quahave the honor to address, owes its origin to a few ac- kers. He received a considerable part.of his education tive individuals; and while the feelings of private friend- at their school at West town, in Pennsylvania; and the ship naturally revert to the virtues of the deceased, the remainder of it generally at the institutions of that rehaving assisted in the creation of such an Academy,ligious body. He manifested, at this period, a remarkaand promoted its usefulness by a long, steady and active course of scientific labours, forms the strongest claim which his memory can possess to the grateful reminiscences of the public. This is indeed pre-eminently the case in the present instance; so large a mass of the early writings of Mr. Say having been published in the Journal of the Institution as in a great measure to identify him with it. The same efforts by which our departed fellow member raised the reputation and extended the usefulness of the body to which he belonged, formed the foundation of his own; and it is perhaps not employing too strong a phrase, to allege, that the scholar and his infant association found their way to fame together.

ble docility of temper, a profound and confiding respect for his parents and teachers, and a great fondness for study. He pursued, by his own choice, an extended course of reading among the writers of his own language; having compiled, at one time, a large volume of poetical extracts, arranged alphabetically.These latter pursuits however, were not well suited to the bias of his mind; and, he soon forsook poetry altogether, devoting himself exclusively to the accumulation of fact or natural truth.

At an early period of his life, a near family connection with the celebrated naturalist, William Bartram, of Kingsessing, induced the young Say, together with several of his acquaintance, to devote a considerable amount of time to collecting objects of natural history This occurrence for their venerable friend's museum. seems to have fixed his destiny: the student, young as he was, felt himself at once in his proper sphere. He immediately commenced the study of natural history; a pursuit which, though occasionally suffering a temporary interruption, was never wholly laid aside for the remainder of his life. The natural gaiety of youth, the attractions of fashion, the multiform allurements which surround a young man of easy fortune, and even the serious claims of a commercial establishment, were all capable of occupying his mind but for a short season, to be soon superseded by those boundless cravings for knowledge which an Almighty Power had placed withIn the most elated moments of youthful in his breast. excitement, he would abruptly relinquish the occupation in which he was engaged, if an opportunity occurred for enriching his collections with an insect; and when, at a subsequent day, in compliance with the earnest wishes of his father, he entered into commercial engagements, the future naturalist was found by his friends occupied with those pursuits for which nature had designed him, and leaving the details of busi

The family of our deceased fellow member had been settled in Pennsylvania from the time of its first colonization. His ancestors by the father's side are understood to have been Huguenots, who emigrated to England in pursuit of religious liberty: and his lineal predecessor, in the fourth degree of proximity, came from England with William Penn, accompanied by others of his family. The integrity and activity of these high principled and determined men, were rewarded by a liberal share of the divine blessing upon the external circumstances which surrounded them. They and their descendants generally lived to an extreme age, surrounded by peace and abundance, and enjoying the confidence and respect of their fellow citizens within the colony. His grandfather, Thomas Say, was a very patriarchal man. Educated in the Episcopal church, by his step father Paschall and his uncle Robinson, he was united, early in the eighteenth century, to the religious society of Friends. While in that connection, his personal conduct and character were such as to acquire for him a high estimation among his friends and acquaintance. The confidence reposed in him was exemplified by his being frequently employed in the care of the estates of deceased persons, and in the guardian-ness to others. The commercial efforts proved unsucship of orphans; both of which trusts he conducted with great satisfaction, retaining, long after, the friendship of the parties he had served. It was also exhibited in VOL. XV. 17

cessful; and Mr. Say, deprived of his patrimony, instead of endeavouring to repair the loss, resolved to devote himself exclusively to natural history. From this

may be dated the commencement of his purely scientific career: he now began to consider science as a profession. As has so frequently been the case in the lives of learned men, the loss of worldly prosperity seemed the road to higher intellectual distinction and more enlarged usefulness.

The studies of the youthful naturalist, about this period, underwent a temporary interruption, from his service as a volunteer in the last war between our country and England. In common with several of his friends and relations, he became a member of the first troop of city cavalry, and in that capacity proceeded to Mount Bull; where he remained for some time during the years 1812 and 1813. The breaking up of this military post, however, soon left him at liberty to return to the pursuits for which he felt so strong an attach

ment.

In pursuance of his recent determination, he had already devoted considerable labour to the study of natural history, and the collection of the natural productions of our country, when he found the arena of his usefulness suddenly extended by the formation of this Academy. When, on the 25th of January, 1812, the little association which had previously employed itself in pursuits of a more private character, agreed to assume the style and character of our present institution, it was considered of importance that Thomas Say, though absent from the meeting, should be assumed as an original member. The compliment thus paid to a modest and retiring man, shows, as was intended, the value which was then set upon his adhesion by the six others who thus associated him to their number. How amply his subsequent course justified their selection, all the volumes of the Journal, and all the foreign correspondence of the Academy can abundantly testify.He came among them a disciplined naturalist. Such was the effect of private study, that his subsequent acquaintance had no opportunity of witnessing the infancy of his scientific powers. His elementary knowledge was complete; his acquaintance with classification adequate, and his power of observing and discriminating, accurate and ready. He was at once prepared for the difficult and laborous task of describing and cataloguing American productions in natural history. He was fully fitted at all points for academic usefulness.

may be easily imagined. Those who were disposed to visit the establishment, were at all times certain of agreeable society; for Mr. Say was ever attentive to all reasonable calls for conversation, so much so as even to surprise his friends. The books and specimens were, through his means, of ready access, while at the same time, his presence was a check upon confusion, loss and disorder. His uniform attendance operated as a powerful encouragement to the practice of studying within the walls of the institution."

This indefatigable and eminent naturalist was at all times ready to bestow the fruits of his own researches upon those of his friends who felt an interest in similar pursuits. In this manner he was incalculably serviceable to young students in natural history, by his advice and assistance; feeling far more anxious to extend the sphere of science in his country, than to increase his own fame. This generosity in bestowing upon others the results of his own industry, so highly characteristic of true genius and real love for science, might perhaps be referred, in part, to a sense of his own strength.He had reputation to spare, and could hardly avoid feeling aware, that the inquirer who grew in science must inevitably form a higher estimate of the teacher of whose merits he thus became a better judge. The effect of Mr. Say's liberality of disposition, with his amenity of manner, was peculiarly fascinating, and tended forcibly to produce, in the same individuals, a combined feeling of love for the science, and for the naturalist who had thus gained their affections.

In May, 1817, the publication of the Journal was commenced, and Mr. Say continued, during the next ten years, to be one of its steadiest and most laborious contributors. Whatever contingencies might take place in regard to the services of others, his assistance, personally, when in the city, and at all times by the labours of his pen, was never wanting. In the autumn of that year, the expedition to Florida was organized, for the purpose of procuring objects of natural history. The party consisted of Messrs. Maclure, Ord, Say and Peale; who spent the winter in that country, and collected a large number of specimens, with descriptions of many of which they afterwards enriched the Journal. In 1819 and 1820, the celebrated expedition to the Rocky Mountains took place, the particulars of which In the tasks undertaken by Mr. Say, either sepa- are before the public, so far as to render it unnecessarately or with his colleagues, almost every thing was to ry to enter into details in the present paper, particube done. The study of the invertebral animals was to larly as these are not scientific in their character. Ilis be introduced to the notice of our citizens. A taste learning, his patient industry, and the confidence refor natural history was to be created and diffused.- posed in him by all the officers of the detachment, are The departments of botany and ornithology, almost the visible in every page of the narrative; and the large only ones which then received a share of attention in portion which he contributed to the work is acknowPhiladelphia-the one almost confined to the elemen- ledged by the editor. This embraces the whole of his tary pursuits of a few students of medicine, or young favourite department, the invertebral animals, together people from schools, ambitious of a more liberal educa- with a great variety of additional subjects, to which, tion than they then received; the other,to the curious and from circumstances of various kinds, it was convenient admiring readers of Wilson, were to be furnished with that Mr. Say should direct his attention. In the expea rallying point; and the popular attention was to be dition to the sources of St. Peter's River, &c., performat the same time directed to the various other branches. ed in 1823, at least equal labour, in proportion to the It was not that the studies selected by Mr. Say, then time employed, was bestowed by our late member upon incomplete, were to be further extended: the studies the collection of materials; although a portion of the were to be created, and the students induced to prose-preparation for the press was saved him by his friend,

cute them.

For these purposes, his efforts were truly unremitting. Besides the very large amount of his writings for the Journal, he was attentive and regular in his presence at the meetings; and during the intervals may be said to have been always at his post at the academy. Those who were then in the habit of visiting the building, will abundantly recollect the uniformity with which he was to be found there. Others might attend more or less, as service on committees, leisure, or the wish to pursue particular inquiries might demand or render convenient; but Mr. Say was always added to the number, always employed in the one unremitting, untiring, unmodified pursuit, the study of natural history. The value of such assiduous attendance, by such a man,

W. H. Keating, Esq. the editor.

During the period of our narrative, honors from abroad came thick upon him. On these, however, he set but a limited value, except where they were the means of extending or increasing a knowledge of natural history. His correspondence with distinguished foreign naturalists occupied a large portion of his time, although constantly confined to matters of science; and thus superseded much of the letter writing which would have been dictated by private friendship.

In the year 1825, at the foundation of the celebrated settlement of New Harmony, Mr. Say removed to that place,at the request of his friend William Maclure, Esq. His residence there, as well as that of several other learned men, should not be confounded with the ec

centric experiment of which, by the agency of Mr.
Robert Owen, the same place was made the theatre.
It was for the purpose of constituting a school of natu-
ral science under the patronage of our liberal President.
By the munificence of that distinguished individual, he
enjoyed, in the wilds of the far west, all the advan
tages of a splendid library, abundant facilities for ma-
king collections, and a ready printing press. It is un-
fortunate, that some of his elaborate papers are not only
rendered difficult of access to the scientific world, but
exposed to the risk of being separated or destroyed, by
their committal to the evanescent pages of the news-
paper of the place, the New Harmony Disseminator.
To this it may be added, that the columns of that pa-
per suffer under the dislike and disapprobation of all
that large portion of the community who stand oppos-
ed to the very peculiar doctrines in relation to re-
ligion, politics, and domestic life, which were intro-
duced to the public through its agency. Owing to
these causes, naturalists are deprived of the use of ma-
ny of the most valuable papers of Mr. Say, which it
were to be wished might be republished by some one
of the learned societies which are proud to acknow-
ledge him among their members.

The scientific world is, however, in possession of a considerable amount of matter which was the fruit of his industry while at New Harmony. It was there that he composed the second and third volumes of his splendid American Entomology, of which the first volume had already appeared, and the six numbers of his Conchology. The volumes of the Entomology were published in Philadelphia-the others in Indiana.

who knew him were not conscious that it was then for the last time that he visited his native city, or the walls of his beloved Academy. He recovered from one attack however, to be subsequently prostrated by another; and finally, the closing malady appeared on the 20th of September. This is described as a disease commencing with bilious symptoms, and closing with those of typhus fever with a highly nervous character, accompanied with dysentery. On the 8th of that month he appeared to improve; but on the following day his debility increased in an alarming manner; and on the 10th he sunk into the arms of death by an easy dissolution. Thus perished, while yet in the vigour of his years, an individual on whom creative wisdom appeared to have stamped in the strongest manner the characters of a master mind in the study of the works of God. His last days cannot be said to have passed away without regrets. Declining health and laborious cares had slowly undermined his spirits, a tendency to depression exhi bited itself, and he appeared to feel, though surrounded by friendship and munificence, that he had not the independence to which his extraordinary talents and industry entitled him. The narrative is fruitful of instruction; yet the sketch of his scientific and personal character, ought, perhaps, to occupy a larger share of our sheets than we have devoted to it.

The communications of Mr. Say to natural science are numerous and of considerable bulk. We have appended a list of all those we have been able to obtain; with the double object of giving the best view in our power of their number and variety, and of enabling the future inquirer to find them with more facility. They It was while at New Harmony that Mr. Say's do- are scattered through a variety of publications, not all mestic happiness was enhanced by his marriage with devoted to natural history, and one of these even a newsMiss Lucy W. Sistare, of New York, a lady in every paper; the student finds it impossible, without considway qualified to add to the felicity of such a man. In erable exertion, to avoid overlooking some of them; addition to many elegant accomplishments, Miss Sistare and it is too much to be feared that individual memoirs possessed the advantage of a fondness for the same pur- are irrecoverably lost. Their number will probably suits, and great readiness and neatness with the pencil; surprise even some of his acquaintance. No estimate a talent which was employed to the advantage of the of their value, and the labour necessary to produce beautiful works which we have just named. them, can, however, be founded upon their simple bulk; nor can they be compared to others upon such a principle. If we take into view the extreme labour which he uniformly bestowed upon his productions, first, to insure their accuracy, and then to compress them within the smallest possible space, the amount of work executed by this indefatigable writer will appear enormously augmented. But it is not by the rules of arithmetic that the labors of Mr. Say are to be judged in any respect. To form a just idea of the space in public utility occupied by our deceased fellow member, it would be desirable to make an estimate of the vacuities which existed in American science, of the judgment which he formed of them, and of the success of his endeavors to fill them. To do this in an adequate manner would require an extended grasp of the mind. He who attempts it should possess an enlarged and accurate acquaintance with the subject, the power of forming comprehensive views, and judgment and ability in expressing the results. To this rare combination, the gift of a few leading minds, your reporter fully feels that he possesses no claim; but it would be committing a disrespect to your nomination, to omit presenting such an outline as he is enabled to prepare.

Besides the elaborate description of a number of natural objects collected at New Harmony, and also in Mexico, during the tours in that country made by Mr. Maclure, our fellow member found himself, at this late period of life, again involved in the cares of business and the superintendance of property. Amid the chaos of mind which the settlement presented, Mr. Maclure felt the value and necessity of old and tried friendship, tested honour and untiring industry, in the care of his vast estates. In none could he confide with more unhesitating promptitude than in the subject of our me. moir; and he who in early youth had sacrificed his own property to the pursuit of science, was willing, in maturer age, to devote his talents to the care of that of his friend. During the frequent periods of absence, which the state of Mr. Maclure's health or the various scientific objects he had in view rendered necessary for several years, he left his large property in the care of Mr. Say; a circumstance which materially added to the labours of the latter, and loaded him with a feeling of responsibility to which the middle of his life had been a stranger.

Amid these accumulating tasks and this honorable charge, the termination of his studies was now gradually approaching. The hand of death was busy upon the Wabash. The season was one of unusual mortality; and the ordinary and general causes of disease could only co-operate with the severe and devoted industry of the naturalist. Mr. Say's habits of steady and protracted application, excessive abstinence and loss of sleep, had long before this period exerted an injurious influence upon his health, exhibiting their effects in repeated attacks of fever and dystentery; and when, in 1833, he paid a short visit to his friends in Philadelphia, for the conjoined objects of health and science, the ravages of sickness were but too visible. Still, those

We have seen that the larger lacunæ in the zoology of our country, embraced at the time when Mr. Say began his labours, the immense and obscure masses of The amphibia, fishes and the invertebral animals. fishes were principally left to the researches of Dr. S. L. Mitchell and Mr. Lesueur. The amphibia were passed by till they subsequently attracted the attention of Mr. Le Conte, Professor Green, Dr. Harlan, and others. It was in the immense range of the invertebrals that Mr. Say exhausted his labors; and among these it may be said, as of a former writer, that he left scarce any department untouched, and none that he touched unim. proved. His descriptions of species are most numerous

among the annulosa and the mollusca: although he also made investigations among the radiata, as appears from the list of his publications, and among the entozoaria. It is not to be supposed, that he exhausted any of these departments: the stores of nature within our country are too extensive, and much doubtless remains for future observers. Yet he described the large and laborious numbers which serve for the general materials of classification; he constructed the extended and accurate map, to which the task of making local additions is easy, but which forms the necessary and only guide to those who would make further admeasurements. It is not that there is no more gold in the mine; but in raising his own ore, Mr. Say has opened the shafts and galleries, pointed out the veins, and indicated, by his example, the best manner of working them. He has laid down the broad masses of colouring which, however they may be augmented and retouched by the persevering pencil of the future artist, must still form the basis, and in very numerous cases the perfection, of the picture. Every familiar object in these departments, that frequently met the eye, but produced a feeling of dissatisfaction because no description or place for it was to be found in the writers on natural history, received its character from his hands. His task was that of Adam, to name the animals as they passed before him.

published narrative. In fossil zoology, his description of new species of the Crinoidea is considered highly valuable. Some other matter in this department, in which America until lately presented such a mass of unknown objects, will be found in the catalogue of his papers. Our fellow member, Dr. Morton, informs me that he was himself induced to undertake the study of the New Jersey marl fossils, in consequence of the perusal of Mr. Say's paper treating on that subject, in the 1st and 2d volumes of Professur Silliman's Journal. It would seem that his valuable papers on American shells, published in the New Harmony Disseminator, and communicated to me by the politeness of Mr. Poulson, are in reality very little known to naturalists. Some other publications were made by Mr. Say in that periodical; it appearing to have been his first object in this as in many other instances, to procure a public record of his papers in print, so as to establish his claims to the date of his discoveries, while at the same time he obtained duplicates to transmit to his learned correspondents; leaving it to subsequent times to republish them, and thus secure their wider diffusion and more easy access.

The character of Mr. Say was in every way singularly fitted for the task which he thus made the business of his life. He was gifted with a strong intellect, accurate powers of observation, vast assiduity, a freedom from those unsettled wanderings of the mind which are so frequently the bane of genius, and an enthusiastic attachment to the subject of his studies. Such was the ardour of his perseverance, that for a long period he actually lived at the Academy, sleeping within the walls, and only leaving the institution when necessary to obtain his meals. The hours of refreshment were forgotten, and sleep unhesitatingly sacrificed, not as an occasional exertion, but as a permanent and persevering habit. His extraordinary power of concentrating his industry, had an effect in producing the peculiar style of his pieces. The manner of writing in which he most delighted, was that of the utmost abridgment of which the subject was capable, cutting off every unnecessary word. It was not that he was incapable of a fluent style, for various parts of his writings demonstrate the contrary, such as some of his contributions to the narrátive of the Expedition to the Rocky Mountains; but he seemed to think it an injustice to the reader and to science to detain men from knowledge with the smallest redundancy of language. At the same time, this severe judge was far from criticising others with the same rigour which he exercised towards himself; and readily forgave the luxuriance of style in their works. His own manner, when he indulged in his beloved brevity, was certainly liable to the objection of difficulty to untutored readers; but still more, perhaps, to the risk of alarming students by its apparent obscurity, than to the reality, as the knowledge which was requisite was always actually present, though comprised in few words. It is unnecessary to add, that to some profound naturalists this abridged style is a recommendation.

His modesty at first induced him to attempt few and isolated species and departments of small extent; and as time gave him experience of his powers he ventured farther. A few scattered insects and shells, ascertained to be undescribed with great labour and precaution, first received their characters and names from him.Next, he undertook the Crustacea of the United States, which he described and classified. He then extended his labour to a larger number of shells, selecting those of the land and the fresh waters. Next came the detached and still limited groups of the Thysanouræ, the Arachnides and the Myriapoda; and then he finally entered among the vast masses of the true insects. His publications in this field of toil principally relate to the Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Neuroptera and Hymenoptera. His account of the Neuroptera is liable to be overlooked from the circumstance of its publication in a journal of medicine instead of one devoted to natural history. When the late Dr. Godman published the Western Quarterly Reporter, at Cincinnati, Ohio, he was desirous of enriching his work with contributions on natural science, and was gratified with the receipt of this valuable paper from Mr. Say, without which our large and conspicuous insects of this order would remain undescribed. Our deceased fellow member had now achieved so much of his task that he could afford to be desultory; and his pieces from this period assume a more diversified character. His monograph on the genus Cicindela is much admired. His share in the history of the two expeditions by Major Long, is truly multifarious. Besides the departments which he considered peculiarly his own, it embraces, as we have already had occasion to observe, a very large amount of matter foreign to his ordinary habits of study, and requiring a different manner of composition. We may here, without extravagance, admire the talents of the man, who, in a species of writing which for many years it had been his persevering study to avoid, should please the public with the fluency and ease of diction, which are found in some popular chapters contributed by him. Some of the most interesting portions are those which describe the manners of the Indians. He is the historian of all the facts that were collected in those districts which he traversed with a small detachment of troops under his separate command; he obtained, although not professing philology, the vocabulary of the Killisteno language; and on the expedition to the Sources of St. Peter's River, he made the whole of the botanical collections, which afterwards formed the basis of a memoir appended by the late Mr. De Schweinitz to the

In philosophy he was an advocate for that doctrine which attached exclusive importance to the evidence of the senses. Fact alone was the object which he though worthy of his researches. Chains of reasoning or general principles he thought so frequently fallacious, as to constitute an employment for the human intellect of secondary and even doubtful utility. We will not here stop to discuss this celebrated opinion.The influence which it has exerted through the minds of Mr. Say and others has contributed sensibly, within the city of Philadelphia, to stimulate our youth to the pursuit of science in preference to that of literature. It cannot therefore be considered as acting injuriously to this Academy, which should be considered as a great school of observation and inductive science.

The natural temper of our deceased member was one of the most amiable ever met with. The phrase was

Extracts from the constituent Minutes of the Academy of which it is established. Natural Sciences.

PHILADELPHIA, Saturday Jan. 25, 1812.

John Speakman, Esq. having taken the chair, Camillus Macmahon Mann, Doctor of Medicine, was called by the meeting, unanimously, to discharge the duties of Secretary.

Present, besides the said Chairman and Secretary.
Gerard Troost, Esq. Med. Doctor,
John Shinn, jr. Esq.

Jacob Gilliams, Esq.
Nicholas Parmantier, Esq.