BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 
 
 JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 1823-1901, 
 
 BY 
 
 EUGENE W. HILGARD. 
 
 Heap before the National Academy of Sciences 
 April 18, 1907. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 .JUDD A DETWEILER, INC., PRINTERS 
 
 1907 
 
University of California • Berkeley 
 
 The Peter and Rosell Harvey 
 Memorial Fund 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/biographicalmemoOOhilgrich 
 
cx^c^cO 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 1823-1901. 
 
 BY 
 
 EUGENE W. HILGAKD. 
 
 Head before the National Academy of .Sciences 
 April 18, 1907. 
 
 (17) . 147 
 
mattonal acaftcmi? of Sctencee. 
 
 
 Arnold Hague, 
 
 Home Secretary. WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 
 May 15, 
 
 1902. 
 
 ^ 
 
 University of California, 
 
 BerlKieley , California . 
 Dear Sir: - 
 
 At a meeting of the National 
 Acadeniy of Science held April 16, 1902, you 
 were appointed by President Agassiz to prepare 
 a biographic memoir of our colleague Profes- 
 sor Joseph Le Conte, to be presented to the 
 Academy. The memoir will be printed as one 
 of the publications of the Academy, 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 Secretary: . /^ 
 
Pm. 
 
PEEFATOKY NOTE. 
 
 In writing the memoir of the life and scientific work of 
 Dr. Joseph Le Conte, it has seemed to me proper and best to 
 follow, so far as practicable, his autobiography, in which the 
 facts, events, and motives are presented by himself in their 
 proper connection and order, better than could be done by any 
 .one else. In the abridgment of his text I have purposely striven 
 to retain in a great measure his own mode of diction and ex- 
 pression, considering it desirable that he should appear essen- 
 tially in the light in which he viewed himself; and that the some- 
 what exceptional mode of mental growth of a man so highly 
 gifted, undei- conditions now fast becoming extinct, should be 
 succinctly i)ut on record in connection with the discussion of 
 his broad scientific work, to which is due (he length of this 
 paper. The writer's long-continued and close personal relations 
 with the subject of this memoir have afforded some side-lights 
 which do not so clearly appear in Le Conte's published writ- 
 ings, and it gives him pleasure -to fulfill herewith a promise 
 mutually mndi* as to the service the survivoi- shonld render to 
 his frieufl. 
 
 E. W, HiLGARD. 
 
 Bkkkeley, California, March, 1907. 
 
 149 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF JOSEPH LE COiNTE. 
 
 DESCENT OF THE LE CONTE FAMILY, 
 
 The distinction achieved by several of the members of the 
 Le Conte family renders it interesting to trace their origin as 
 far back as possible, particularly in the interest of the question 
 of the heredity of mental and intellectual traits. 
 
 Owing doubtless to the dissensions of the times during the 
 persecution of the Huguenots under Louis XIV, Guillaume, the 
 ancestor of the American Le Contes, adopted the name of his 
 mother, of the house of the Barons de Xonant, in N'ormandy. 
 His paternal name has not been traced by the family. There 
 is a tradition that he was warned of impending danger by King 
 Louis himself. He fled to Holland, from where he joined the 
 great Stadholder, William of Orange, in the invasion of Eng- 
 land, He subsequently also served with distuiction in the Eng- 
 lish war for the conquest of Ireland, and in 1698 emigrated 
 to America, whither two cousins of the Nonant line had preceded 
 him. Like many other Huguenots, he settled at New Rochelle, 
 N'ew York, where at that time we find domiciled also another 
 group of Le Contes or Le Comtes, apparently unrelated. 
 
 In 1701 Guillaume married Marguerite de Valleau, of Mar- 
 tinique. The report that he married twice appears to be un- 
 founded. Both died of yellow fever in 1710. Three children 
 were born of this marriage, viz., Guillaume, Pierre, and Esther, 
 of whom the latter probably died in childhood. Guillaume the 
 younger married Elise Anne Beslie, of New Rochelle, by whom 
 he had one child, a daughter, from whom descended Mother 
 Seton, the founder of the Sisters of Charity in this country, and 
 the late Archbishop Bayley, of Baltimore. 
 
 The second son of Guillaume the elder. Dr. Pierre Le Conte, 
 who lived in 'New Jersey, married twice. His second wife wai? 
 Valeria Eatton (related to the Biddle, Baird, and Berrien 
 
 151 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 families), by wliom he had five children — William, John Eatton, 
 Margaret, Thomas, and Pierre. William became a lawyer and 
 took a prominent part in the E evolutionary struggle in Georgia, 
 whither he, as well as Thomas and Pierre the younger, had 
 moved. The latter two never married. 
 
 John Eatton, from whom all subsequent Le Contes are de- 
 scended, was bom in 1739, and died in New Jersey in 1822. 
 He spent his summers in New York and his winters on his 
 plantation, "Woodmanston," in Liberty county, Georgia. Like 
 his brother William, he was accounted a "malignant" and rebel. 
 In 1776 he married Jane Sloane, of New York, by whom he had 
 three sons. The eldest, William, died unmarried. Louis, born 
 in 1782, went to Georgia and there married Anne Quarterinan, 
 who became the mother of John and of Joseph Le Conte, the 
 subject of this sketch. John Eatton, the third son, became a 
 major in the U. S. Corps of Topographical Engineers, and 
 married Ann Lawrence, who became the mother of John L. 
 Le Conte, the distinguished entomologist. 
 
 Louis, the father of Joseph Le Conte, born in New Jersey in 
 1782, was educated in New York, graduating at Columbia 
 College when only seventeen years old. He studied medicine 
 imder Dr. Hosack for some time, but is not known to have 
 graduated as a physician, his main object being probably to 
 practice on his owti plantation. He was, however, called 
 "doctor." 
 
 Louis Le Conte was a remarkable man, and his influence on the 
 characters and life pursuits of his sons was so great that his 
 life and character must be briefly considered. He lived on the 
 "Woodmanston" plantation in Liberty county, Georgia. The 
 region had been settled by a community of English Puritans, 
 who originally founded Dorchester, Massachusetts; they were 
 very morai and somewhat clannish and exclusive, so that when 
 Louis came among them he was considered an outsider; but 
 eventually, after his marriage with one of the members of the 
 exclusive set, the warmest mutual relations were established. 
 He was greatly interested in scientific pursuits, especially chem- 
 istry and botany; and in the then unexplored field by which he 
 was surrounded he identified the described species and discovered 
 many new plants, but never named or published them, and 
 
 152 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTFJ. 
 
 freely gave his material to his scientific friends. His beautiful 
 garden became known all over the United States and brought 
 many visitors, who wei*e hosi)itably entertained. His botanical 
 insight disliked the mechanical arrangement of the Linncan 
 system, so that he always referred his plants to their natural 
 relationships. He was also a skillful mathematician. Aside 
 from these intellectual pursuits, he attended personally to the 
 management of his large plantation, with 200 slaves, whom he 
 regarded as a heavy responsibility and constantly strove to con- 
 trol by religious and moral instruction, for wbich special "praise- 
 houses" were established in the community. The negroes were 
 greatly attached to him and proud of calling him "master." 
 Tfe also exerted himself in belialf of tbe instruction and general 
 betterment of the condition of the white "crackers" inhabiting 
 the pine woods souie distance away. 'I'hough not a member of 
 any particular church, his benevolence and charity made him 
 universally beloved and respected. 
 
 It was under these influences, to which was doubtless added 
 the inheritance of their mother's highly artistic temperament, 
 together with natural surroundings of great beauty and scientific 
 interest, in which the children were free to roam at will, that 
 their characters and temperaments were shaped. 
 
 The issue of Louis' marriage were four sons and three 
 daughters, of whom one died in infancy. The other six children 
 grew up to marry and have children of their own. The mother, 
 however, died early (in 1826), so. that her direct influence upon 
 Joseph could have been but slight ; but her death prostrated the 
 father, who remained plunged in gloom for years, until by the 
 marriage of the elder children, William and Jane, grandchildren 
 came to dispel, in a measure, the cloud of sadness. But the in- 
 ter^^ening period of sorrow had greatly impressed its seriousness 
 upon the children and influenced their temperaments. 
 
 BOYHOOD AND COLLEGE EDUCATION OF JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 Joseph Le Conte was born February 26, 1823, being the fifth 
 child and the youngest son. \Yitli his three brothers, of whom 
 Lewis was the nearest to him in age, he was accustomed to range 
 the woods, fields, and swamps of the region freely, in quest of 
 game, fish, and specimens of natural history, upon which the 
 
 153 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 father then commented instructively. Joseph became a good 
 marksman, fisherman, swimmer, and athlete; in the latter ac- 
 complishment he afterwards greatly excelled. Of necessity, play- 
 things, marbles, bows and arrows, canoes, and even rudimentary 
 firearms, were made by the boys themselves. Joseph's formal 
 schooling was scanty, in a country school supported by a few 
 families and which was constantly changing teachers ; but among 
 the latter there was for two years Alexander H. Stephens, sub- 
 sequently United States Senator and Vice-President of the 
 Southern Confederacy, with whom he maintained a lifelong 
 friendship. His imagination was much excited by the tales 
 told and accounts given by imported negroes, of things in their 
 native land, and of border warfare in which they had participated. 
 His country schooling and boy life ended in December, 1838, 
 when, as he was about to go to college at the age of not quite 
 16 years, his father died from accidental blood-poisoning, at 
 the age of 55 years. This event, which he had always put away 
 from himself as almost impossible', stunned and dazed him; 
 but, in obedience to his father's expressed wishes, he left home 
 a week afterward, with his brothers John and Lewis, for the 
 college at Athens, Georgia, 300 miles away; he up to that time 
 having never been more than eight miles away from home. It 
 was a week's Journey, mostly by stage, and brought him in con- 
 tact with an unfamiliar world — not very attractive to him, for 
 he suffered severely from nostalgia for several months. The 
 temptations usually supposed to beset young students entering 
 college seem to have been no temptations to him; all coarse- 
 ness and vulgarity merely repelled him, and he simply and 
 naturally kept away from them and their devotees. During the 
 first year he received a letter from his eldest brother, William, a 
 deeply religious man of the old orthodox type and his legal 
 guardian. This letter "ajluded with distress and doubt to their 
 father's dying outside of the pale of any church" and vehemently 
 urged upon Joseph the necessity of "fleeing from the wrath 
 to come." This letter greatly distressed and impressed him, 
 and at a religious "revival" he and his brothers, with many other 
 students, joined the Presbyterian Church, although the church 
 at Midway was of the Puritan-Congregationalist faith ; but they 
 concluded that the Presbyterian was "good enough" for them. 
 
 154 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 He refers to tliis as a great crisis in his life, having experienced 
 a sudden, almost miraculous conversion, followed by great joy 
 and relief. He says that "the change was a sense of the de- 
 liverance from the fear of death and the hereafter — not the 
 establishment of a new relation, but the discovery of the true 
 relation existing." But his elder brother's admonition that he 
 might feel it liis duty to become a minister of the gospel did not 
 prevail, and he remarks that "one may be a preacher of right- 
 eousness in more ways than one." 
 
 Although a member of one of the college literary societies, he 
 never became a good debater; but he greatly delighted in the 
 society of refined women, and entertained toward women in 
 general a romantic feeling, as toward superior beings, which he 
 declares to be "tlie greatest of all safeguards for the purity of 
 young men." 
 
 Le Conte does not attribute to himself any unusual diligence 
 in study while in college; yet he was both a junior and senior 
 orator, the titles of his addresses being "True Greatness" and 
 "Love of Ti-uth, the Highest Incentive to Effort." The manu- 
 scripts of these efforts he afterwards destroyed because dis- 
 satisfied with them. "The skillful putting together of common- 
 places of literature into a brilliant patchwork" he states he 
 could never do, and that "the ability to write anything of value 
 iCame late," and not until he "had independent thoughts of his 
 own." 
 
 During his college course at Athens the natural-history 
 sciences were almost wholly neglected, these being but feebly 
 represented in the faculty. Charles F. McCay seems to have 
 impressed him as the only strong man in the faculty, he repre- 
 senting mathematics and physics. 
 
 Le Conte's college life was uneventful, not even accompanied 
 by the usual "pranks." His vacations were passed at the old 
 plantation or with his brother William, at Cedar Hill, where 
 he renewed his old sports of hunting, fishing, &c. In January, 
 1841, that brother died — "the second great affliction I have suf- 
 fered by death." 
 
 155 
 
IS'ATIONAti ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 POSTGRADUATE STUDIES AND TRAVELS. 
 
 Le Conte and his brother Lewis graduated from the Athens 
 College in August, 1841. Their sister Anne having graduated 
 about the same time, the three agreed to make a tour of the 
 Northern States. During this first excursion into the outer 
 world, they visited first the city of Washington, with the mag- 
 nificence of whose buildings and monuments they were greatly 
 impressed, as also by the oratory of Webster, Calhoun, and 
 Clay in Congress. After a week at the capital they visited 
 Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, and Cambridge, returning via 
 New York, where there was a family reunion, their married 
 sister, Jane, and their brother John, lately married, gathering 
 at the house of their uncle, John Eatton Le Conte, the father 
 of John Lawrence, the entomologist, the latter then but sixteen 
 years of age. Eeturning in November, all stayed during winter 
 at Woodmanston plantation, with their sister Jane. On this 
 occasion Joseph become acquainted with John T. Nisbet, the 
 uncle of his future wife. Hunting, fishing, and excursions oc- 
 cupied their time. In spring and summer more extended. ex- 
 cursions were made, from Macon and Athens into the mountains 
 of Georgia. Thereafter Joseph began the study of medicine 
 under Dr. Charles West, at Macon, until the beginning of winter, 
 which he again passed at the old plantation, riding, hunting, 
 and fishing in company with his cousin, John L., who had come 
 on I visit which was greatly enjoyed by both. 
 
 About this time the great comet of 1843 appeared, and greatly 
 impressed him. This summer he first met his future wife at the 
 house of his friend Nisbet, but at that time he was not per- 
 manently impressed; in fact, another fair face held his atten- 
 tion just then. 
 
 Le Conte now determined^ to take up medical studies in New 
 York, and attended the winter course (1843-1844) of four 
 months at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Among his 
 instructors were Dr. Torrey and Dr. Lewis Sayre. He charac- 
 terizes the course as a period of regular cram and hard work, 
 such as, it will be noted, had not fallen to his lot during any of 
 his previous rather care-free life. 
 
 15(3 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 It was doubtless the taste for outdoor and more or less physic- 
 ally strenuous life that led him to undertake, in company with 
 his cousin, John \j., an excursion to the then Far West, the 
 headwaters of the Mississippi, via Niagara, Buffalo, Detroit, 
 and the Great Lakes. This trip he considers as a very important 
 phase in his development, as it attracted his attrition perma- 
 nently to the great geological features passing before him, and 
 gave renewed and definite direction to his subsequent chief 
 work. Hence some space must be given to its discussion. 
 
 His comments on the conditions then prevalent in what are 
 now some of the chief centers of commercial and industrial 
 activity are very interesting. Buffalo and Detroit were then 
 small towns, with little indication of their future greatness; 
 tlie University of Michigan was ni its beginnings. At Detroit, 
 where they passed a week in pleasant company, they were per- 
 suaded to visit the Lake Superior country, to which they pro- 
 ceeded by the regular steamer via Lakes Huron and Michigan, 
 stopping at Fort Mackinac and at Chicago, then a budding city 
 of 5,000 inhabitants. At Mackinac they first saw birch-bark 
 canoes, which, upside down, were serving as sleeping quarters 
 for the Indians. Captain Scott, the commander of the fort 
 and a noted hunter of -the time, to whom they had letters of in- 
 troduction, entertained them hospitably and introduced them to 
 some of the salient features of the Far West. From Mackinac 
 they went by canoe to Sault Ste. Marie, having provided them- 
 selves with buffalo robes at a cost of one dollar each. At the 
 Sault they met Colonel Gratiot, who was on the way from St. 
 Louis with a party of miners to explore the copper mines at 
 Keweenah Point. The Le Contes were invited to join the party, 
 and passed three delightful weeks at Eagle Harbor, which town 
 they thus helped to found, taking an active part in the building 
 of log cabins, and hunting and fishing between-times. The 
 copper mines do not seem to have attracted Joseph Le Conte's 
 special attention at the time. 
 
 From Eagle Harbor they again took sailing vessel to La 
 Pointe, then an Indian agents' station and also that of the 
 American Fur Company. Here they found a camp of about 
 300 Indians, whose pagan Sunday services they attended in the 
 
 151 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 afternoon, after taking part in a Christian service in the morn- 
 ing. Le Conte graphically describes this Indian ceremony. 
 
 At .T.a Pointe they made arrangements for their trip to the 
 headwaters of the Mississippi, which was to be made by canoe 
 np the St. Louis Eiver, thence by portage across to the head- 
 waters of th^ Mississippi, which they were to descend to Fort 
 Snelling. The crew of the 24-foot. birch-bark canoe, hired from 
 the Fur Company's agent, consisted of two Canadian voyageurs, 
 with whom their verbal communication was somewhat difficult. 
 Their agreement was for forty days and they provisioned them- 
 selves accordingly. 
 
 They started on July 8, passing through the group of Apostle 
 Islands, whose wave-worn rock caverns they explored, camping 
 one night. They then skirted the south shore to the mouth of 
 the Bois Bnile Kiver, and thence crossed over to the north shore, 
 which they desired to see, and after camping there over night 
 proceeded to the mouth of the St. Louis River, the present site 
 of the city of Duluth. Next day began the voyage up the river, 
 passing numerous Indian villages. While in camp at the 
 Dalles of the St. Louis, where a long portage had to be made, 
 Le Conte surprised a crowd of visiting Indians by swimming the 
 rapids repeatedly; but although they cheered him, his invitation 
 to them to join him in the exploit was not accepted. He com- 
 ments on the effects of training in man as compared with ani- 
 mals, and his belief that "blood will telF' in physical man as 
 well as in beasts. Farther up the river they were much an- 
 noyed by mosquitoes and "brulos," a minute sand-fly. Le Conte 
 notes that instead of getting to drier country as they ascended 
 to greater elevation, the ground grew marshy and dotted with 
 shallow lakelets. A portage of a few miles then carried them 
 to the waters of the Mississippi, and they descended to Sandy 
 Lake, where there was an Indian agency, where they refitted 
 for the descent of the Mississippi. Here also Le Conte raced 
 with an Indian boy in swimming and diving, the Indian beating 
 him in the latter art. 
 
 The voyage down the river was uneventful; Indians were 
 frequently met and their villages used for night camps, but only 
 one white man was seen down to the Falls of St. Anthony, a 
 distance of between four and five hundred miles. Reaching the 
 
 158 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 falls at noon one day, they drew the canoe up on a beach at tlie 
 very spot where Minneapolis was founded five years later. There 
 was then a single log cabin, owned by a white trader. Le Conte 
 examined with much interest the structure of the gor^e below 
 the falls, the rapids of which they "shot" in their canoe, and he 
 even then compared the gorge to that of Niagara, as being 
 formed by the recession of the falls from the escarpment at 
 Fort Snelling; but, as he failed to publish these observations, 
 the priority fell to others. 
 
 After a week's pleasant stay at Fort Snelling, during which 
 they visited what is now known as Minnehaha Falls, on the 
 origin of which in connection with the Falls of St. Anthony 
 Le Conte commented at the time, they took the steamer down 
 the river to Galena, where they stopped to examine the lead 
 mines, also visiting Dubuque. Le Conte mentions passing a 
 small village named St. Paul, and also Nauvoo, where the Mor- 
 mon excitement connected with the killing of Joseph and Hyrum 
 Smith was then at its height. On reaching St. Louis they 
 found their stock of money exhausted, and had to borrow funds 
 to enable them to return east by boat to Pittsburg, and thence 
 by rail to N"ew York. 
 
 At New York he resumed his medical studies — "the old 
 grind," as he expresses it. During this time and until his 
 graduation, in April, 1845, he became acquainted with many 
 distinguished men, among them Giraud, Bell, Baird, and espe- 
 cially Audubon, wliom he frequently visited at his residence, 
 10 miles out of ilio city, together with his brother John; greatly 
 enjoying the intercourse and ofioji boaiing on the river witli 
 the sons, John and. Victor. 
 
 Though graduated as a physician, Le Conte did not intend 
 to practice as such, but considered the medical course as being 
 (at that time) the best preparation for a scientific career. His 
 reading of the "Vestiges of Creation" about this time was his 
 first introduction to the subject of evolution. 
 
 Going south shortly after graduation, and while making a 
 round of visits to relatives and friends, he made a large col- 
 lection of birds, which he afterwards presented to the Smith- 
 sonian Institution. Eeturning from a series of excursions to 
 the mountains of Georgia in November, he planned to make a 
 
 159 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 tour through Florida on horseback with his cousin, Lewis 
 Jones, to study the geology and natural history of that region, 
 then little known; but this trip was brought to naught by com- 
 plicatio% with an affair of the heart, he having again met Miss 
 Bessie Nisbet, his future wife, this constituting the second great 
 crisis in his life. The following year seems to have been spent 
 altogether in visits and excursions, among these one to Yonah 
 and to Stone Mountain, returning in September to Liberty 
 county. There he finally became engaged to Miss Msbet, whom 
 he married in January, 1847. The following year was also 
 devoted to excursions and travel, with riding, hunting, swim- 
 ming, &c. 
 
 Shortly after the birth of his first child, in December, 1847, 
 Le Conte was taken with a severe attack of measles wliile on a 
 visit at Savannah. Getting up too early in the impatience to 
 return to his wife and child, his recovery was slow and tedious, 
 and it was several years before he recovered his usual vigorous 
 health. 
 
 But now, having assumed the responsibilities of a father of 
 a family, he felt that it was time to terminate the free-and-easy, 
 pleasurable life he thus far led, and he concluded that lie must 
 become "a worker in the social hive,'' without, however, regret- 
 ting the time spent in his former pursuits, feeling that they 
 had had a rounding and broadening effect. Xot wishing to 
 seclude his family on the plantation, he settled, to practice medi- 
 cine, at Macon, Georgia, and so continued for two years and a 
 half (to July, 1850), deriving but a very moderate income from 
 his profession and enjoying more the instnu-tion of a few 
 students. He became conscious that he had not yet found his 
 proper place in life, his taste being altogether scientific. In 
 1849 he read his first paper before the Georgia State Medical 
 Society, Its title being "The Science of Medicine." But he felt 
 unhappy, as though he were wasting his life. Finally, in the 
 spring of 1850, his cousin, Lewis Jones, visited Macon and told 
 him of his purpose to become a pupil of Louis Agassiz, who had 
 been appointed professor of Geology and Zoology at Harvard. 
 He at once joined in this plan, the purpose being to make special 
 preparation for the teaching of these subjects, in which he had 
 become strongly interested through the works of Eichard Owen, 
 
 160 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 especially that on the Archetype and Homologies of the Verte- 
 brate System. 
 
 He left with much regret the circle of genial friends he and 
 his wife had made at Macon, and in August 1850 arrived at 
 Cambridge, where he took a dwelling-house on the Campus. 
 
 The regular session at Harvard did not open till October, but 
 as he and his friend had come only to study with Agassiz and 
 the latter was at home, they went right to work. "The first task 
 Agassiz set us was very characteristic of the man. He thought 
 awhile, then pulled out a drawer containing from 500 to 1,000 
 separate valves of Unio, and said : Tair these valves and classify 
 into species; names no matter; separate the species.' Then he 
 left us alone, very severely alone." They worked zealously for 
 weeks, with an occasional silei^t visit from the professor. When 
 they reported that they had done the best they could, he ex- 
 amined their work carefully and expressed himself much pleased, 
 remarking to a visitor that they had just correctly amended the 
 classification of Lea, the great authority on these shells. The 
 same system of instruction was continued, but as they progressed 
 their teacher became more communicative and engaged them in 
 most interesting talks on biological philosophy. 
 
 Le Conte comments enthusiastically on Agassiz as a greal 
 teacher — one of those who are greater than all their visible re- 
 sults, in that their personalit}' is magnetic and their spirit and 
 enthusiasm contagious. Xo his fifteen months' intimate asso- 
 ciation with Agassiz for eight or ten hours daily, in all his ex- 
 cursions with Hall in the fossiliferous areas of New York, and 
 along the shores of Massachusetts and Florida in zoological re- 
 search, he ascribes much of the direction and success of his later 
 work. 
 
 The exploration of the Florida coral reefs with Agassiz was 
 especially fruitful, and he dwells upon it at length. He was 
 most reluctant to leave his family, but, his wife urging him not 
 to miss the opportunity, they started on the first of January, 
 1851. The work was undertaken at the request of Superintendent 
 A. D. Bache, of the Coast Survey, for the investigation of the 
 laws of the growth of coral reefs, which render navigation in 
 the waters of southern Florida very hazardous to shipping. Le 
 Conte and Agassiz' son Alexander, then sixteen, went as assist- 
 
 161 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 
 
 ants, the expenses being borne by the Government. They left 
 Cambridge in a snowstorm, but during most of the six days of 
 the voyage to Key West they sailed in summer seas, with excel- 
 lent opportunities for observing marine life, from sharks to the 
 exquisite Physalias and growths of corals. 
 
 They worked incessantly, "sometimes visiting the reefs in a 
 Government steamer, sometimes exploring the Everglades in 
 one direction, sometimes the Dry Tortugas in another — always 
 observing, noting, and gathering specimens. Sometimes for 
 several days we would be out all day on the reefs collecting, 
 generally waist-deep m the water; then for several days we 
 would study our specimens with the microscope, draw, and pack 
 away. In the evenings we would gather in Agassiz' room and 
 discuss the day's work and the tonclusions to be drawn there- 
 from. I never saw any one work like Agassiz; for fourteen 
 hours a day he would work under high pressure, smoking furi- 
 ously all the time. The harder he worked, the faster he con- 
 sumed cigars." They were greatly helped in their collecting by 
 the sailors and 'longshore population, three or four hundred of 
 whom took part in the task, and were greatly pleased when 
 Agassiz manifested "almost childish glee" at some new dis- 
 covery of theirs. 
 
 Longer excursions were made by the party on board a Coast 
 Survey steamer commanded by Captain (subsequently Admiral) 
 John Rodgers, and in a sailing vessel commanded by Captain 
 Frye. In the latter they visited the Marquesas and the Dry 
 Tortugas. From the latter point he was detailed by Agassiz, 
 with Dr. Jones, to explore a small island ten miles away, where 
 the vessel was becalmed for two days. Le Conte enjo3'ed the 
 leisure time by bathing and diving in the clear warm water, 
 gathering Gorgonias and sponges from the sea-bottom. Going 
 back to t lie fort in a boat^ he noted the killing of the new growths 
 of the Madrepore corals on which the boat grounded, as a re- 
 sult of the annual depression of the water level; thus furnish- 
 ing a basis for the determination of the age of coral reefs and 
 islands. On his arrival at the fort he found that Agassiz had 
 made the same observation during his absence, on reefs of 
 Maeandrina. 
 
 The evenings on the steamer around the dining-table Le Conte 
 
 162 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 mentions as specially enjoyable, as there were on board several 
 scientific men connected with the Coast Survey, among whom 
 he mentions J. E. Hilgard and Count Pourtales. On one occa- 
 sion Agassiz expressed himself quite forcibly regarding the in- 
 tolerance of society in America, he having experienced the effects 
 of the odium theologicum on account of his views on the diver- 
 sity of the origin of man; and he commended Austria as the 
 country where a man of science could utter his views most freely, 
 so long as he let politics alone. 
 
 The party left Key West for Cambridge after a stay of six 
 weeks, passing from summer to winter in the course of a few 
 days. 
 
 The main scientific results of this expedition were published 
 by Agassiz inHhe Eeport of the Coast Survey for 1851; some 
 extensions of the same were by Le Conte himself read at the 
 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 
 Science in 1856, and published in the Proceedings of that body, 
 and also in the American Journal of Science for January, 1857. 
 This pul)lication Le Conte considers to have been his first really 
 scientific paper. 
 
 The rest of tlic yeai* was passed at Cambridge in study, as 
 before, only even more earnestly. In addition to zoology and 
 geology, Le Conte took a course of botany under Asa Gray. He 
 and Jones still had the advantage of having Agassiz almost to 
 themselves, some wealthy New York youths who joined the class 
 finding themselves out of their depth and leaving very soon. 
 Tn May the two friends wont with Agassiz to study the New 
 York Paleozoic in the Catskill and Mohawk region, this being 
 the first field work in geology done by Le Conte. 
 
 In June, Agassiz suggested that the two students should take 
 degrees at the Lawrence Scientific School, which was then in 
 its first year and for which it was desired to make a showing. 
 Although already possessed of three degrees, Le Conte concluded 
 to take another under the auspices of Agassiz, and took as the 
 subject of his thesis the Homologies of the Eadiata. Upon this 
 thesis he bestowed a great deal of thought and work. He was 
 examined on it by Agassiz, and also publicly by him and Wyman 
 on zoology and geolog;\\ Thus Joseph Le Conte, Lewis Jones, 
 David A. Wells, and John D. Eunkle formed the first graduating 
 (18) 163 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 class of the Lawrence Scientific School, and probably the first 
 strictly postgraduate class in the United States. Le Conte's 
 thesis^ however, never reached publication, the manuscript being 
 destroyed in the burning of Columbia, South Carolina, at the 
 end of "Sherman's raid. 
 
 Le Conte, however, did not stop at graduation. He continued 
 work in Agassiz' laboratory and excursions, or by himself. The 
 "galaxy of stars" then at Harvard was so attractive and stimu- 
 lating that he hesitated to leave. There were Agassiz, Guyot, 
 Wyman, Gray, Peirce, Longfellow, Holmes, Felton, Emerson, 
 • and also Eichard Dana, whom he met three times daily at meals. 
 Moreover, Boston being near by, afforded an opportunity for 
 hearing and seeing the great artists of the time, such as Jenny 
 Lind, Parodi, and others, and of attending the meetings of sci- 
 entific bodies. 
 
 Le Conte designates as the third critical mental period of his 
 life the fifteen months of his study with Louis Agassiz, and here 
 discusses ■ briefly the points (more elaborately presented later, 
 in a memorial address made at San Francisco) in which Agassiz' 
 methods of study were novel and epoch-making in the natural 
 sciences. The new departure most widely recognized is his dem- 
 onstration of the stupendous agency of glaciers in shaping the 
 present surface of the earth; but more fundamental than this 
 achievement is the introduction of the study of nature itself in 
 the development of the organic world, instead of mere labora- 
 tory experimentation. The latter method is all right for inor- 
 ganic nature, but in the development of organized beings experi- 
 mentation introduces abnormal factors, and the observation of 
 nature itself is first in order. 
 
 "There are three subordinate series or methods leading to 
 similar results; these are the natural-history series, the embry- 
 onic seri<js, and the geological or palseontological series. By the 
 first method Cuvier and his colaborers perfected comparison in 
 the natural-history series, laying the foundation of scientific 
 zoology; Agassiz and von Baer extended the method of com- 
 parison into the embryonic and geological series and into the 
 relation of the three series to each other. Agassiz' work and 
 Agassiz' method prepared the whole ground for the modem 
 doctrine of evolution, only his was an evolution not by organic 
 
 164 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 forces acting within, but according to an intelligent plan from 
 without — an evolution not by transmutation of species, but by 
 substitution of one created species for another." But he re- 
 garded the cause of evolution as being beyond the domain of 
 science and all attempts at a causal theory as being at- least 
 premature. 
 
 Le Conte adds that Agassiz' work and method are the only 
 foundation of the possible scientific sociology, and that in this 
 case also three different series, corresponding to those in the 
 lower natural organic world, can be worked out. The first series 
 is that exhibited in different nations and races in various stages, 
 as now existing in different places; the second, that showing 
 the various stages in the advance of one and the same nation 
 from barbarism to civilization, corresponding to the embryonic 
 series; and, third, that exhibiting the slow onward progress of 
 the whole human race through the several ages now recognized. 
 He mentions Herbert Spencer as having taken the lead in this 
 line- of investigation. 
 
 COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY CAREER OF LE CONTE. 
 
 Leaving Cambridge after fifteen months of residence and 
 study, Le Conte, after paying a visit to his uncle at New York, 
 in October took the steamer for Savannah. On arriving he 
 learned of the accidental death of his eldest brother, Lewis. 
 After some months passed at the plantation, Le Conte received 
 a call to a professorship of "the Sciences'^ at Oglethorpe Uni- 
 versity, at Midway, Georgia. He was to teach all the sciences 
 except astronomy, and all for a thousand dollars. But he con- 
 cluded that he must now begin his life-work and accepted, 
 teaching mechanics, physics, chemistry, geology, and botany. 
 Zoology, for which he had specially prepared himself, was no 
 part of the curriculum, and, moreover, there was no laboratory, 
 so the work was almost wholly intellectual; but he felt that he 
 made a successful teacher. 
 
 The previous year his cousin, Lewis Jones, had been appointed 
 professor of geology and natural history at the University of 
 Georgia, at Athens — a position Le Conte had also desired — 
 with double the salary. Jones did not get along well with the 
 president, and after holding the chair for a year resigned in 
 
 165 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 disgust. John Le Conte being also a professor at Athens, Joseph 
 wrote to him and found to his disappointment that French was 
 to be superadded to the duties of the chair. However, as he 
 read French with ease, he concluded to "qualify himself by 
 taking lessons in speaking from a good native French teacher. 
 He was elected to the complex chair in December, 1852, and 
 began his duties in January following. A French teacher being 
 elected after six months, he was able thereafter to restrict him- 
 self to geology ^nd botany, with a Monday-morning class in 
 natural theology. This latter class he enjoyed, as it gave him 
 the opportunity to bring out the general laws of animal struc- 
 ture as evidence of a divine plan; otherwise zoology formed no 
 part of his subjects, and to this he did not object, as the col- 
 leges were not at that time prepared for the teaching as prac- 
 ticed by Agassiz. Altogether, with his brother John, McCay, 
 and later Leroy Brown and C. S. Venable as his colleagues, he 
 was well pleased with his situation at Athens. 
 
 During the long winter vacation of 1854 Le Conte went to 
 Philadelphia with his family, and there met many prominent 
 men, among others Lea, Phillips, Elwin, and John Fraser. The 
 latter one evening brought with him a then new instrument, the 
 stereoscope, showing its effects and elucidating the theory of 
 Wheatstone, which attributes the result to a mental (subjective) 
 combination of the two images. Le Conte noted that when he 
 looked at the distant lines of the images the nearer ones appeared 
 doubled, and vice versa, proving that the effect is a physical one ; 
 and he so stated to the company assembled. They, however, 
 thought him a very forward and disputatious young man for 
 daring to dissent from Wheatstone. He did not publish his 
 conclusions, which were a year after brought out by Briicke in 
 Germany. 
 
 Going afterwards to Cambridge, they were invited by Agassiz 
 to stay at his house, where they passed a delightful week, meeting 
 also many distinguished men. 
 
 During the four years Le Conte remained at Athens (1852 to 
 1856) he published a number of papers, popular, scientific, edu- 
 cational, and philosophical. The most important of these was 
 that "On the Agency of the Gulf Stream in the Formation of 
 
 1(56 
 
JOSfiPH LEJ COiTTfi. 
 
 the Peninsula of Florida/' based on his own and Agassi// obsei'- 
 vations, which created marked interest. 
 
 Between 1854 and 1856 administrative difficulties led to the 
 resignation of several of the best men of the faculty of the 
 Athens institution and the final removal of all by the board 
 of trustees. Le Conte immediately applied for the professorship 
 of chemistry and geology in tlie College of South Carolina, then 
 vacant. He was elected, and assumed the duties of the chair 
 in Januar}^, 1857. He thus again became the colleague of his 
 brother John and of McCay, who had become president. In 
 this position he remained until, after the Civil War, he was 
 called to California. 
 
 In the interval between his resignation from the University of 
 Georgia and removal to Columbia, he was invited by Prof. 
 Joseph Henry to deliver six lectures at the Smithsonian Insti- 
 tution. Three of these were on "Coral Reefs" and three on 
 "Coal." The latter were subsequently written out by him and 
 published in the Smithsonian Eeport for 1857. They excited 
 a good deal of interest and were translated and published in 
 French. He there brought out some views on the affinities of 
 Gymnosperms, which anticipated by thirty years the same 
 brought out later by Lester Ward and Engler. 
 
 The work at the South Carolina College was very exacting at 
 the time and gave no opportunity for original work, he having 
 also had to take a class in mathematics. Shortly there occurred 
 a cataclysm similar to that at Athens, ending likewise in a 
 wholesale resignation of the faculty, of whom, however, the two 
 Le Contes and one other were immediately reelected by the 
 trustees. The college was thus disbanded in May, leaving four 
 months vacant until the regular opening in October. Most of 
 this time was passed by Le Conte and his family at the Virginia 
 Springs, where they met many of the faculty of the University 
 of Virginia, among whom Le Conte mentions McGuffy as 
 specially interesting. In August both Le Contes went to Mon- 
 treal, to the meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 
 vancement of Science, at which the writer of this memoir first 
 became acquainted with them. Joseph Le Conte mentions as 
 the prominent event of that meeting the reading by James Hall, 
 the retiring president, of a paper on "The Formation of Moun- 
 
 167 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 tain Chains by Sedimentation/^ containing a new and very im- 
 portant idea, but imperfectly set forth, so as to be hardly un- 
 derstood, although it forms the basis of our present views. 
 
 Most of the former faculty of the South Carolina institution 
 having been reelected in September, a little later eTudge A. B. 
 Longstreet was elected president. Their success of the year be- 
 fore having made the students somewhat turbulent, another 
 strenuous period was foreseen and realized, resulting in the 
 suspension of nearly half the students for one term. Most of 
 these subsequently returned under rigid conditions, and Le 
 Conte comments upon the rigid sense of honor and veracity that 
 manifested itself among the students on all these occasions. 
 
 Stimulated by the intellectual and social surroundings in 
 Columbia, where he met daily such men as Dr. Thornwell, Dr. 
 Palmer, Wm. C. Preston, Wade Hampton, and others, he wrote 
 between 1857 and 1860 many articles, mostly of literary and 
 philosophical nature, such as "The Place of Geology in a Course 
 of Education,'' "The Relation of Morphology to Fine Art," 
 "The General Principles of a Liberal Education," "Female 
 Education," "The Eolation of School, College, and University 
 to One Another and to Active Life," "The Relation of Biology 
 to Sociology," and "The Nature and Uses of Fine Art." The 
 first four of these were given as addresses before academic audi- 
 ences; the others, put into a drawer for the time, were subse- 
 quently published in various reviews and magazines. 
 
 In pure science he wrote and read at the meeting of the Amer- 
 ican Association for the Advancement of Science, 1859, his orig- 
 inal paper on "The Correlation of Physical, Chemical, and Vital 
 Force and the Conservation of Force in Vital Phenomena." 
 This paper created great interest among scientific men at the 
 time; it was widely republished, both in America and in Euro- 
 pean Journals, and also in the International Scientific Series. 
 
 During a summer vacation spent in the mountains of ISTorth 
 Carolina, Le Conte met Langdon Chevis, a planter on the South 
 Carolina coast, who, having read the "Vestiges of Creation," 
 heartily endorsed the origin of species by transmutation of those 
 previously existing, while Le Conte held Agassiz' view of crea- 
 tion according to a preordained plan. Chevis combated so suc- 
 cessfully he Conte's objections as to make a strong impression 
 on his mind, in advance of the publication of Darwin's book on 
 
 168 
 
.tOSEPH LE CONT^. 
 
 the subject; but Chevis did not think of publishing his views*, 
 which, as Le Conte remarks, was a general habit in the old 
 South and prevented him, as well, from publishing, first, a num- 
 ber of observations subsequently l)rought out by others. 
 
 He refers with much admiration to Donati's comet of 1859, 
 but did not, like not a few people both in and out of the South, 
 suspect in it the forerunner of the civil commotion then im- 
 pending. 
 
 WAR EXPERIENCES. 
 
 Le Conte devotes 50 pages of his autobiography to the events 
 of the Civil War and the graphic relation of his personal experi- 
 ences in connection with it, which were both extensive and ex- 
 citing. Of these experiences a short outline only can, of course, 
 be given here. 
 
 Like a great many thoughtful men in the South, especially 
 those not in political life, Le Conte was at first exceedingly re- 
 luctant to join in a movement which foreshadowed the dis- 
 ruption of the Union; doubtless the more as from his personal 
 knowledge of the North he must have been fully aware of the 
 futility of the prediction and assertions made by the professional 
 agitators for secession, that "the Northern mudsills have no 
 stomachs for fighting," and that *'one Southerner can whip three 
 Yankees any time.'^ Had the dreadful conflict which resulted 
 been generally foreseen, these agitators would not have had such 
 easy work in carrying the masses with them. But, as Le Conte 
 says, it came to be a spiritual contagion, and the final result was 
 enthusiastic unanimity of sentiment throughout the South, with 
 a few honest exceptions. Le Conte characterizes as absurd the 
 designation of the Civil War as the "War of the Eebellion." It 
 was a war between two fully organized States, which was hon- 
 estly fought out to a finish and the result frankly accepted. But 
 "to us it was literally a life-and-death struggle for national ex- 
 istence, and doubtless the feeling was equally honest and earnest 
 on the other side." In this spirit Le Conte took up and par- 
 ticipated in the contest so far as in him lay, and his war ex- 
 periences are highly interesting reading. 
 
 The South Carolina College went on quietly during 1860- 
 1861, but in the spring of the latter year the siege of Fort 
 
 169 
 
JSIATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 Sumter caused a large number of students to leave college to 
 join the army; nevertheless the college exercises went on. In 
 the spring of 1862 the increasing stress of the war left the 
 college with only 40 or 50 students. In June, 1862, after the 
 seven-days battles in Virginia, there came a call for all men 
 above eighteen years, and perforce the college was disbanded, 
 all the students volunteering. Both the brothers Le Conte went 
 on to Eichmond to help nurse the sick and wounded, among 
 whom was a brother of Joseph's wife. He himself took the 
 typhoid fever. After three weeks' illness he and his brother-in- 
 law returned to Columbia. 
 
 Wliile the professors' salaries were continued, they proved 
 woefully inadequate, on account of the depreciation of the Con- 
 federate currency; so they had to complement them by outside 
 work. In October^ 1862, Le Conte was appointed one of the 
 arbitrators to determine the right of the Confederate Govern- 
 ment to the niter caves in the several States, and sat on the case 
 in Atlanta for three weeks. In 1863, during the height of the 
 conflict, he wrote the paper on "The Mature and Uses of the 
 Fine Arts ;" but, anxious to render some effective service, he 
 took the position of chemist to a large manufactory of medi- 
 cines for the army, which was established in the suburbs of 
 Columbia, and so continued for eighteen months. In 1864 he 
 was appointed chemist of the N^iter and Mining Bureau, with 
 the rank and pay of major. Under this mandate he explored in 
 summer all the niter caves and beds in the Gulf States of the 
 States west of Mississippi, as well as the iron mines and furnaces 
 at Shelbyville, Alabama. Eeturning to Columbia in September, 
 he sent a report to the chief of the Niter Bureau at Eichmond. 
 
 At this time Sherman's army was moving from Chattanooga 
 towards Atlanta and the coast. Le Conte's widowed sister and 
 • family and one of his own daughters being then on a plantation 
 near Halifax, south of Savannah, he set out to rescue them; but 
 within ten miles of Savannah he had to turn back to Columbia, 
 whence, by a detour of 850 miles to southward, he again at- 
 tempted to reach his sister. After many delays from hostile 
 parties and natural difficulties, he finally reached her house one 
 morning; but, as it was clearly impossible to escape in wagons, 
 he started out with his daughter on an old, broken-down horse 
 
 170 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 abandoned by the Federals, lent him by a negro. They soon 
 found themselves cut off, and after hiding in the woods for some 
 time and having several narrow escapes from capture, they were 
 advised by a negro that several wagons had come from the Con- 
 federate lines under a flag of truce to carry away the ladies. 
 As all, however, could not go at once, Le Conte had to return 
 for his sister later, the entire party to meet at Macon. This trip 
 proved an arduous one. At Macon they were materially assisted 
 by a young man in Confederate uniform, who seemed to know 
 everybody in both armies. Leaving the party at Augusta, he said 
 he would meet them again at Columbia, "whither the Federal 
 army was sure to go." They finally reached Columbia, nearly 
 two months after Le Conte had started out on his voyage of 
 rescue. 
 
 The situation at Columbia being very precarious under the 
 rapid advance of Sherman's army and the bitterness entertained 
 by the Federals toward the "cradle of secession," Le Conte re- 
 ceived orders from Richmond to ship the chemical laboratory 
 to that place. A universal panic prevailed and the departure 
 of army trains put him on guard in respect to his family; and 
 the young man who had previously traveled with them was on 
 hand, as promised, and advised them to save at once what they 
 specially valued. And so lecture notes, manuscripts, &c., went 
 off with the belongings of the Niter Bureau. The two Le Conte 
 brothers, being Confederate officers, could not remain without 
 being taken and treated as prisoners of war. Under the distant 
 booming of Sherman's guns, they started with five heavily 
 loaded wagons, accompanied and greatly handicapped by twenty- 
 two negroes and their families and the deep mud caused by the 
 rains. They were finally discovered by Federals, who, after 
 rifling all their trunks and packages, set the remnants on fire 
 and watched them burn. At this juncture John Le Conte, find- 
 ing it impossible to escape with his son, who was just conva- 
 lescing from a serious illness, gave himself up. Ultimately 
 Joseph and Captain Green, their traveling companion, learned 
 from the negroes that several parties were searching for them, 
 and therefore concluded to escape during the night. Walking 
 rapidly and silently towards Columbia, they soon heard Federals 
 galloping on their trail and quickly hid behind a "worm" fence, 
 
 171 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE^. 
 
 the other side of which was presently selected by the searching 
 party for a rest. But after half an hour they left on the back 
 trail. 
 
 After several days of hiding in the pine woods, they finally 
 heard that the Federals had left Columbia, and with other re- 
 turning fugitives they took the road to the city. 
 
 Entering Columbia, Le Conte found all along the main street 
 a heap of ruins, but the college buildings had been spared. At 
 his home he found all living and well, but much exhausted by 
 the terrible experience they had undergone in the burning of the 
 city, although not a soldier had crossed their threshold. So the 
 goods they laboriously carried off and lost would have been safe 
 in the house. The mysterious young man had slept in the base- 
 ment, and had authoritatively protected the house. Whether he 
 was a Confederate or a Federal spy, or both, was never made 
 quite clear. 
 
 The first year following the end of the war was a trying one. 
 For a week the family lived on provisions that had been saved 
 from the sack of the city by the negroes that lived on their lot. 
 Then for a while they drew rations from the city, and gradually 
 supplies came in from the country. At one time Le Conte ob- 
 tained from the Federal commander permission to go down the 
 river on an abandoned flatboat to obtain corn for the city from 
 the plantations below, and brought back several thousand 
 bushels, of which one hundred was allowed him as a perquisite 
 for himself and his brother John. Everybody of course wore 
 'Tiomespun,^' or soldiers' clothes picked up from the hospitals. 
 
 Worse than these privations was the "reconstruction" period 
 which followed, with negro domination, aggravated by "carpet- 
 bag" officials and their swarms of predatory followers. Of this 
 period Le Conte forbears to speak in detail. 
 
 Having lost everything but his land in the war, the resumption 
 of college work in 1866 greatly relieved him by the salary being 
 also revived. Instruction in the college was now made as 
 "practical" as possible, he himself supplementing his chemistry 
 course with short courses on pharmacy and agriculture. Mean- 
 while Le. Conte also resumed his outside scientific activity. In 
 1866-1867 he gave six lectures on "Coal and Petroleum" in the 
 Peabody Institute at Baltimore and wrote three papers on the 
 
 172 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 "Adjustments of the Eye," "Eotation of the Eye on the Optic 
 Axis," and "The Horopter." These were published first in the 
 American Journal of Science and in the Philosophical Maga- 
 zine, and subsequently, with nine additional articles, were em- 
 bodied ill ttie volume "Sight" of the International Scientific 
 Series, in 1880 and 1897. 
 
 A measurably satisfactory political and social condition ex- 
 isted until the establishment of the permanent "civil" govern- 
 ment, which became more and more intolerable until, in 1876, 
 by an uprising of the people, good government was restored ; but 
 in the meantime a good many of the best men emigrated to 
 escape the intolerable misgovernment, and the two Le Contes 
 themselves thought of trying their fortunes with Maximilian of 
 Mexico. Just then they heard of the organization of the Uni- 
 versity of California and applied for positions there. Both were 
 elected in November and December, 1868, and moved to Cali- 
 fornia the following year. 
 
 LIFE AND WORK IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Leaving Columbia after thirteen years of service, Joseph Le 
 Conte took his family to California on the transcontinental rail- 
 road, then newly opened, and was met at Oakland by his brother 
 John, who had preceded him and was acting as president pend- 
 ing the election of a permanent incumbent by the regents. Both 
 entered on their active duties on September 20, 1869, with a 
 total of 38 students in attendance. At the university, which was 
 then located in Oakland, Joseph Le Conte's lectures were oo 
 geology, zoology, and botany. 
 
 He was greatly impressed and interested by the novelty of the 
 country and climate and the busy, active population; and in 
 order to become acquainted he frequently lectured publicly, thus 
 altogether finding his intellectual activity stimulated to the high- 
 est degree. At the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco he 
 gave about twenty lectures on various scientific subjects, and at 
 Oakland on Sundays he spoke on the "Relations of Science to 
 Religion," a subject which continued prominent in his mind to 
 the last. The stenographic report of the Oakland lectures 
 formed the basis of his first book ("Religion and Science"), 
 published by the Appletons not long afterwards. 
 
 173 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 Geology had now become his favorite department, but as the 
 understanding of the geology of a new country requires more 
 time and travel than he was able to bestow upon it, his scien- 
 tific activity continued specially in the line of binocular vision. 
 He thus followed up his first paper on tlie subject; written in 
 reply to the papers of Claparede and Helmholtz, by three others 
 published in the American Journal of Science in 1871, the last 
 ("On the Theory of Binocular Relief") being also published in 
 the Archives des Sciences. It gave rise to discussions with 
 Pictet and Tyndall, in which, according to the present state of 
 the subject, Le Conte's views were fully sustained. 
 
 During the summer vacation of 1870 he, in company with 
 Prof. Frank Soule and eight students of the university, under- 
 took a six weeks' camping trip in the Sierra Nevada, which he 
 considers almost an era in his life. It was made in the roughest 
 style, without even a tent, each man carrying his bedding, &c., 
 behind his saddle. They visited "the Yosemite, the High Sierra, 
 Lake Mono and the neighboring volcanoes, and Lake Tahoe. 
 The trip was thoroughly enjoyed by all, and the opportunity 
 afforded him for the study of mountain structure and origin 
 formed the basis for ten or eleven papers subsequently published 
 by Le Conte. A narrative of this expedition was published in 
 1875, under the title "A Journal of Ramblings througli the 
 High Sierra," which attracted much attention and, being soon 
 out of print, was republished in 1890 by the Sierra Club of San 
 Francisco. 
 
 . The summer vacation of 1871 was utilized by him for a trip 
 through Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, observing 
 systematically the many important geological features of that 
 region; these observations he supplemented by a trip, taken more 
 leisurely, in 1873, to eastern Oregon, including the Columbia 
 and Deschutes rivers and, the John Day region. These explora- 
 tions gave him the material for what he considers one of his 
 most important papers, that on "The Great Lava Flood of the 
 West and the Age and Structure of the Cascade Mountains." 
 This paper made known for the first time the enormous extent 
 of what is probably the greatest continuous eruptive sheet in the 
 world, and gave its beginning as probably at the end of the 
 Miocene. 
 
 174 
 
JOSEPH LB CONTE. 
 
 During the fall of 1873, after his return from the second 
 trip to the ' Yosemite, Louis Agassiz visited him in Oakland, 
 having come around Cape Horn in the Coast Survey steamer 
 Hassler. This visit was of course a great enjoyment to Le Conte. 
 Agassiz died in Cambridge a year later, and Le Conte made one 
 of the memorial addresses before the Academy of Sciences in 
 San Francisco, as already stated. 
 
 During the summer vacation of 1874 he, with his family, 
 spent some time at Lake Tahoe, and availed himself of the 
 opportunity to study the tracks of ancient glaciers in the region, 
 with their moraines and lakelets. The results of these observa- 
 tions were given in a paper "On Some of the Ancient Glaciers 
 of the Sierra Nevada," published in the American Journal of 
 Science in 1875. He also at that time visited the Comstock 
 Lode, which formed the basis of four or five papers subsequently 
 published. 
 
 In the fall of 1874 he, with others of the university faculty, 
 took up residence at Berkeley, the permanent site of the insti- 
 tution, then consisting of a few houses, but at the time of his 
 death, in 1901, a town of 15,000 inhabitants; which number has 
 now (1906) at least doubled. He always greatly admired and 
 enjoyed the site of the university and town. 
 
 During the summer vacation of 1875 he again, with a party of 
 university men, camped in the High Sierra. Their plan had 
 been to go, via Yosemite, Lake Mono, and Lake Owen, over the 
 Kearsarge Pass and down the Kings River Canon; but an acci- 
 dent to himself prevented Le Conte from going beyond Lake 
 Mono. There he made detailed studies of the volcanic phe- 
 nomena, the results of which were afterwards published in the 
 American Journal of Science in a paper "On the Extinct Vol- 
 canoes about Lake Mono and Their Relations to the Glacial 
 Drift." During this year he was elected to membership in the 
 National Academy of Sciences. 
 
 The most important paper written by him in 1876 was "On 
 the Evidences of Horizontal Crushing in the Formation of the 
 Coast Ranges of California." The striking contrast between the 
 structure and details of the origin of the Sierra Nevada and the 
 Coast Range was always a favorite topic with him, and he used 
 to cite the latter as an irrefragable proof that, whatever differ- 
 
 175 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 ence of opinion there might be as to the cause of the horizontal 
 pressure, no one seeing the phenomena shown in the Coast Eange 
 strata, even within a short distance of the University of Cali- 
 fornia, could question the fact that they could not be explained 
 by forces acting in any other way. 
 
 An address on "The True Idea of a University," made during 
 this year, at commencement, and subsequently republished in the 
 Princeton Review and the University of California Chronicle 
 in modified form, is characteristic of Le Conte's ideals in respect 
 to the means and methods for the best and highest intellectual 
 and moral development, so far as this can be accomplished by 
 secular education. 
 
 Shortly after the writer's arrival at the university, in spring 
 1875, Le Conte asked his opinion as to the need and likelihood of 
 success of a text-book of geology which should embody dynamic 
 geology as its chief feature, instead of being in the main his- 
 toric, as was then the case with Dana's large book. Having 
 experienced, w^hile teaching at the University of Michigan, the 
 great need of such a work, the waiter strongly urged upon Le 
 Conte the publication of such a book, which he had already 
 begun to write and subsequently pushed vigorously toward com- 
 pletion; so that in 1876, when he went east to visit the Centen- 
 nial Exposition, he entered upon negotiations with the Apple- 
 tons for its publication. At Philadelphia he was especially in- 
 terested in the inspection and trial of the telephones, then newly 
 invented, especially that of Bell ; which occurred in the presence 
 of Lord Kelvin, the Emperor and Empress of Brazil, and other 
 distinguished men. He subsequently, on his return to Berkeley, 
 gave, a lecture to the students and faculty of the university, in 
 which he explained the principles and action of the Bell tele- 
 phone, exciting great interest. 
 
 Upon The completion of the manuscript of the "Elements of 
 Geolog/' he, in April, 1877, 'sent it on to the Appletons, who 
 agreed to publish it provided that he would personally superin- 
 tend the making of the engravings and the printing. He went 
 to New York in May and worked very hard for three months. 
 By August all was done except the proof-reading of the last 
 half, which was done by him at Berkeley. The book was pub- 
 lished in January, 1878, and was from the beginning very suc- 
 
 17G 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 cessful. It has remained a standard college and university 
 text-book ever since, and has gone through four editions, revised 
 by himself, the last in 1902. It has since Le Conte's death been 
 revised and supplemented so as to include the latest researches, 
 by Prof. H. Leroy Fairchild, of Eochester. Its original char- 
 acter has, however, been faithfully preserved, and it remains 
 probably the most widely used text-book of geology in the Eng- 
 lish language; for, although no written treatise could even ap- 
 proximately represent the eminently "live" lectures which the 
 book embodies, yet, in so far as this is possible, the style reflects 
 everywhere the intensity and geniality which made Le Conte's 
 lectures so deservedly popular, both with the students and the 
 public. His courses always varied from year to year, never be- 
 coming stereotyped, but always fresh and newly interesting, 
 even to those who had heard the same subjects treated by him 
 before; and he always prepared himself fully for each lecture. 
 In this personal intensity lay the secret of his great popularity 
 and influence with his students, and he states emphatically the 
 principle, now at last becoming widely accepted by the Ameri- 
 can universities, "that investigation should never be separated 
 from teaching, as many propose; for not only is one a better 
 teacher for being an investigator, but also a better investigator 
 for being a teacher. We never know any subject perfectly until 
 we teach it." To his intense interest in his subject, and in his 
 students, Le Conte attributes most of his success in teaching, 
 which in the course of time became so great that there was no 
 lecture-room in the university sufficiently large to hold his au- 
 diences. These came from all the nine "colleges" into which the 
 university differentiated in the course of time, with the twenty- 
 four hundred students actually present at Berkeley at the time 
 of his death, in 1901, as against the thirty-five in 1873. Le 
 Conte alludes regretfully to the diminished efficiency of in- 
 struction resulting from this enormous increase, occurring 
 simultaneously all over the United States, but without a cor- 
 responding increase in the means available for instruction, and 
 rendering personal contact and influence of instructors with the 
 students very difficult. 
 
 Among the influences which kept up his wide, active interest 
 in many directions, he mentions among his colleagues Hilgard, 
 
 177 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 Moses, and Howison, the latter especially, with whom he dif- 
 fered quite radically in many points, especially as regards the 
 scientific as contradistinguished from the metaphysical stand- 
 point in philosophy. He justly attributes a great intellectual 
 stimulus to the Philosophical Union established by Howison in 
 the university, where he with others frequently held ardent dis- 
 cussions on philosophical subjects. Another strong stimulus was, 
 and is today, the "Berkeley Club," founded in 1873 by President 
 D. C. Gilman, and which Le Conte considers an ideal club for 
 intellectual stimulation and broadening ; consisting, as it does, 
 not only of university men of all departments of knowledge, but 
 embracing also educated men of all pursuits, professions, and 
 opinions. It is, as he says, a club of diverse spirits, where we 
 may get, directly and without much labor, the best results of 
 thought in other departments. It is therefore, within its mem- 
 bership, a powerful promoter of broadness as against the mod- 
 ern tendency to excessive, narrow, and premature specialization, 
 which Le Conte considers as one of the prime evils of modern 
 intellectual, and specially of scientific, life, productive of preju- 
 dice, self-conceit, and lack of sympathy between diverse pursuits. 
 "The Berkeley Club combines the best features of both social and 
 intellectual clubs, there being a foi-tnightly dinner, and after 
 that a ]|aper by some member (in rotation) and a general dis- 
 cussion thereon." It was doubtless this continual friction with 
 diverse opinions that led him to decline special affiliation with 
 any of the existing denominational churches, though tolerant 
 and sympathetic toward all and contriluiting habitually to sev- 
 eral of their number. 
 
 It Avas in this attitude of mind, gradually matured during 
 the thirty years of his residence in California, that the greater 
 part of his intellectual and scientific work, of which the enu- 
 meration and discussion follows, was done. 
 
 A summary historic recital of his chief activities during his 
 life in California must suffice, in order to leave room for a fuller 
 connected discussion of his most important writings. 
 
 In 1877 he wrote one of his most important papers, "On the 
 Critical Periods in the History of the Earth, and the Quaternary 
 as Such a Period." This idea had long been in his mind, and it 
 was subsequently greatly enlarged by his discussion of the 
 
 178 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 Ozarkian or Sierran era of elevation and erosion, published in 
 1900. These are discussed later. In the same year he wrote his 
 first discussion of the "Glycogenic Function of the Liver and Its 
 Eelation to Vital Force and Vital Heat," which was expanded 
 in subsequent publications and finally summarized also in his 
 book on the "Comparative Physiology and Morphology of 
 Animals," issued in 1900. 
 
 In 1878 he wrote a paper in reply to Captain Button's criti- 
 cism of his "Contractional Theory of Mountain Formation," 
 which he explained more fully. In the summer of this year he 
 .took his family on a camping trip to the Yosemite Valley and 
 Calaveras Grove. 
 
 The summer of 1879 he devoted to an extended but rather 
 pleasure tour with his wife to Oregon, Washington, and British 
 Columbia, and examined the Carbon Biver coal fields. 
 
 Among the scientific papers written by him in 1880, a very 
 active year, was one on "The Old River Beds of California," 
 which further illustrated his views on the critical events of the 
 Quaternary era. Others were on "The Genesis of Sex," "The 
 Effect of Mixture of Races on Human Progress," and on "The 
 Laws of Ocular Motion," the latter being afterwards made a 
 portion of his book on "Sight," written in the same year. He 
 also made a trip to the South. 
 
 In 1881 he made only a short trip to study the formation of 
 cinnabar veins at the Sulphur Bank, which he saw in actual 
 progress and discussed in a paper published in 1882. In the 
 summer of the last-named year he also made another trip to the 
 Yosemite, and while there heard of the discovery of the Carson 
 Footprints, which he examined, together with the Steamboat 
 Springs of Nevada. He determined the footprints as those of 
 animals of late Tertiary age. 
 
 Spending the summer vacation of 1883 near San Bernardino, 
 he made observations on the old river beds of the Sierra Madre, 
 showing there also a post-Tertiary elevation of the mountains. 
 His paper on this "Rejuvenation of the Sierra" was not pub- 
 lished till 1886. 
 
 In 1884, after having in New York superintended the publi- 
 cation of his "Compend of Geology," he again visited the South. 
 During this and the following year he wrote many short papers, 
 (19) 179 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 but the work of chief interest was his excursion with Captain 
 Button, of the United States Geological Survey, first to Mount 
 Shasta, and then to Oregon, to the lava fields and Crater Lake, 
 in the old crater of" the exploded Mount Mazama, whose lava 
 they found quite different from that of the lava fields proper. 
 They also examined Klamath Lake and its origin in a fault. 
 Le Conte greatly admired the scenery and was deeply interested 
 in the geological problems offered in that region. On his return 
 he immediately began to write out his views, thus confirmed, on 
 the "Post-Tertiary Elevation of the Sierra," which was read 
 before the National Academy o^f Sciences in 1886. 
 
 In the summer of 1887 he made a trip to the lava fields of 
 Modoc and northward, via Eeno, and Pyramid and Winnemucca 
 lakes, which he recognized as remnants of the former great conti- 
 nental twin lake, Lahontan. He also visited Surprise Valley and 
 determined its character as representing a fault scarp. Later 
 in the same year he wrote a paper on the "Flora of the Islands 
 of the California Coast in Eelation to Changes in Physical 
 Geography," emphasizing the origin and effect of the deep chan- 
 nels separating them from the mainland. 
 
 In May, 1888, he gave the inaugural address at the transfer 
 of the Lick Observatory, then just completed, into the custody 
 of the University of California. During the succeeding sum- 
 mer vacation he, with his family, once more visited South 
 Carolina. * 
 
 During the summer vacation of 1889 he undertook an ex- 
 tended trip into the Sierra Nevada, entering via Yosemite Val- 
 ley, Tuolumne Meadows, Mono Pass, Mono Lake, &c., ground 
 already familiar to him, but nevertheless greatly enjoyed, in 
 company with his son Joseph (who subsequently became a most 
 expert mountaineer) and other University men. At this time, 
 in crossing the hot San Joaquin Valley, he for the first time felt 
 a waning of his physical endurance. 
 
 In 1890 Le Conte suffered a great shock and loss in the death 
 of his brother John, with whom he had been more or less asso- 
 ciated and linked in close friendship throughout his life. He 
 wrote for the National Academy of Sciences, of which both 
 brothers were members^ the memoir of the life of John Le Conte. 
 
 The years 1890 and 1891 were a period of great intellectual 
 
 ISO 
 
JOSEPH LE.CONTE. 
 
 and scientific activity for Le Conte, involving the publication of 
 numerous papers, both philosophical and scientific, as well as 
 the revision and republication of previous works. He was elected 
 president of the American Association for the Advancement of 
 Science after thirty years' absence from its meetings. He was 
 also made vice-president of the American committee of the In- 
 ternational Geologic Congress, which met at Washington at the 
 same time, and in the unexpected absence of the president, New- 
 berry, he presided at the meetings of the Congress, and there- 
 fore had to make an address of welcome to the visiting geologists. 
 The subject of this address, which he had to prepare within two 
 days, was "The American Continent as a Geological Field," and 
 in it he called the attention of the foreign members specially to 
 the greater simplicity of geologic phenomena in the United 
 States as compared with Europe, qualifying the American geo- 
 logic field to serve as a prototj^pe rather than the more complex 
 European conditions, as had heretofore been done. Here he 
 made numerous interesting acquaintances, which were to serve 
 him greatly in a subsequent visit to Europe. 
 
 Having subsequently superintended at New York the fourth 
 edition of his "Elements of Geology," he visited his relatives in 
 the South, stopping afterwards at Washington, where he lectured 
 before the Philosophical Society on "The TIelation of Philos- 
 ophy to Psychology and to Physiology." Subsequently, in New 
 York, he lectured on "The Race Problem in the South" — a 
 thorny subject at the time — which he afterwards elaborated more 
 fully in a volume entitled "Man and the State." 
 
 The regents of the university iiaving given Le Conte a year's 
 leave of absence with full salary, he determined now to fulfill 
 his wish, long entertained, of visiting Europe. He sailed in 
 February, 1892, from New York to Genoa, with his wife and 
 youngest daughter, Caroline. It was a great event to him and 
 was thoroughly enjoyed. From Genoa, Rome was visited, then 
 Naples, whose bay he compares to that of San Francisco, whose 
 general scenery he considers quite equal, but lacking the clear 
 blue water and the pebbly beaches as well as the historic setting. 
 After visiting the usual points of. interest, they went north, via 
 Rome, to Florence, Venice, Milan; thence, via the St. Gotthard 
 Pass and Luzerne, to Ziirich, where he visited the university; 
 
 181 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY 0^ SCIENCES. 
 
 thence to Heidelberg and down the Ehine, which, apart from its 
 historic castles and cities, he found less striking than the Colum- 
 bia, the Fraser, or even the Hudson. After a few days at 
 Cologne they went to Paris, where he enjoyed specially the many 
 distinguished men he met, mentioning Gaudry, Boule, De Mar- 
 gerie, • Daubree, Barrois, and others. Professor Javal, the 
 ophthalmologist of the Sorbonne, told him that where he (Le 
 Conte) differed with Helmholtz in matters relating to sight, Le 
 Conte was, in his opinion, altogether right. 
 
 From Paris they went to England, where Le Conte was 
 specially delighted to hear his native tongue again. They were 
 mostly the guests of Mr. De Friese, a former student at the 
 University of California. Among the many interesting men he 
 met were Professor Prestwich, whose guest he was for some days. 
 Sir Archibald Geikie, Professor Judd, and others; and after 
 attending a meeting of the Geological Society he was invited to 
 a dinner, at which he met, among others. Sir John Lubbock, who 
 showed him much attention. Sir Andrew Clark asked him im- 
 mediately whether he was the author of the book on "Evolution 
 in Its Eelation to Religious Thought," which he had carefully 
 read and annotated. Cambridge and Oxford gave him the most 
 enjoyable experiences. Prof. McK. Hughes entertained him for 
 several days at Cambridge, and Professor Romanes, with whom 
 Le Conte had corresponded, invited him to his house at Oxford. 
 It appeared, again, that Romanes had also been especially im- 
 pressed with the book on "Evolution and Religious Thought." 
 
 After a much-enjoyed tour througli Scotland and short stay 
 in Ireland, where they visited the Lakes of Killarney, they went, 
 via Cork and Queenstown, to New York ; thence, after presiding 
 at the meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science, at Rochester, Le Conte returned directly to 
 California. 
 
 In winter of 1892-1893 he visited southern California, lec- 
 turing at several points. 
 
 On the 26th of February 1893, being his seventieth birthday, 
 the Academic Senate of the University of California gave him a 
 dinner in the Maple Room of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. 
 In June of the same year, being quite unwell, he visited the 
 Yosemite Valley, and, thinking it was probably the last time he 
 
 182 
 
JOSEPH LE CONtE. 
 
 would see it, he took leave of tlie familiar cliffs and water-falls." 
 He, however, saw it several times afterwards. In August he 
 went to Madison, Wisconsin, to give his address as retiring presi- 
 dent of the American Geological Society. His subject was the 
 important paper on "Mountain Origin," subsequently published 
 in several journals. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1894 occurred the Midwinter 
 Exposition at San Francisco, where he addressed one of the 
 congresses on "The Theory of Evolution and Social Progress," 
 \v]ii(;h paper was subsequently published in The Monist. He 
 again spent the summer in the Yosemite Valley, but this time 
 at the hotel, and then, in August, attended the meeting of the 
 American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Brook- 
 lyn, New York. He shortly after became a member of the 
 American Institute of Mining Engineers, in recognition of his 
 paper on "Posepny's Genesis .of Ore Deposits." 
 
 In 1895 he attended the meeting of the American Educational 
 Association at Denver, giving an address on "The Effect of the 
 Theory of Evolution upon Education," published in the pro- 
 ceedings of that meeting. In this year he also, after partici- 
 pating in the discussions of the "Concept of God" by the Philo- 
 sophical Union of the University of California, wrote the sum- 
 mary of his address, which was finally, with those of Howison, 
 Royce, and Mezes, published in a book by the Macmillans. He 
 also wrote, by invitation, a memoir of the life of J. D. Dana, 
 which was read at the meeting of the Geological Society of 
 America and subsequently published as a bulletin, and also in 
 Dr. Oilman's "Life of Dana." 
 
 In January, 1896, he gave up his undergraduate classes, which 
 had become excessively large, and thenceforth gave mainly grad- 
 uate courses in geology and comparative physiology. This 
 change he greatly regretted, for he enjoyed the undergraduate 
 teaching; but the revision of examination papers became too 
 irksome. 
 
 In this year the students began to take notice of his birthdaj'', 
 which until his death was manifested by decorating his room and 
 lecture-table and by the giving of some valuable present, among 
 which was a portrait of Agassiz. Even when, in 1901, he was 
 absent in Georgia, he received a congratulatory telegram from 
 
 183 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 th^ students; and for a number of years after his death, formal 
 memorial exercises were lield on that day. 
 
 The year 1896 was a very prolific one with him, his first paper 
 being on "The Relations of Biology to Philosophy." This paper 
 was read at a number of philosophical meetings at the East also, 
 and subsequently published, without his permission, and with 
 many misprints, in The Arena. Later he wrote an article en- 
 titled "From Animal to Man," published in The Monist. In 
 summer he attended the meeting of the American Association 
 for the Advancement of Science at Buffalo, and presided over 
 that of the Geological Society of America, which was notable 
 because it was in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of Prof. 
 James Hall's activity on the geology of the State of New York. 
 Le Conte delivered one of the addresses, which was subsequently 
 published in Science. 
 
 After supervising the new editions of his "Elements of Ge- 
 ology" and his book on "Sight," he early in September sailed 
 for England. The special object of this trip was to attend the 
 Liverpool meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science, to which he had been specially invited. Here 
 he met many old friends and made a number of new ones — 
 among others, Herbert Spencer, who invited him to luncheon; 
 also Mr. Carnegie, who invited him to the privileges of the 
 Athenaeum, in London. 
 
 Le Conte's stay in England was brief, as he was to be present 
 at the sesquicentennial celebration of the College of New Jersey, 
 on changing its title to that of Princeton University. Here the 
 title of LL. D. was again conferred upon him, and esteemed by 
 him a distinguished honor. 
 
 After the celebration he visited Harvard University as the 
 guest of his former pupil, Josiah Eoyce, and spent a fortnight 
 among many old friends, including Mrs. Agassiz, Alexander 
 Agassiz, Mrs. Asa Gray, and James Peirce ; dining also with a 
 "Berkeley colony" of twenty or more former students. 
 
 After attending the meeting of the National Academy at New 
 York, in November, he presided at the meeting of the Geological 
 Society in December. At the latter meeting he gave an address 
 on "Criist Movements and Their Causes," which was printed 
 
 184 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTfi. 
 
 as a bulletin of the society and also in the Report of the Regents 
 of the Smithsonian Institution for 1896. 
 
 Immediately after this meeting he joined his wife and daugh- 
 ter in the South, and celebrated his golden wedding at the house 
 of his elder daughter, at Scottsboro, only two miles from Mid- 
 way, where the marriage originally took place. All the children 
 and grandchildren, with many other friends, attended the happy 
 occasion, which was still further enlivened by numerous tele- 
 grams, presents, and congratulations from the regents and 
 faculty of the University of California, and other distant friends. 
 Subsequently, on his return to California, a public reception 
 was given him and Mrs. Le Conte by the alumni of the uni- 
 versity, with the presentation of 'a golden loving-cup, at the 
 Hopkins Art Institute; followed later by a dinner given by the 
 faculty. 
 
 The summer vacation of 1897 he again passed in the Yosemite 
 Valley, his son and daughter camping. He also made an ex- 
 cursion to Clouds Rest and the Little Yosemite, and he once 
 more thought it would probably be the last time that he should 
 see these wonders. 
 
 In 1898 he published a new and revised edition of the "Com- 
 pend of Geology" and on Charter Day delivered an address on 
 "The True Idea of a University," subsequently printed in the 
 University Chronicle. He also contributed to the Philosophical 
 Union's discussions on "The Will to Believe," and a paper on 
 "The Religious Significance of Science." 
 
 During 1899 he wrote and published in the Journal of Ge- 
 ology what he himself regards as one of his most important 
 geological papers, on "The Ozarkian and Its Significance in 
 Theoretical Geology," which discusses the important unconform- 
 ities and erosions due to extended oscillations of the continent 
 at the beginning of the Quaternary era. 
 
 In January and February, 1900, he published, in the Popular 
 Science Monthly, a popular article entitled "A Century of Ge- 
 ology," wherein he traces the evolution of geologic thought dur- 
 ing the nineteenth century; illustrating strikingly its develop- 
 ment from mere infancy to the commanding position it now 
 occupies among the natural sciences, notably its influence upon 
 general scientific as well as philosophical and religious thought; 
 
 385 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 overcoming one after anotlier the various plirases of opposition 
 by the invincible logic of its facts and logical inferences there- 
 from, and later substituting for the cataclysmic theories enter- 
 tained at first, the conception by Lyell of slow and measured 
 agencies, as observed today; which was in its turn modified by 
 the recognition of "critical periods" occurring from time to time, 
 when changes were rapid and intense. 
 
 Feeling in good health and spirits, despite his 77 years, and 
 yearning once more for the High Sierra, he joined a camping 
 tour undertaken by his son Joseph into the Kings Kiver Canon. 
 He was in camp for six weeks, part of the time at an altitude of 
 11,000 feet and once at 12,000, he being in perfect health all the 
 time and greatly enjoying himself. An account of this trip was 
 published by him in the October number of Sunset, 1900. 
 
 Having again been given leave of absence for one year by the 
 regents, in order that he might attend the congresses of the 
 natural sciences which were to meet at Paris at the close of the 
 century, he made preparations to go, but gave it up on account 
 of the ill health of his daughter Caroline. In September, nev- 
 ertheless, he went to Nev7 York with his wife to cross the At- 
 lantic, but was himself taken ill with the grippe and had to 
 relinquish the voyage. He then went South, to his elder daugh- 
 ter's home, soon recovered, and spent the winter among his 
 children and grandchildren. He still hoped to go to Europe in 
 the spring, but his wife yearned for home, and they returned to 
 Berkeley in March. As his son was to marry in June, he finally 
 relinquished the European trip. 
 
 itfter the wedding, which was also attended by his ^eldest 
 daughter, Mrs. Davis, long a resident of South Carolina, he de- 
 termined to revisit the Yosemite Valley in company with Mrs. 
 Davis, who had never seen it. Mrs. Le Conte was anxious about 
 the effect of the trip upon his reduced strength, but her ob- 
 jections were overcome by his enthusiasm and ardent wishes, 
 and so he left home in June, 1901, for his eleventh visit to the 
 wonderful valley, via Wawona and the Mariposa Grove. On 
 July 3 he arrived at Camp Curry, the rendezvous of the Sierra 
 Club, somewhat fatigued, but joyous and enthusiastic as ever. 
 
 Professor Frank Soule, of the University of California, one of 
 his companions on this trip, as he had been thirty-one years be- 
 
 186 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE, 
 
 fore, tliiis describes tlie events of these last days of Le Conte's 
 life: 
 
 "He spent the next two days driving around the valley with 
 his daughter and her friends, in walking to objects near at hand, 
 or, during intervals of rest, in chatting with his numerous 
 friends and the strangers who insisted on meeting him. He was 
 geniality and hospitality personified, a Southern gentleman of 
 tlie old school, and undoubtedly his physical strength was thus 
 severely overtaxed during these two days. The history of his 
 earlier trips, his hypothesis of the formation of the valley, and 
 geological questions innumerable, were all gone over patiently for 
 the edification of his ever-gathering listeners. But nature gave 
 out at last. On the evening of July 5 the sad words were whis- 
 pered around camp that ^dear Dr. Joe is very ill.' He was in 
 great physical pain, caused by angina pectoris, but his daughter 
 and their intimate friends did everything possible throughout 
 the night to alleviate his sufferings. In the morning he seemed 
 to be resting comfortably, so much so that his physician left his 
 bedside to procure additional medicine from the hotel. At 10 
 a. m. Dr. Le Conte turned on his left side. His watchful daugh- 
 ter at once noticed a great change coming oyer his face, and said, 
 *Do not lie on your left side, father; you know it is not good for 
 you.' He smiled and uttered his last words in life, ^It does not 
 matter, daughter.' In five minutes he was dead. 
 
 "Only 24 hours previously he had visited with his party the 
 picturesque Vernal Falls, and while there had good-humoredly 
 consented to be photographed, affording the last picture of him 
 ever taken." 
 
 Scores of friends quickly gathered, and university students 
 and graduates prepared his casket, bound it upon the stage-coach, 
 and covered it with laurels and pines. Thus Joseph Le Conte 
 set out on his last return from the valley, escorted by his daugh- 
 ter and one friend. 
 
 The funeral, which took place on July 13, was a remarkable 
 manifestation of the respect and affection in which he was held, 
 not only by all connected with the University of California, but 
 also by the people of the surrounding cities and of the State at 
 large. Many came from long distances to pay this last tribute 
 of respect to Joseph Le Conte; the regents, faculties, and 
 
 187 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 students of the iiniversit}'', where all exercises had been sus- 
 pended for the day, and a long line of carriages formed an im- 
 posing procession, accompanying the body to Mountain View 
 Cemetery, near Oakland, where it was interred alongside of his 
 brother John. A few months later the grave was marked with 
 a large granite boulder procured by the Sierra Club from the 
 vicinity of the camp where he died, in the Yosemite Valley. 
 
 On August 21 following, at the opening of the academic year, 
 memorial exercises were held in the presence of a large audi- 
 ence in the hall of the Harmon Gymnasium, addresses being de- 
 livered by members of the faculty, alumni, and students. Memo- 
 rial ceremonies still continue to be observed annually, at the 
 University, on February 26, Joseph Le Conte's birthday, at the 
 foot of a venerable oak dedicated to the two brothers by the 
 students. 
 
 Joseph Le Conte is survived by his wife, three daughters, and 
 one son. 
 
 Digest of Joseph Le Contf/s Major Writings. 
 
 1. scientific publications. 
 
 A. Geological. 
 
 Le Conte's first geological paper after his arrival in Cali- 
 fornia was evidently suggested by his observations in the Sierra 
 Nevada and the Coast Eange, in 1870 and the next succeeding 
 years. His "Theory of the Formation of the Great Features of 
 the Earth's Surface," published in the American Journal of 
 Science in November, 1872, outlines essentially the views which 
 he presented more elaborately in later papers on related subjects, 
 notably in his "Reply to the Criticisms of T. S. Hunt" on the 
 above paper (1873), and later in that on "Evidences of Hori- 
 zontal Crushing in the Formation of the Coast Range of Cali- 
 fornia" (1876). In the first of the above papers he formulates 
 into a definite theory the ideas theretofore advanced by Her- 
 shell, Scrope, Lyell, Hunt, and Hall, viz., the solidity of the 
 earth's interior and the aqueo-igneous fusion of the deeply 
 buried sediments by the rise of the geo-isotherms. At this point 
 Le Conte adds the important suggestion that such fusion cre- 
 ated lines or belts of weakness, which, with the effect of secular 
 
 188 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE; 
 
 contraction of the earth, caused the formation of mountain 
 chains within ttie zones of greatest thickness, and their complex 
 folding by lateral pressure and upswelling. Hunt's reclamations 
 of priority are discussed in the second paper, together with clear 
 formulations of the essentials of his views, and their correlation 
 with the occurrence of fissure eruptions and volcanoes in con- 
 nection with such chains. He also calls attention to the impos- 
 sibility of supposing the Appalachian plateau to have been 
 formed as a convexity, that form being necessarily a subsequent 
 result of an extended ("^epelrogenic") upheaval. He sums up 
 by the formulation of his theory of mountain formation as 
 follows: Accumulation of lines of thick sediments where sub- 
 sidence occurs; rise of geo-isotherms, causing aqueo-igneous 
 softening, which determines lines of weakness and yielding; then 
 crushing horizontally and swelling up vertically forms the moun- 
 tain chain. But when once the yielding begins, mechanical 
 energy is changed into heat, which may thus be increased to any 
 extent and produce tnie igneous fusion. In the last-mentioned 
 effect he, with J. D. Dana, accepts the views of Robert Mallet. 
 In subsequent papers as well as in his book on the "Elements of 
 Geology," he of course completes this theory by reference to the 
 resultant fissure eruptions, followed by the establishment of 
 volcanoes as the remnant of the energy of fissure eruptions, and 
 the final erosion into the present forms of mountain chains ; but 
 he admits his inability to account for the local oscillations of 
 level, which are so obvious in the past and are still in progress. 
 In his paper on the "Formation of the Coast Eange of Califor- 
 nia" (1876) he illustrates, and fortifies by many observations and 
 examples, his previous conclusions. He discusses specially his ob- 
 servations of the numerous rounded and elongated, flattened con- 
 cretions of the cleavager surfaces of shales, evidently originally 
 clay pellets, which have experienced the effects of lateral pres- 
 sure and corresponding vertical upswelling. He shows that 
 every 21/2 to 3 feet of original horizontal strata were here com- 
 pressed into one foot, with corresponding vertical upswelling. 
 Slaty cleavage was here not produced at right angles to the pres- 
 sure, owing to the coarseness of materials; but in the foothill 
 slates of the Sierra Nevada the slaty cleavage is nearly through- 
 out parallel to the stratification. 
 
 189 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 He also refers to the criticism made by Dana, that he (Le 
 Conte) underestimates the amount of elevation caused by plica- 
 tions, and claims that on the supposition of a solid earth, the 
 elevation by compression will be the same with as without fold- 
 ing, and that if fissure eruptions occur, the same will be true. 
 
 Le Conte's paper "On the Great Lava-Flood of the N"orthwest, 
 and the Structure and Age of the Cascade Mountains," written 
 in 1874, after his second exploration of that region, adds im- 
 portant illustration and corroboration to some of the points pre- 
 viously made by hkii. In his two explorations he conclusively 
 established the enormous extent and thickness of the Northwest- 
 ern eruptive sheet, and the beginning of its extrusion toward 
 or at the end of the Miocene. He concludes that while a low 
 range may have been formed synchronously with the Sierra 
 Nevada, in Triasso- Jurassic times, it was subsequently over- 
 flowed and submerged by the great lava-flow, causing the striking 
 contrast between the jagged summit-lines of the Sierra and the 
 almost level, plateau-like crest of the Cascades, varied only by 
 the volcanic cones superimposed upon it. As to the mode of 
 formation of the great eruptive sheet, he accentuates the fact 
 that inasmuch as mountain ranges are admittedly formed as the 
 result of lateral crushing and vertical upswelling, it is natural 
 that when the stress occurs after a protracted solidification of the 
 crust, fissures must be formed and the sub-mountain liquid or 
 viscous matter, probably formed by local crushing, must be 
 squeezed out. He also calls attention to the difference in the 
 physical condition of the great eruptive sheet and the vesicular 
 lavas erupted by the succeeding volcanoes, in which steam and 
 other gases act as a vis a tergo. He agrees with Dana as to the 
 inverse ratio between folded mountain chains and fissure erup- 
 tions. 
 
 These papers of Le Conte and those published by Dana in 
 volumes 4 and 5 of the Journal of Science form a remarkable 
 body of important discussions of mountain-making. While dif- 
 fering in some details and in mode of statement, the essential 
 points of the two sets of papers are in agreement, and both turn 
 to the contraction of the globe as the necessary moving force for 
 the lateral crushing which is in evidence everywhere. 
 
 190 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 In a later paper (1878) Le Conte replies elaborately to criti- 
 cisms made by Button, combating tbe contraction of the earth 
 by cooling as an agency in mountain-making. Later papers on 
 the same subject appeared in the Philosophical Magazine (1888), 
 in the American Geologist (1889), and in the presidential ad- 
 dress delivered by him before the American Association for the 
 Advancement of Science, 1893. The views there given are those 
 embodied in the last edition of his "Elements of Geology," re- 
 vised by himself in 1902, and do not materially differ from those 
 quoted above. 
 
 Le Conte considers as one of his most important geological 
 papers that on "Critical Periods in the History of the Earth and 
 their Eelation to Evolution; and on the Quaternary as Such a 
 Period," published in 1877. It is the most comprehensive and 
 probably the most widely interesting of his single papers, com- 
 prehending as it does the geological, geo-physical, paleonto- 
 logical, and evolutionary points of view, including the preemi- 
 nent significence of the advent of man upon earth. It is at this 
 time the more interesting as, by an unconscious reaction toward 
 Agassiz' contentions, he is lead to anticipate the modern theory 
 of "Mutation" in connection with evolution, fesignating the 
 process as "the fact of paroxysmal movement of organic evolu- 
 tion." An organism, he says, may be regarded as being under 
 the influence of two opposing forces, the one — heredity, rigidity 
 of type — conservative; the other, the pressure of changing en- 
 vironment and conditions, aided possibly by an inherent tendency 
 toward change. The laiter may for some time accumulate but 
 make little impression, l)ut finally, the resistance giving way, the 
 organic form breaks up into a number of fantastic sports, which 
 are at once seized upon by natural selection. If for the word 
 "sports" we substitute "mutations," we have the essentials of 
 De Vries' views and observations, in which natural selection also 
 soon eliminates a number of non-viable mutations. 
 
 The critical periods he discusses are those characterized by 
 unconformities in the geological series, which he considers as 
 marking changes in the rate of evolution, "periods when the 
 forces of change are active, instead of potential" as in times 
 when conformable rocks are being made. The critical periods 
 
 191 
 
NATIONAL -ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 are periods of lost records, because they were continental; and 
 the farther back we go in geological and human history, the 
 longer are the gaps and the more irrecoverable the records. The 
 first and the greatest observable break is that between the 
 Archean and the Paleozoic. The former ends with merely 
 protozoan life, hardly yet differentiated into fauna and flora. 
 The primordial record opens with a varied and already highly 
 organized fauna, including an enormous evolutionary interval. 
 The next general unconformity occurs between the Paleozoic 
 and Mesozoic, "the most sweeping change in the forms of or- 
 ganisms that has ever occurred in the history of the earth, even 
 though partly bridged by the Permian." 
 
 Far less in time and in sweeping character is the lost interval 
 between the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic, the Cretaceous and the 
 Tertiary. Here conformity is not uncommon, but the break 
 in the continuity of the fauna is very great all over the world; 
 the relatively short interval and the great change from the crest 
 of saurian development ending the Cretaceous, and the great 
 mammalian evolution in the Tertiary, is so great that it can 
 only be explained by migration from where marsupial forms 
 had existed eve^ from Jurassic times. The disappearance of the 
 Cretaceous ocean and its replacement by great lakes in the Basin 
 region was doubtless a powerful agency in bringing about these 
 changes in America. 
 
 The early Quaternary was also to a marked degree a conti- 
 nental period, one of great and widespread oscillations, upheaval, 
 downsinking and reelevation, with unconformities on a grand 
 scale. He discusses this interval specially in a paper published 
 in- 1899, "On the Ozarkian and its Significance in Theoretical 
 Geolog}^" emphasizing particularly the important unconformi- 
 ties and protracted and incisive erosional activity marking the in- 
 terval of time between the latest Tertiary and the earliest Quater- 
 nary; when during extended continental elevations there were 
 formed ^the deep and abrupt canons of the Ozark range, the 
 sculpturing of the coastal plain of the Gulf States, prior as well 
 as subsequent to the Lafayette epoch; the formation of the now 
 submerged river channels of the Atlantic coast, and, greatest of 
 all, the excavation of the present river channels of the Sierra 
 Nevada and of the inner caiion of the Colorado. Le Conte esti- 
 
 192 
 
JOSEPH LE COi^TE. 
 
 mates that this erosional interval must have been quite as long, 
 and probably longer, than the Glacial Epoch itself. There were 
 thus great changes in physical geography, permitting inter- 
 continental migration of mammals and forcing the retreat of 
 organic forms adapted to temperate and warm climates south- 
 ward, both on land and sea; with a subsequent return of arctic 
 forms northward and upon mountains, where they were left 
 stranded in isolation. The disappearance of the great Pliocene 
 mediterranean lake separating eastern from western America 
 likewise brought about or permitted important changes. Yet 
 great as these changes were, they are incomparably less than 
 those of previous critical periods, in which not species but genera, 
 families, and even orders appeared and disappeared. The con- 
 clusion is that the previous critical periods or lost intervals were 
 far longer than the whole Quaternary, or that the rate of evolu- 
 tion was far more rapid in those earlier times. 
 
 In view of all the facts, Le Conte claims that the Quaternary, 
 as a critical period, should be considered as separating the 
 Cenozoic from the Present, or Psychozoic, or Age of Man. "Not 
 that man was not in existence in the early Quaternary, just as 
 fishes existed before the Age of Fishes. It is the culmination 
 of a fauna or flora, not their first beginnings, that should be 
 considered as characterizing an 'age.' " 
 
 Next in im])ortance to the above papers of wide scope and in- 
 terest stands that on "The Old Kiver Beds of California," which 
 was written by him as the result of an exploration of the Yuba 
 River and its hydraulic mines (1880). It suggested to him the 
 important idea of a rejuvenation of the Sierra Nevada at the 
 end of the Tertiary — a topic which is more fully elaborated in 
 his "Elements of Geology," pages 591 to 593. 
 
 His paper "On Some of the Ancient Glaciers of the Sierra 
 Nevada" was based upon his observations, first made in 1874, 
 near Lake Tahoe, which he subsequently supplemented elsewhere 
 in the Sierra Nevada; convincing himself, among other things, 
 of the former occupancy of the Yosemite Valley by a glacier, 
 which Whitney had at first believed, but afterwards rejected. 
 Le Conte bases his conclusions upon the general forms of the 
 rocky sides of the valley and the characteristic lake-meadows 
 marking the retreat of the glacier, even though moraines and 
 
 193 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 scorings are not much in evidence. The rapid weathering of 
 the Yosemite granites would inevitably obliterate the latter in a 
 relative!)^ short time. Investigations made since in other parts 
 of the Sierra have clearly proven the former presence of numer- 
 ous glaciers of vast extent in the principal valleys of the Sierra, 
 and Le Conte, as well as the writer, thinks that there is good 
 evidence that even the Coast Eange was at one time glaciated. 
 
 In 1881 he, in company with Professor Eising, of the Uni- 
 versity of California, made a special examination of the "Sul- 
 phur Banks" quicksilver mines, where he saw cinnabar vein- 
 formation in actual progress. These observations were discussed 
 in a paper published in 1882 in the American Journal of Sci- 
 ence. In that year he also made another trip to the Yosemite 
 Valley, and while there heard of the discovery of the "Carson 
 Footprints," which he examined, together with the Steamboat 
 Springs of N'evada. He determined the footprints to be those 
 of animals of late Tertiary age. The results of these inves- 
 tigations were published in 1883. 
 
 B. Biological Writings. 
 
 Le Conte's book on "Sight," first published in 1881 and again 
 in 1897, as volume 31 of the International Scientific Series, by 
 the Appletons, is perhaps the most striking illustration of the 
 accuracy of his habit of observation, and the best refutation of 
 the criticism made of his geological work by sticklers for spe- 
 cialization, viz., that he failed to show himself a good field geol- 
 ogist. Undoubtedly his bent of mind lay rather in the direction 
 of generalizations from facts, whether observed by himself or 
 others; but when he needed additional facts for his purposes, no 
 one was more apt and ingenious in devising and carrying out the 
 needful experiments and observations. The power and faculty 
 of generalization is infinitely more rare and fruitful than that 
 of narrow specialization, but it nowise impairs, necessarily, that 
 of accurate observation. It is when superficial knowledge at- 
 tempts generalization that discredit does and should attach to it. 
 
 As regards vision, he was specially qualified by the possession 
 of excellent, strong, and normal eyes, which lasted unimpaired 
 to the last; enabling him, with the aid of persistent practice, to 
 execute with little difficulty experiments that had failed with 
 
 194 
 
JOSEPH LB CONTE. 
 
 others, and the failure of which had been made the basis of in- 
 correct interpretations of the phenomena of binocular vision 
 especially. Thus, at his first view of the stereoscope devised by 
 Wheatstone he at (mce perceived the incorrectness of Wheat- 
 stone's subjective interpretation of the stereoscopic effect, being 
 enabled to see the real and the phantom images simultaneously 
 by simple change in the adjustment of the eyes. His book con- 
 tains a wealth of experiments easily executed by persons with 
 normal eyes, and most convincing in their results, yet difficult or 
 impossible to some persons, especially to those not accustomed 
 to close objective perception and analysis thereof. 
 
 Accepting the correctness of the experimental results as given 
 by Le Conte — and, so far as the writer is aware, they have not 
 been successfully controverted in any material points — the clear- 
 ness, simplicity, and cogency with which he presents even the 
 most intricate phenomena and principles of vision are remarkable. 
 ITnlike many other treatises on subjects admitting of a strictly 
 mathematical presentation, such as is given in most treatises on 
 optics, Le Conte abstains as much as possible from the intro- 
 (lucticm of matliematical ronmihi', which are after all only the 
 graj)hic expression of truths or ])rinciples that can be formulated 
 in words ; even though the exact quantitative relations require the 
 mathematical form for their expression. Le Conte himself con- 
 siders his work on vision as among the best and most important 
 hejias done. 
 
 Any detailed discussion of the points wherein Le Conte has 
 modified or changed or added to the definitions and explanations 
 of previous writei's would be out of place here, but among the 
 most prominent may be mentioned his explanation of stereo- 
 scopic vision in connection with the true theory of binocular 
 perspective; of the true nature of the horopter; the demonstra- 
 tion of certain fundamental physical phenomena in binocular 
 vision, and the devising of a new mode of diagranmiatic repre- 
 sentation based thereupon. Also the explanation, for the first 
 time, of certain peculiarities of phantom planes. 
 
 In the book "Outlines of the Co^nparative Physiology and 
 
 Morphology of Animals," Le Conte's point of view of broad 
 
 culture as the proper precursor to specialization and minute 
 
 analysis is prominently exemplified. The book, which embodies 
 
 (20) 195 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 much of his other biological work, represents what might be 
 called his as well as his students' favorite course, the one which 
 more than any other attracted his audience and which, so far 
 from discouraging concurrent or subsequent detailed work on 
 their part, served conspicuously to attract students to special 
 higher courses by the lively interest created in their minds — 
 interest such as setting them down at once to a dissecting-table 
 or museum case would never have brought about or sustained. 
 The bearing of their subjects of study upon familiar living, 
 moving objects and their correlations is ever that which inter- 
 ests pupils most, from childhood to maturity, and such interest 
 is the best basis for earnest effort and success. The book serves 
 admirably to avoid "the serious danger that ... in mi- 
 croscopic clearness but narrowness of our knowledge we lose ihat 
 general view of the whole, which alone gives significance to any 
 knowledge." 
 
 The method of treatment also is peculiarly well adapted to the 
 sustaining of interest throughout. Instead of the iron-clad 
 academic consistency which has led some of our text-book writers 
 in botany, for instance, to begin with the nearly invisible micro- 
 scopic domain of unicellular organisms, because of the simplicity 
 of structure, Le Conte throughout begins with the best-known 
 though most complex form — man — and then uses the simplifi- 
 cations found in descending to the lower organisms to elucidate 
 the complex structures and functions in the higher animals, for 
 each organ or functional complex. This method may not con- 
 form to the latest doctrines in the matter of instruction, but it 
 was notably and conspicuously successful in accomplishing the 
 essential prime objects of all instruction. The interest was in- 
 creased by the final summary of evolutional development in the 
 subject of each chapter or functional subdivision. Just as the 
 evolutional idea when broached by Darwin brought about a quick 
 revival of interest where previously there had been fatigue from 
 the multitude of dead, dissociated facts accumulated by inves- 
 tigators in the biological sciences, so the same idea is most fruit- 
 ful in creating and fostering the interest of pupils under in- 
 struction in universities or even high schools. 
 
 As is natural, the subjects of sight and of the glycogenic func- 
 tions of the liver, on which Le Conte had made special investi- 
 
 196 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 gations, are given great prominence, and the presentation of the 
 subject first named is perhaps the most lucid and cogent that 
 can be given within the space allowed by the plan of the book. 
 The discussion of the kidneys and liver and their functions, in 
 the chapter on "Katabolism," are among the most interesting in 
 their suggestiveness. There is manifest throughout an evident 
 relish of the subject, traceable to his "first love" in studying 
 under Agassiz. 
 
 C. Philosophical Writings. 
 
 As may be seen from the list of his writings given at the end 
 of this memoir, Le (■onte dwelt and wrote frequently, almost 
 throughout his life, upon philosophical subjects. These writings 
 he fortunately gathered into ])ernianent forms in later years, so 
 that his views may be considered as quite fully represented in 
 them. It would be of interest to follow through those papers 
 the gradual development and change of his ideas in this direc- 
 tion; but to do so lies beyond the scope of this memoir. In his 
 two books, "Religion and Science," 1873 (reprinted in 1902), 
 and "Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought," 1888 
 (second edition, revised, 1892), Le Conte summarizes his dis- 
 cussions and views on these subjects, in which he felt the deepest 
 interest. Hence an analysis of these books perhaps gives a better 
 insight into his mental attitude than any other, part of his works. 
 
 In these discussions he has, probably more than any other man, 
 contributed toward the formation of a sane public sentiment, and 
 to the removal of unfounded prejudices against the doctrine of 
 evolution from the minds of well-meaning persons. His funda- 
 mental thesis and deep conviction was that, under a correct inter- 
 pretation of both, there cannot be any contradiction between the 
 Book of Nature and the Book of Revelation. His consistent 
 vindication of the claims of our spiritual nature as against the 
 materialistic doctrines secured for him, himself a scientist of 
 distinction, a respectful hearing where mere scholastic discussion 
 or dogmatic assertion, indulged in about equally on both sides, 
 produced little or no impression, thus leaving the conflicting 
 opinions unchanged. 
 
 Of the two books mentioned, the last-named, in which the 
 fruitful idea of evolution is the keynote, is doubtless the one 
 
 197 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 which, coming Just at the right time, had the widest influence, 
 evolution being then the topic foremost in the public mind, and 
 the contested sign of the times. The former book, however, had 
 rendered important service in preparing the ground for the sub- 
 sequent discussion, the importance of which is evidenced by the 
 publication of many magazine articles and several books by dis- 
 tinguished scholars, both in America and abroad. 
 
 The attitude taken by Le Conte in his book on "Eeligion and 
 Science" may be thus summarized from his own diction: 
 
 The whole universe of space and time, the whole external 
 world, is so much of the Divine thought as has been realized by 
 the Divine will. The scientific study of nature not only cannot 
 destroy, but does not even diminish, the mystery of existence; 
 it only increases our sense of the awfulness and grandeur of its 
 mystery. 
 
 Claiming the constant immanence of God in nature, and that 
 nature itself is a divine revelation, and reveals also very clearly 
 the close connection of the spirit of man with the animating 
 principle of brutes, through this with the vital principle of 
 plants, and through this, again, with the physical and chemical 
 forces of nature, he claims that the general forces of nature are 
 an effluence from the Divine Person; that this diffused Divine 
 energy throughout all time individuated itself more and more, 
 until finally it assiimed complete individuality, or separate entity 
 or personality, in man ; that throughout all geological time spirit 
 remained, as it were, in embryo, gradually developing within the 
 womb of Nature until it came to birth in man, and became capa- 
 ble of independent life. This idea of complete spiritual individ- 
 uality includes every other characteristic of man — self -conscious- 
 ness, free will or free agency, moral nature, moral responsibility, 
 immortality, which he considers convertible terms. Probation, 
 he says, is the necessary result of man's free agency. External 
 nature is a revelation of the Deity, but it is not so clear as 
 to compel faith in all men ; it is, however, so related to his nature 
 that it becomes a touchstone of his moral character. It depends 
 entirely upon the temper in which man approaches the study of 
 nature, what his free will chooses to find there, whether he sees 
 in it a living God or only a dead mechanism. The universality 
 and invariability of law in ever}^ realm of nature, extending even 
 
 198 
 
Joseph le coNtE. 
 
 to the inner realm of consciousness, does not annihilate the free 
 will of man; it only limits it to its legitimate domain. 
 
 The word "evolution" occurs repeatedly in this book, but with- 
 out any special emphasis. As stated by himself, Le Conte was 
 at that time and for a number of years afterward, only a "reluc- 
 tant evolutionist," the result of his training under Louis Agassiz. 
 
 In "Evolution and its Kelation to Religious Thought"* Le 
 Conte enlarges upon the detail, illustrations, and proofs of the 
 views given in the former book, but without materially changing 
 his fundamental concepts. The first of the three parts of the 
 book discusses evolution in general, followed by a chapter show- 
 ing the fundamental role of Louis Agassiz in laying the basis of 
 the doctrine, although refusing to follow it out to its necessary 
 consequences. Part second deals with the evidences of the truth 
 of evolution, with a wealth of illustrative examples, presenting 
 again the three series mentioned in earlier papers, viz., the nat- 
 ural-history series, the embryonic or ontogenic series, and the 
 geological or paleontological series, each in their most forcibly 
 convincing features; laying great stress upon the light shed on 
 the entire subject by geographical distribution. These presenta- 
 tions of facts are preliminary to the third part of the book, which 
 treats more directly of the "Relation of Evolution to Religious 
 Thought." 
 
 Recognizing that the actual effect on human life is, or ought to 
 be, an important element in our estimate of the truth of any 
 doctrine, Le Conte states as postulates three processes — the 
 cognition of external phenomena through the senses ; the elabora- 
 tion of these facts by the intellect, constituting knowledge; and 
 the outgoing of this knowledge into the world as right or wise 
 conduct. All three are equally important and necessary. Scien- 
 tific workers are apt to consider only the first and second as 
 necessary; metaphysicians only the second and third. From 
 these omissions arises largely the so-called conflict between re- 
 ligion and science. In disregard of the first postulate, the cry of 
 "wolf" has been raised at the enunciation of each one of the 
 fundamental laws of nature now universally recognized. It has 
 been so likewise with the law of evolution, and the alarm has 
 
 * The writing of this book was originally suggested to Le Conte by- 
 Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 199 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 been proved as groundless as in the other cases. Evolution ac- 
 cording to law has no bearing upon materialism, any more than 
 has the law of gravitation; it simply defines the manner in which 
 contrary to preconceived notions, the development of nature has 
 actually occurred. The bar to the speedy settlement of this con- 
 flict is pride of opinion, self-conceit, dogmatism. The last is not 
 merely on the theological side; modern materialism has outdone 
 the theologian in this respect; but the theologian will of neces- 
 sity have to change his base so as no longer to pin essential 
 religious truth to unessential, merely dogmatic traditions. 
 
 According to Le Conte's view, the phenomena of nature are 
 naught else. than objectified modes of divine thought; the forces 
 of nature naught else than different forms of one omnipresent 
 divine energy or will; the laws of nature naught else than the 
 regular modes of operation of the divine will, invariable because 
 God is unchangeable. Science is the systematic knowledge of 
 these divine thoughts and ways — a system of natural theology. 
 According to this view, there is no real efficient force but spirit, 
 and no real independent existence l)ut God. . 
 
 "It may indeed be that we cannot live and work in the con- 
 stantly realized presence of the Infinite; that in our practical 
 life and scientific work we shall continue to think of natural 
 forces as efficient agents ; but this attitude of mind, like our work- 
 clothes, must be put aside when we return home to our inner, 
 higher life, religious and philosophical." 
 
 Le Conte proceeds to enforce and illustrate this view quite 
 elaborately, coming back to and vindicating the somewhat dis- 
 credited term "vital force," or principle, as fully justified by its 
 representing a distinct form of force. 
 
 "Nature, through the whole geological history of the earth, 
 was gestative mother of the spirit, which, after its long embryonic 
 development, came to birth and independent life and immortal- 
 ity in man. . . . Without spirit-immortality this beautiful 
 cosmos, which has been developing into increasing beauty for so 
 many millions of years, when its evolution is completed, would 
 be precisely as if it never had been, an idiot tale signifying noth- 
 ing. ... If man's spirit w^ere made out-of-hand, why all 
 this elaborate preparation by evolution of the organic kingdom ?" 
 
 Answering the objection that the views advanced imply panthe- 
 
 200 
 
JOSEPH LE5 C0NTE3. 
 
 ism, Le Conte says that this can only happen through the one- 
 sided pursuit of purely scientific or material lines of reasoning, 
 as against the spiritual. No one can form a clear conception as 
 to how immanence of the Deity in nature is consistent with a 
 divine personality ; yet we must accept both, because we are irre- 
 sistibly led to each of these by different lines of thought. We 
 must accept immanence without pantheism, and personality 
 without anthropomorphism. Our own self-conscious personality 
 behind brain phenomena compels us to accept consciousness, will, 
 thought, personality behind nature. By a necessary law of 
 thought this concept gradually expands without limit, until it 
 reaches the thought of an Infinite Person. Just as in the case 
 of time and space, we are compelled to recognize, without under- 
 standing, their illimitableness. 
 
 In discussing the two views of man's relation to nature — the 
 one, that he alone, having an immortal spirit, is immeasurably 
 removed from the animal world; the other, that he is merely the 
 highest member of the order of primates, which includes the 
 apes — Le Conte admits the measurable justification of both, the 
 first from the psychical, the second from the structural point of 
 view; the two views are not irreconcilable. Observing physical 
 and chemical brain-changes, no matter how closely associated 
 with mental or even localized activities, we are still as remote as 
 ever from knowing Iww such changes bring about consciousness, 
 thought, emotion. There is doubtless a relation between physical 
 and psychic phenomena, but not in the same sense in which we 
 use these terms in physical science. And we cannot bridge the 
 gap between the animal and man without in the end logically 
 attributing an immortal spirit to plants also and incurring a 
 reductio ad absu7-dum. Le Conte believes that the spirit of man 
 was developed out of the anima or conscious principle of animals, 
 and this again out of the lower forms of life-force, and this in 
 its turn out of the physical and chemical forces of nature; and 
 that at a certain stage in this development, viz., with man, it ac- 
 quired the property of immortality, precisely as now, in the 
 individual history of each man, it progressively acquires the 
 capacity of abstract thought. This rise to a higher plane he 
 manifestly considers as occurring somewhat like the "mutations" 
 now well known and accredited, and also quite unexplained. 
 
 201 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 "With every new birth of the universal energy into a higher 
 plane, there appear new, unexpected, and to previous experience 
 wholly unimaginable properties and powers. Why may not im- 
 mortality be one of these ?" 
 
 It is evident that the idea of a causal nexus between successive 
 phenomena is a primary conception, and therefore ineradicable 
 and certain. In childhood and in the uncultured races, external 
 forces take the form of a personal will residing in each object 
 (fetichism). The next form is that of several personal wills 
 controlling each the phenomena of a different department of na- 
 ture (polytheism). Finally, in the highest stage of culture, it 
 takes the form of one personal will controlling the phenomena of 
 the whole cosmos (monotheism), anthropomorphic to the un- 
 scientific mind. "But anthropomorphism has been driven from 
 one department to the other by science and evolution, and to 
 those folowing this line of thought alone, the phenomena of na- 
 ture are relegated to forces inherent in matter, and the material 
 forces are made to invade even the realm of consciousness and 
 reduce this also to material laws. But a rational philosophy ad- 
 mits these two antithetic views and strives to reconcile and com- 
 bine them. This reconciliation, so far as it is possible for us, is 
 found in a personal will immanent in nature and determining 
 directly all its phenomena." 
 
 The idea of the causal nexus also determines that of design; 
 adaptation of means to ends is in our experience the result of 
 thought, and we cannot conceive it to result otherwise. It is 
 impossible to conceive of adaptive structure without assuming 
 intelligence as the cause. The effect of science cannot be to de- 
 stroy this primary conception, which is ineradicable, but can only 
 exalt and purify our conceptions of the Designer. 
 
 Le Conte finally considers the relation of evolution to the 
 problem of evil. External, physical evil prevails throughout the 
 animal kingdom, as evidenced in the struggle for existence. It 
 is there a condition of effective evolution, and might be consid- 
 ered a good in disguise. But organic evolution, completed in 
 man, was transferred to a higher plane, and continues as social 
 evolution. Unconscious material evolution according to neces- 
 sary law is transformed into psychical evolution, a conscious 
 voluntai'y progress toward a recognized goal and according to a 
 
 202 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 freer law. But the fundamental conditions of evolution have not 
 changed; man is surrounded on every side with what at first 
 seems to him an evil natural environment, against which he must 
 ever struggle, or perish. What is the only conceivable remedy? 
 It is knowledge of the laws of nature, and thereby acquisition of 
 power over nature. But increasing knowledge and power mean 
 progressive elevation in the scale of psychical being also. The 
 evil of physical disease can also be controlled by knowledge, the 
 achievement of which also serves to elevate the plane of the 
 mind. Thus, altogether, may we not generalize and say that 
 physical evil is good in its general effect ? 
 
 As to moral evil, the case is not so clear. Yet the course of 
 human development, whether individual or racial, is from inno- 
 cence, a pre-established harmony of spiritual activities, to virtue, 
 self-established, through more or less discord and conflict. Here 
 again, knowledge of the laws of God and obedience thereto is the 
 remedy — tlie will to know and the effort to obey them. We can- 
 not conceive of a moral being without freedom to choose; we 
 cannot conceive of virtue without a successful conflict with 
 solicitations to debasement. It is because these solicitations are 
 so strong, and often overcome us, that we regard these themselves 
 as essential evil, instead of our weak surrender to them. All evil 
 consists in the dominance of the lower over the higher. True 
 virtue consists, not in the ertirpation of the lower, which means 
 asceticism, but in its subjection to the higher, for the higher is 
 nourished by its connection with the more robust lower; and the 
 lower is purified, refined, and glorified by its connection with 
 the diviner higher, and by this mutual connection the whole 
 plane of being is elevated. It is only by action and reaction of 
 all parts of our complex nature that true virtue is attained. 
 
 Le Conte's early view of the older methods of metaphysics, 
 formed as the result of reading many philosophical books, may 
 be thus formulated: "Metaphysics ever strives after ultimate 
 truth, which is unattainable, and of course fails . . . de- 
 ludes us with promises of absolute knowledge, food for the 
 gods; cheats us with gilded apples full of ashes. It is indeed 
 only mental activity, and will continue to be so until scientific 
 methods are adopted by metaphysicians.^' 
 
 It will be seen, however, that later he abated somewhat the 
 
 203 
 
KATiONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 rigor of liis disapproval and actively participated in the discus- 
 sions of noted metaphysicians. These discussions were largely 
 oral, and occurred in the meetings of the Philosophical Union 
 at the University of California; a limited number of them 
 passed into print in permanent form. Among these the most 
 interesting is the book containing the discussion between Eoyce, 
 Howison, Le Conte, and Mezes on "The Conception of God." 
 Le Conte's latest (printed, but not published) discussion is a 
 paper entitled "Evolutional Idealism/' giving his view of the 
 relations ])etween God, nature, and man, and his conception of 
 the ether as the substratum upon which the human spirit is 
 developed, and from which, after death, may be derived the 
 spiritual body, which he postulates as the condition of personal 
 immortality and without which a perceptionless spirit — mere 
 disembodied thought without personality — would seem to be 
 offered us. There appear from this to be three kinds of "sub- 
 stance" — gross matter, ethereal matter or ether, and energy, i. e., 
 spirit. The ether is indissolubly associated with all forms of 
 energy, such as light, electricity, heat, chemism. Life is a form 
 of energy, so the ether is also the life-bearer. Xow spirit is just 
 essential energy itself, and therefore the ether must be associ- 
 ciated with spirit ; so it is also the spirit-bearer. Life and spirit 
 differ from all lower forms of energy in being individuated, i. e., 
 endowed with self-activity. All three substances are progress- 
 ively individuated in evolution : Energy completely individuated 
 is created spirit ; the ether, the energy-bearer, individuated, would 
 be the ethereal (or spiritual) body; gross matter, as external 
 vestment or habitation, is individuated into the live material 
 body. The latter completes its organization in animals ; but the 
 ethereal body completes its organization only in man, pari passu 
 with the individuation of spirit. 
 
 The material body is the matrix for the organization of the 
 ethereal one; the brain seems to be the womb in which the ether 
 becomes organized into the ethereal body. This organization, 
 however, remains incomplete until, in man, the cooperation of 
 self consciousness and free will begins. 
 
 "All this," he adds, "may seem but a sort of refined material- 
 ism. Not so. On the contrary, it is consistent with the most 
 thoroughgoing idealism, for both gross matter and the ether are 
 
 204 
 
JOSEJPH LE CONTE. 
 
 but manifestations of the Divine Spirit in the self-conditioning 
 forms of his consciousness called time and space — are but differ- 
 ent grades of a downward effluence from the Divine Person; an 
 effluence which again rises, by progressive organization in con- 
 nection with the corresponding individuation of a finite portion 
 of Divine Energy, to the plane of the spirit from which it came. 
 The whole universe of created being is thus an evolutional series, 
 every term of which is a form of the energy of spirit/' 
 
 Howison* comments thus, in part, upon the "Evolutional 
 Idealism" of Le Conte, as set forth in the preceding abstracts: 
 
 "I confess that by the lucid force of Dr. Le Conte's reasonings 
 and the great beauty of his conclusions I am constantly tempted 
 to yield him my entire assent. It is only by the low murmurs of 
 half-suppressed conviction that I am roused from this state of 
 fascination to. take up again the task of rigid thought. But 
 
 . . I will say that the stability of his system depends, I 
 think, upon two things: First, whether it supplies sufficient 
 proof that the Immanent Energy which is the cause of evolution 
 is indeed a Cosmic Consciousness; second, whether, if real, hav- 
 ing — as it must have — the attribute of immanence in nature, it 
 is compatible with the freedom and the personal immortality at 
 which the system aims." In discussing these two points, Howi- 
 son further says : "As regards the first of these questions, I feel 
 bound to say that the proof offered for the Cosmic Conscious- 
 ness seems to me insufficient," going on to state his reasons for 
 this opinion. On the second question, he says: "I cannot see 
 how a Cosmic Consciousness, with its intrinsic immanence in 
 nature, can be reconciled with true freedom at all; and its con- 
 sistency with an immortality truly personal is to me beset with 
 obscure alternatives, between which either the certainty or else 
 the value of the life to come vanishes away." 
 
 Both these positions are extendedly argued by Howison in the 
 sequel, and still farther in the volume of essays separately pub- 
 lished by him under the general title "The Limits of Evolution." 
 In the first of these he dwells with special emphasis upon the 
 "unbridgeable gaps" which, he claims, exist between inorganic 
 and organic nature and between the natural and spiritual 
 
 *The Conception of God, p. 115. 
 
 205 
 
National academy of sciences. 
 
 worlds, interrupting the continuity of evolution; and he under- 
 takes to show that there is a farther break between physiological 
 and logical genesis. 
 
 Royce says: "I must frankly confess that ... 1 have 
 never been able to give to this doctrine (of evolution), justly 
 central as it is in the world of recent empirical science, the far- 
 reaching, the philosophical, the universal significance which Le 
 Conte still attributes to this aspect of reality. Evolution is, to 
 me, not a process in the light of which we can learn much either 
 concerning the Absolute, or concerning the relation of the eternal 
 to the temporal world.^' 
 
 It is, of course, beyond the province of this memoir to at- 
 tempt the settlement of such an issue as this between Le Conte 
 and these critics, whom he himself considered well qualified for 
 their task. Le Conte at all events was in no wise disconcerted by 
 their contentions. In the introduction to '^The Conception of 
 God" he authorized the editor to say, in his behalf, that he 
 "came out of the whole discussion, with its objections to his own 
 system on all hands, without feeling that he must retract or ma- 
 terially alter the propositions which give it a distinguishing 
 character." The writer of this memoir may add that in conver- 
 sation with him, Le Conte repeatedly said that in the farther 
 cooperative progress of science and philosophy, the alleged gaps 
 would be sure to disappear. 
 
 LE CONTE's own estimate OF HIS LIFE-WORK. 
 
 In concluding his autobiography, Le Conte gives the following 
 summary estimate of his life-work: 
 
 "And now, looking back on a long life of incessant activity, 
 what have I done of value to the world? what have I added to 
 human thought? what influences for good may I hope to leave 
 behind me? 
 
 "I. In science, touching only the most important points : 
 
 "(«) My paper in 1859 on The Correlation of Physical, 
 Chemical and Vital Force' gave, I think, both impulse and 
 greater definiteness to scientific thought on that subject. Car- 
 penter in the last edition of his Physiolog}^ gives me credit for a 
 distinct advance in this subject. 
 
 "(6) My researches on the phenomena of binocular vision I 
 
 206 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 am sure did clear up thought in this field. I claim, and have 
 generally been accorded, the credit of several original thoughts, 
 which have remained a permanent possession of science: (1) 
 The demonstration of the real nature of the Horopter; (2) the 
 demonstration of the true nature of the theory of binocular per- 
 spective; (3) the demonstration of certain fundamental physical 
 phenomena in binocular vision, and the devising of a new mode 
 of diagrammatic representation based thereon. These phenomena 
 had been observed by some, but not understood; their explana- 
 tion had been hinted at by others, but not clearly brought out: 
 (4) the explanation, for the first time, of certain peculiarities of 
 phantom planes. 
 
 "(c) In geology, I believe some real, substantial advance was 
 made in my series of papers (1) on the structure and origin of 
 mountain ranges; (2) on the genesis of metalliferous veins; (3) 
 especially in that on critical periods in the history of the earth; 
 (4) on the jdemonstration of the Ozarkian or, better, the Sierran 
 epoch as one of great importance m the history of the earth. I 
 might mention several others tliat are of prime importance, but 
 I am willing to stand l)y these.* 
 
 ''(d) In biology, my views on glycogeny, although not yet 
 certain, have undoubtedly contributed to clearness of scientific 
 thought on that important subject. 
 
 "II. In philosophy: 
 
 "I look back with especial pleasure on my writings on evolu- 
 tion. I lay no claim to the discovery of new facts bearing on the 
 theory of evolution, but only to have cleared up its nature and 
 scope, and especially to have shown its true relations to religious 
 thought. It is well to stop a moment to show the roles of differ- 
 ent thinkers in the advance of this subject. Leaving out of con- 
 sideration mere vague philosophic speculations, like those of the 
 ancient philosophers, and of Swedenborg in more modern times, 
 I would say that the role of Lamarck was to introduce evolution 
 as a scientific theory ; that of Darwin, to present the theory in 
 
 ♦Le Conte's omission to mention in the above list his important ex- 
 ploration and delimitation of the "Great Lava Flood of the North- 
 west" and the "Structure and Age of the Cascade Mountains" is char- 
 acteristic of his slight regard for mere detail work as against the 
 philosophical discussions and conclusions based thereon. 
 
 207 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 such wise as to make it acceptable to and accepted by the scien- 
 tific mind; that of Huxley, to fight the battles of evolution and 
 to win its acceptance by the intelligent popular mind; that of 
 Spencer, to generalize it into a universal law of nature, thus 
 making it a philosophy as well as a scientific theory. Finally it 
 was left to American thinkers to show that a materialistic impli- 
 cation is unwarranted; that evolution is entirely consistent with 
 a rational theism and with other fundamental religious beliefs. 
 My own work has been chiefly in this direction. In my lec- 
 tures in 1872 on ^Religion and Science' I might be called a re- 
 luctant evolutionist; yet even then, in the sixteenth chapter of 
 the book, I tried to show the mode of origin of the spirit of man 
 from the psyche of animals by a process of evolution. In a few 
 years, however, I was an evolutionist, thorough and enthusi- 
 astic. Enthusiastic not only because it is true, and all truth is 
 the image of God in the human reason, but also because of all 
 laws of nature it is by far the most religious — that is, in accord 
 with religious philosophic thmight. It is, indeed, great tidings 
 .of Joy which shall be to all peoples. Woe is me if I preach not 
 the gospel ! Literally, it can bo shown that all the apparently 
 irreligious and materialistic implications of science are reversed 
 by this last child of science, or rather this daughter of the mar- 
 riage of science and philosophy. During all my life I have 
 striven earnestly to show this; my book on ^Evolution and Its 
 Relation to Religious Thought' is the embodiment of the result 
 of these strivings, although I believe that if I wrote it again I 
 could add much to the argument. I began this line of thought 
 in 1871, and believe, and therefore claim, that I was the pioneer 
 in the reaction against the materialistic and irreligious implica- 
 tion of the doctrine of evolution. I look with greater pleasure 
 on this than on anything else that I have done. At first I suf- 
 fered some, but not much, obloquy on the part of the extreme 
 orthodox people ; but I have lived to see this pass away, and all 
 intelligent clergymen coming to my position. 
 
 "All, or nearly all, of my philosophic writings are more or less 
 connected with the doctrine of evolution, and I regard these as 
 among the most important of my writings. Indeed, one of my 
 friends thinks that the best and most permanent that I have 
 done is in the domain of philosophy rather than in that of sci- 
 
 208 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 ence proper. But he is a philosopher; perhaps my scientific 
 friends think differently." 
 
 It would be of interest to quote, as corollaries to Le Conte's 
 estimate of his own work, given above, from some of the numer- 
 ous obituary articles published in magazines and periodicals 
 shortly after his death; but to do so would exceed the limits of 
 this memoir. Among them may be specially mentioned those 
 written by several of his colleagues: Professors T. R. Bacon,* 
 S. B. Christy,! A. C. Lawson,* and 'J. C. Merriam;* Chas. M. 
 Bakewell,* of Yale, and Josiah Koyce,]: of Harvard. That of 
 the latter, formerly Le Conte's pupil, is one of the most inter- 
 esting and is in part as follows : ' 
 
 "His wealth of knowledge, his instinct for order and lucidity 
 of reflection, have indeed always remained my hopelessly distant 
 ideal. I believe in the world's unity, and by indirect proof feel 
 sure of it ; but the world of facts will never seem to my unaided 
 thought as perfect and as clearly visible a union of the one and 
 many of harmonious principles and of multitudinous empirical 
 illustrations as it seemed to me while I listened to his lectures." 
 
 All these articles alike bear witness to Le Conte's intellectual 
 greatness and the Iftvableness of his character. 
 
 Space forbids further quotations from othei-s. The writer's 
 own estimate,* written under the first impression of the news 
 of Le Conte's death, summarizes the views still held by him : 
 
 "The death of Dr. Joseph Le Conte removes one of the fore- 
 most thinkers and scientific men of the time ; one whose writings 
 and modes of thought have influenced the progress of science, 
 and of scientific as well as popular opinion, throughout the civil- 
 ized world. He was prominent in the now fast-thinning ranks 
 of those who, like Louis Agassiz, J. D. Dana, and Asa Gray, in 
 the New, and Lyell, 0<^rsted, Darwin, and Wallace, in the Old 
 World, thought and found it not only possible, but necessary, 
 to be something more than specialists in one domain of science, 
 in order to understand its full meanings and bearings upon other 
 branches and its place in the world-plan. Le Conte never 
 
 ♦University of California Magazine, September, 1001. 
 fTrans. Am. Inst, of Mining Engineers, Mexican meeting, Novem- 
 ber, 1901. 
 
 ^International Monthly, September, 1901. 
 
 209 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 doubted the existence of such a plan, and he looked upon nature 
 reverently as one part of its manifestations; but without under- 
 valuing for a moment the other, the spiritual part, which is now 
 so commonly cast aside as a mere '^property of matter in an ad- 
 vanced state of evolution;' while, on the other hand, there are 
 still those who claim to evolve its nature from their inner con- 
 sciousness, independently of observed phenomena. Le Conte's 
 early education and experience as a physician laid the founda- 
 tions of the broad knowledge which later made him equally at 
 home in the purely ph3^sical sciences and in the biological field. 
 While his geological writings are, perhaps, best known to the 
 American public through the wide use made of his books on that 
 subject, both in universities and in the secondary schools, his 
 early and warm advocacy of the doctrine of evolution has prob- 
 ably served most to make him known and appreciated in the Old 
 World, where he was warmly welcomed and honored in scientific 
 assemblies, among the foremost men. 
 
 "It is sometimes said that those who undertake to generalize 
 in science are apt to be unahle to make accurate ol)servations 
 themselves. While this is true in some cases, it was certainly 
 otherwise in that of Le Conte. His scientific writings and 
 special papers show an eminent capacity for close observation; 
 yet his glance was always upon the bearings of what he saw, 
 upon general problems rather than upon the minor details of 
 each field of view, which he was quite content to leave to oth- 
 ers. At the same time, he had the true scientific spirit, in the 
 absence of all dogmatism and the readiness at all times to 
 consider candidly any observations or opinions at variance 
 with his previous conclusions. He considered the cultivation 
 of the spirit of truthfulness, candor, and readiness to revise 
 one's opinions and conclusions as constituting one of the 
 * strongest claims of natural science as an educational factor, 
 in contradistinction to the acceptance of mere opinions and 
 precedents that is so common a result of exclusive literary and 
 philosophical study. The personal gentleness for which he 
 was so well known and beloved was deeply grounded in the 
 absence of any claim to infallibility for himself. 
 
 "It is not easy to overestimate the influence he has exerted 
 in rectifying the popular idea that the doctrine of evolution 
 
 210 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE, 
 
 necessarily tends to materialism, if not atheism — a misconcep- 
 tion of its true import which is unfortunately still shared by 
 the extremists both on the scientific and religious side. 
 
 "As shown above in the discussion of his philosophical views, 
 Le Conte held that, so far from this, it inculcates the highest 
 ideal of an intelligent world-plan; and he staunchly maintained 
 not only its compatibility with Christian religious belief, but 
 that, by elevating nature into the realm of teleologic thought 
 and aspiration, it offers a much higher point of view than 
 could be derived from any of the 'orthodox' views of the method 
 of creation. This part of his influence will, perhaps, be. most 
 missed in the present state and tendency of scientific thought; 
 particularly among the younger men of science, whose eagerness 
 to specialize premature^ almost inevitably tends to prevent such 
 catholicity of views and encyclopedic knowledge as characterized 
 Dr. Le Conte. 
 
 "It was Le Conte through whom the University of California 
 first became known to the outside world as a school and center 
 of science on the western border of the continent; and for a 
 number of years he almost alone kept it in view of the world 
 of science. His presence and connection with the tJniversity 
 was largely instrumental in attracting to it other men who 
 otherwise would have hesitated to emigrate from their eastern 
 homes to what was then the outskirts of civilization; and his 
 ceaseless scientific activity acted as a strong stimulus both to 
 his colleagues and to the students coming under his instruc- 
 tion, whose affection and esteem remained with him through 
 life. He preferred this kind of activity to the more ambitious 
 prospects that were many times open to him; he shrank from 
 anything that would force him from the ideal world in which 
 he lived into active contact with executive or administrative 
 functions. His modesty and simplicity survived, unscathed, 
 the applause and laudations bestowed upon him, and his strong 
 will and cheerful disposition carried him up to a mature age in 
 undiminished mental vigor, despite an apparently frail body. 
 
 "His death brings heavy loss to his university and to the world 
 of thought at large, in which he occupied so high and exceptional 
 a position/' 
 
 (21) 211 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 WRITINGS OF JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 1850. Science of Medicine, i^o. Med. and Surg. Jour. 
 
 1853. Salt Lakes, Ga. Univ. Mag., April. 
 
 1854. Sun Drawing Water, Ga. Univ. Mag., September. 
 
 1855. Utilitarianism, Ga. XJniv. Mag., March. 
 
 1856. Classics vs. Mathematics, Ga. Univ. Mag., June. 
 Gulf-stream Agency in the Formation of Florida, Am. Assoc. 
 
 Adv. Sci., Proc, 10:303. 
 
 1857. Geology in a Course of Education, Inaugural Address. 
 Three Lectures on Coal, Smithsonian Institution, Rep., p. 119. 
 
 1858. Morphology and its Connection with Fine Art, So. Pres. R. 
 
 1859. Correlation of Forces and Conservation of Force fn Vital Phe- 
 
 nomena, Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Proc, 13 : 187. 
 Same, Am. Jour. Sci., 78 : 305. 
 
 Same, with Stewart, B., Conservation of Energy, p. 169. 
 Formation of Continents, Theory of, Canadian Nat., 4. 
 Principles of a Liberal Education, So. Pres. R. 
 
 1860. Female Education, So. Pres. R. 
 
 Scientific Relation of Sociology to Biology, Po2). Sci. Monthly. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 1861. The School, the College, and the University, So. Pres. R. 
 1863. Nature and Uses of Art. Overland Monthly. 2d ser., \. 
 
 1866. Artificial Production of Sex, ISlashr. Join: Med. and Surg., 
 
 1 : 296. 
 
 1867. Same, Nashr. Jour. Med. and Snrg., 2: 3:^2. 
 1869. Binocular A^isicm, Phenomena of : 
 
 1. Adjustments of the Eye, Ainer. Jour. Sci., 97 : 68. 
 
 2. Rotation of the Eye on the Optic Axis in Convergence, Am. 
 Jour. Sci., 97:153. 
 
 ;». On the Horopter, Am. Jour. Sci., 97: 168. 
 
 1871. Binocular Vision, Phenomena of : 
 
 4. New Mode of Representing Visual Phenomena, Ant. Jour. 
 Sci., 101:33. 
 
 On an Optical Illusion, Phil. M. 
 
 5. Stereoscopic Phenomena, Am. Jour. Sci., 102 : 1. 
 
 6. So-called Images of Illusion, Am. Jour. Sci., 102 : 315, 417. 
 Law of Circulation in Nature, Calif. Teachers' Inst., Rep. 
 
 1872. Les Images d'lllusion et la Theorie du Relief Binoculaire, Ar- 
 
 chives des Sci., 41 : 394. 
 Earthquakes, Univ. of Calif. Echo. 
 Formation of Greater Inequalities of Earth's Surface, Theory 
 
 of, Am. Jour, Sci., 104 : 345, 460. 
 
 212 
 
JOSEJPH LE CONTE. 
 
 1873. AgassK Memorial Address, Calif. Acad. Sei., Rep., p. 230. 
 Ancient Glaciers of the Sierra Nevada. No. 1, Am. Jour. Sci., 
 
 105 : 325. 
 Correlation of Vital with Physical and Chemical Forces, Pop. 
 
 Sci. Mo., 4: 156. 
 Flight of Birds: Poising, Nature, 9:5. 
 Formation of the Greater Inequalities of Earth's Surface. 
 
 Answer to Sterry Hunt's Criticism, Am. Jour. Sci., 105 : 448. 
 Religion and Science. 1 vol., 8 vo., 324 pp. 
 
 1874. Great Lava Flood of the Northwest and Structure and Age of 
 
 the Cascade Mountains, Am. Jour. Sci., 107 : 167, 257. 
 
 1875. The Extinct Volcanoes about Lake Mono and their Relations to 
 
 the Glacial Drift, Am. 'Jour. Sci., 108 : 35. 
 Ancient Glaciers of the Sierra : 
 2. Lake Valley Glacier, Am. Jour. Sci., 110: 120. 
 Binocular Vision, Phenomena of: 
 
 7. Position of the Eyes in Sleepiness, Am. Jour. Sci., 109 : 159. 
 
 8. In Binocular Vision the Law of CorresiX)nding Points may be 
 Opposed to the Law of Direction, Am. Jour. Sci., 109: 1(>4. 
 
 9. Comparative IMiysiology of Binocular Vision, Am. Jour. Sci., 
 109 : 164. 
 
 A Journal of Ramblings through the High Sierra. San Fran- 
 cisco, 1875. Republished, Bull. 3, Sierra Club, 1890. 
 Instinct and Intelligence, Pop. Sci. Mo., 7 : 653. 
 Rate of Growth in Corals, Am. Jour. Sci., 110 : 34. 
 
 1876. Evidences of Horizontal Crushing in the Formation of the Coast 
 
 Ranges of California, Am. Jour. Sci., Ill : 297. 
 
 1877. Binocular Phenomena Observed by Prof. Nipher, Am. Jour. Sci., 
 
 115 : 252. 
 Binocular Vision, Phenomena of : 
 
 10. Structure of Crystalline Lens and its Relation to Periscop- 
 ism, Am. Jour. Sci., 114 : 191. 
 
 Critical Periods in the History of the Earth and their Relation 
 to Evolution and on the Quaternary as Such a Period, Am. 
 Jour. Sci., 114:99. 
 
 Evolution in Relation to Materialism, Chit Chat Club. 
 
 Prairie Mounds, Nature, 15 : 530. 
 
 Wallace's Distribution of Species, Bulletin, January 20. 
 
 1878. Binocular Relief, Theory of, Phil. M. 
 
 Elements of Geology. Illustrated. 588 pp., large 8vo. 
 Geological Climate and Time, Nature, 18 : 668. 
 'Glycogenic Function of the Liver. No. 1, Am. Jour. Sci., 
 
 115 : 99. 
 Man's Place in Nature, Princ. R., N. S., 2 : 776. 
 Science and Mental Improvement, Pop. Sci. Mo., 13 : 96. 
 
 213 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 Structure and Origin of Mountains, witli Special Reference to 
 Some Objections to the Contractional Theory, Am. Jour. Sci., 
 116 : 95. 
 
 1879. Genesis of Sex, Pop. ScL Mo., 16 : 67. 
 
 Scientific Relation of Sociology to Biology, Pop. Sci. Mo., 
 
 14 : 325, 425. 
 Volcanoes about Lake Mono and their Relation to the Glacial 
 
 Drift, Am. Jour. Sci., 118 : 35. 
 
 1880. Binocular Vision, Phenomena ofr 
 
 11. Laws of Ocular Motion, Am. Jour. Sci., 120 : 83. 
 
 Coral Reefs and Islands, Nature, 22 : 558. 
 
 Effect of Mixture of Races on Human Progress, Berkeley Q., 
 
 1 : 81. 
 Genesis of Sex, Hevue Scientifique. 
 Glycogenic Functions of the Liver. No. 2, Am. Jour. Sci., 
 
 119 : 25. 
 Old River-beds of California, Am. Jour. Sci., 119 : 176. 
 The School, the College, and the University, Princ. R., N. S., 
 
 5 : 177. 
 
 1881. Comte's Classification of Sciences, Berkeley Q., 2 : 97. 
 Devilution, Occident, University of California. 
 Drowning, to Prevent, by Floating, Nature, 24 : 260. 
 Evolution in Relation to Materialism, Princ. R., N. S., 7. 
 Geology of California, in Phelps, A., Contemp. Biog., 1 : 290. 
 Illustrations of a Law of Evolution of Thought, Princ. R., 
 
 N. S., 8 : 378. 
 
 Sight : Principles of Monocular and Binocular Vision. Illus- 
 trated. 
 
 Mr. Wallace's Island Life, Calif ornian, 3 : 485. 
 
 1882. Denudation, Rate of, Geol. May., 9 : 289. 
 Higher Utilities ol Science, GaUf ornian, 5 : 30(>. 
 Judd on Volcanoes, Notice of, Calif ornian, 5 : 85. 
 Mineral-vein Formation Now in Progress at Sulphur Bank, 
 
 Am. Jour. Sci., 124 : 23. 
 
 1883. Carson Foot-prints, Calif. Acad. Sci., Bull. 
 Same. Nature, 28: 101. 
 
 Also in Independent and Occident. 
 
 Domestic Ducks that Fly Abroad Like Pigeons, Sci., 1 : 249. 
 Genesis of Metalliferous Veins, Am. Jour. Sci., 126 : 1. 
 Mineral-vein Formation at Steamboat Springs, Nevada, Am. 
 
 Jour. Sci., 125 : 424. 
 Movement of the Arms in Walking, Sci., 1 : 220. 
 Mutual Relation of Intellectual and Moral Culture, Overland, 
 
 2d ser., 1 : 10. 
 Reefs, Keys, and Peninsula of Florida, Sci., 2 : 764. 
 
 214 
 
JOSEPH LEJ CONTE. 
 
 Science and Literature, Overland, 2d ser., 1 Feb. ; suppl., p. 8. 
 Wright's "Religion and Science," Review of, 8ci., 1 : 543. 
 
 1884. Carrying Power of Fluid Currents, Pop. Sci. Mo., 24 : 555. 
 Compend of Geology for High Schools. 1 vol., 8 vo., 42G pp. 
 Continent-formation, Geol. M. 
 
 Elevation and Subsidence of the Earth-crust, Nature, 29 : 212. 
 Fiske's "ICxcursions of an Evolutionist," Review of, Overlai}d, 
 
 2d ser., 3 : 329. 
 Guyot's "Creation," Review of, ScL, 3 : 599. 
 Optical Phenomena : Phantom Images, Sci., 3 : 404. 
 Pressure of Currents, Mining Record, 16:341. 
 Psychical Relation of Man to Animals, Princ. R., N. S., 13. 
 Right-sidedness : Letter on Deflection in Walking, Nature, 
 
 29 : 452. 
 Same (continued). Nature, 30:76. 
 United States Geological Survey, Review of 2d and 3d Reports 
 
 of, Sci., 4 : 62. 
 
 1885. Earthciuake Shocks More Violent on the Surface, Sci., 6 : 540. 
 General Principles of Art and their Application to the Novel, 
 
 Overland, 2d ser., 5 : 337. 
 
 Immortality in Modern Thought, Sci., 6 : 126. 
 
 Relations of Berkeley to Modern Religious Thought, Berkeleyan. 
 
 Royce's "Religious Aspects of Philosophy," Review of. Overland, 
 2d ser., 5 : 542. 
 
 Shad Propagation 'on the Atlantic Coast, Result of, Sci., 6 : 520. 
 
 Warren's "Paradise Found," Review of, Sci., 5 : 406. 
 3886. "Louis Agassiz, his Life and Correspondence," Review of. Over- 
 land, 2d ser., 7 : 103. 
 
 Double Vision, Sci., 7 : 506. 
 
 Fiske's "Darwinism and Other Essays," Review of. Overland, 
 2d ser., 7 : 334. 
 
 Germ of Hydrophobia, Sci., 8 : 102. 
 
 Glycogenic Functions of the Liver, Am. Nat., 20, pt. 1 : 473. 
 
 Inherited Polydactylism, Sci., 8 : 166. 
 
 Permanence of Continents and Ocean-basins and Development 
 of North American Continent, Geol. M. 
 
 Pharyngeal Respiratory Movements of Adult Amphibia under 
 Water, Sci., 7:462. 
 
 Post-Tertiary Elevation of the Sierra Nevada, as Shown by the 
 River-beds, Am. Jour. Sci., 132 : 167. 
 1887. Binocular Vision, Phenomena of : 
 
 12. Phantom Images Formed by Binocular Combination of Reg- 
 ular Figures, Am. Jour. Sci., 134 : 97. 
 
 Depth of Earthquake Focus, Sci., 10 : 22. 
 
 Flora of the Coast Islands of California in Relation to Recent 
 
 215 
 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 Changes in Physical Geography, Calif. Acad. Sci., Bull. No. 
 
 8:515. 
 Same, Am. Jour. Sci., 134:457. 
 Relation of Agassiz to the Theory of Evohition. Fop. (Sfoi, Mo., 
 
 32: 17. 
 Relation of Biology to Sociology, Berkeleyan, 23 : 123. 
 Relation of Evolution to Religious Thought. (Pamphlet.) 
 Sense-training and Hand-training in the Public Schools, Educ. 
 
 Journal., March. 
 Sound-blindness, ScL, 10 : 312. 
 
 Star Rays or Rays Streaming from Light, Sci., 9 : 14. 
 What is Evolution? Pop. Sci. Mo., 31 : 721. 
 
 1888. Binocular Vision : Answer to Hyslop, Sci., 11 : 252. 
 Evolution, Difficulty in. Pop. Sci. Mo., 33 : 125. 
 
 Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought. 1 vol., 8 vo., 
 
 344 pp. 
 Experiments in Vision, Sci., 11 : 252. 
 Glacial Motion, Philosoph. M. 
 
 Hark's "Unity of the Truth," Review of. Pop. Sci. Mo., 33 : 699. 
 Human Beings as Pack-animals, Sci., 11:290. 
 Monocular Vision, Sci., 11 : 119. 
 Mountain Formation, Philosoph. M. 
 Problem of a Flying-machine. Pop. Sci. Mo., 34 : 69. 
 Relation of Evolution to Materialism, Pop. Sci. Mo., 33 : 79. 
 Significance of Sex, Sci., 11 : 229. 
 Transfer of the Lick Observatory to the University. (I'amph- 
 
 let.) 
 
 1889. General Interior Condition of the Earth. Am. Geol, 4 : 38. 
 Origin of Normal Faults and the Structure of the Basin Region, 
 
 Am. Jour. Sci., 138 : 257. 
 Ptomaines and Leucomaines and their Relation to Disease, Pac. 
 
 Med. Jour., September. 
 Same, Sci., 14 : 322. 
 South Revisited, Overland, 2d ser., 14 : 22. 
 
 1890. Curious Visual Phenomena, Am. Jour. Psychol., 3:364. 
 Elements of Geology. New edition. 
 
 Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought. New edition. 
 
 Rev. Howai-d MacQueary's "Evolution of Man and of Chris- 
 tianity," Review of, Overland, 2d ser., 16 : 110. 
 
 Natural Grounds of Belief in Personal Immortality, Andover R., 
 14:1. 
 
 1891. Evolution and Human Progress, Open Court. 
 
 Factors of Evolution, their Grades, and the Order of their In- 
 troduction, Monist, 1 : 321. 
 
 Mutual Relation of Land Elevation and Ice Accumulation dur- 
 ing the Quaternary, Geol. Soc. Am., Bull., 2:329. 
 
 216 
 
JOSEPH LE CONTE. 
 
 Origin of Organic Forms : Answer to Keep, Overland, 2d series, 
 
 18 : 198. 
 Plato's Doctrine of the Soul Compared with that Derived from 
 
 the Study of Nature, Phil. Union, Bull. 
 Relation of the Church to Modern Scientific Thought, Antlover 
 
 R., 16:1. 
 Tertiary and Post-Tertiary Changes on the Atlantic and Pacific 
 
 Coasts, Geol. Soc. Am., Bull., 2 : 323. 
 
 1892. The Race Problem in the South, in "Man and the State," 349. 
 Relation of Philosophy to Psychology and Physiology, Phil. Soc. 
 
 of Wash., December. 
 
 1893. The Estimated Distance of Phantoms, ScL, 21 : 333. 
 Evolution and Human Progress, Pacific Coast Teacher. 
 Main Characteristics of University Education, Berldeyan. 
 Theories of the Origin of Mountain Ranges, Jour, of Geol., Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 Same, Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Proc, 1. 
 Same, Nature, 48 : 551. 
 
 1894. Elements of Geology. 3d edition. 
 
 Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought. 2d edition. 
 John Le Contef Memoir of, National Acad. Sci., 3 : 3G9. 
 New liights on the Problem of Flying, Pop. Sci. Mo., 44 : 744. 
 Posepny's "Genesis of Ore-deposits" ; Criticisms, Am. Inst. Min. 
 Eng., Trans., 24 : 99(i. 
 
 1895. Are Consequences Ever a Test of Truth? .sv/., N. S., 2:379. 
 ('auses of the Gulf-stream. Sci., N. S., 2: 188. 
 
 Critical Periods in the History of the Earth, Am. (IvoL, 1<»: 317. 
 
 Same, University of California, Geol. Dcpt. Bull. 
 
 James Dwight Dana, Memoir of, Geol. Soc. Am., Bull., 461. 
 
 Dana's "Manual of Geology," Review of, Sci.. N. S., 1 : 548. 
 
 Effect of the Theory of p]volution on Education. Educ. R.. 
 10:121. 
 
 Elements of Geology. Revised and enlarged. Plates. Illus- 
 trated. 
 
 Erect Vision and Single Vision, Sci., N. S., 2 : 629. 
 
 Erect Vision, Last Word on, Sci., N. S., 2 : 850. 
 
 Evolution and Social Progress, Monist, 5:481. - 
 
 Evolutional Idealism, Philos. Union Leaflet. 
 
 Geikie's "Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay," Review of, 
 Sci., N. S., 1 : 490. 
 
 Inverted Image Once More, Sci., N. S., 2 : 667. 
 
 Nature of Vowels, Sci., N. S., 2 : 189. 
 
 Prof. Royce's Address, "Conception of God," Remarks on. In 
 vol., 8 vo., 1897. (Macmillan.) 
 
 !17 
 

 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 
 1896. From Animal to Man, Monist, 6 : 356. 
 
 Honors to James Hall at Buffalo, 8ci., N. S., 4 : 698. 
 Sight 1 vol., 8 vo., 318 pp. 
 
 1897. Prof. Cattell's Review of "Sight," Sci., N. S., 6 : 737. 
 Cerebral Light, ScL, N. S., 6 : 257. 
 
 Co-operation of Religion and Science in Uplifting Humanity, 
 
 Unit. Club, Addresses. 
 Earth-crust Movements and their Causes, Geoi. Soc. Am., Bull., 
 
 p. 113. 
 Same, ScL, 5 : 321. 
 Relation of Biology to Philosophy, Arena, 17:549. 
 
 1898. Don's Work on Auriferous Veins, Am. Inst. Min. Eng., Trans., 
 
 27 : 993. 
 
 Geological Classification and Nomenclature, Symposium on. 
 Jour. Geol. 
 
 Optical Illusion of a Rotating Fan, ScL, N. S., 8 : 480. 
 
 Origin of Transverse Mountain Valleys and Some Glacial Phe- 
 nomena in those of the Sierra, Univ. Chronicle, 1 : 479. 
 
 True Idea of a University, TJniv. Chronicle, 1 : 3. 
 
 Windmill Illusion, Sci., N. S., 8 : 480. 
 
 1899. Cerebral Light Again : Answer to Professor Scripture, Sci., N. S., 
 
 10:58. ' * 
 
 The Ozarkian and its Significance in Theoretical Geology, Jour. 
 Geol., 7 : 525. 
 
 1900. A Century of Geology, Pop. Sci. Mo., 56 : 431, 546. 
 Comparative Physiology and Morphology of Animals. 
 Journal of Ramblings in the High Sierra, Sierra Club, Bull, 
 
 3:1. 
 Kingsley's Criticism on Outline of Comparative Physiology and 
 
 Morphology : Answer, Sci., N. S., 11 : 909. 
 Religious Significance of Science, Monist, 10 : 161. 
 
 1901. The Larynx as an Instrument of Music, Sci., N. S., 13 : 790. 
 What is Life? Sci., 13:991. 
 
 218