Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, October 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899Various
Philosophy
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, October 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
In 1873 Dr. Pepper married Miss Frances Sargeant Perry, a lineal
descendant of Benjamin Franklin, and a granddaughter of Commodore
Oliver Hazard Perry. Four sons were born, of whom three survive--Dr.
William Pepper, Jr., Benjamin Franklin Pepper, and Oliver Hazard Perry
Pepper. Failing in health, Dr. Pepper went to California early in the
summer of 1898, where he died of heart disease on July 28th of that
year. His body reached Philadelphia on August 6th. Funeral services
were held in St. James's Protestant Episcopal Church, after which the
body was cremated, and the ashes interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery. The
American Anthropometric Society received, by the conditions of his
will, Dr. Pepper's brain. Among the members of this society were Dr.
Joseph Leidy, Phillips Brooks, and Prof. E. D. Cope. The articles of
membership of the Anthropometric Society require that each member
contribute his brain in the interests of science.
Dr. Pepper's death was followed by many expressions of sorrow from
learned societies in various parts of the world. One of the most
beautiful tributes was the memorial meeting held in the city of Mexico
on September 12th. The leading medical and scientific societies of
Mexico assembled in the hall of Congress to do honor to the work and
character of Dr. Pepper. President Diaz occupied the chair, and about
him were gathered the leading citizens, officials, and scientists of
Mexico. Representatives of the National Medical School and the Board
of Health eulogized Dr. Pepper, while Hon. Matias Romero spoke of him
not as a physician, but as an "altruist who had consecrated himself to
doing good for his fellow-men."
In Philadelphia, steps have been taken to erect a substantial memorial
to Dr. Pepper. At a memorial meeting, held on March 6th last, a
proposition was made to place a statue of the deceased scientist on
the City Hall plaza, after the style of the Girard Monument. A
committee was appointed with power to raise funds for the proposed
statue, the cost not to exceed ten thousand dollars.
* * * * *
One of the letters of William Pengelly, geologist, of Torquay,
England, printed in the memoir published by his daughter, gives
this sketch of Babbage, the mathematician and inventor of the
calculating machine: "I then called on Babbage, and could not get
away until after one. He is a splendid talker. He seemed much
pleased to see me, and complimented me very much on my lecture
(at the Royal Institution), in which he was evidently much
interested. He is the most marvelous worker I ever met with. I
never saw anything like the evidence of multifarious and vast
labor which his 'workshop' presents; he sticks at nothing. One
drawer full of riddles, another of epigrams, one of squared
words, etc.... It is appalling! And then the downright fun of the
fellow; it is almost intoxicating to be with him!"
Correspondence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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