THE subject of this sketch, whose death occurred on Christmas, 1899, at Baltimore, Md., was one of the few men who have become famous both in physical and psychical science. He had long been recognized as one of the leading naturalists of America, and of late years had acquired equal distinction as a philosopher.
Early in April last Dr.
Coues supplied us with the material for a sketch of his
life, to which we are indebted chiefly for what this
article contains. He was born in Portsmouth, N. H., Sept.
9, 1842, and was the son of Samuel Elliott Coues and
Charlotte Haven Ladd Coues. His father was the author of
several scientific treatises which anticipated some of
the more modern views of physics, astronomy, and geology;
so that young Coues would seem to have inherited his bent
of mind towards study and research. The name is of Norman
French origin. Dr. Coues' father was a friend of Franklin
Pierce, and early in the presidency of the latter
received from him an appointment in the United States
patent office, which he held nearly to his death in July,
1967. The family moved to Washington in 1833 and Dr.
Coues had always been a resident of that city, excepting
during the years he served in the West and South as an
army officer or engaged in scientific explorations.
a boy he was educated under Jesuit influences at the
seminary now known as Gonzaga College. In 1857 he entered
a Baptist college, now Columbian University, where he
graduated in 1861 in the academic department, and in 1863
in the medical department of that institution. To the
degrees of A. B., A. M., Ph. D., and M. D., conferred by
this college, his riper scholarship added titles enough
to fill a page from learned societies all over the world.
His taste for
nature history developed early in an enthusiastic
devotion to ornithology, and before he graduated he was
sent by the Smithsonian Institution to collect birds in
Labrador. Among his earliest writings are the account of
this trip, and a treatise on the birds of the District of
Columbia, both published in 1861, and both papers secured
public recognition in England as well as in this country,
thus making a beginning of his literary reputation.
While yet a medical
student, Dr. Coues was enlisted by Secretary Stanton as
medical cadet, U. S. A., and served a year in one of the
hospitals in Washington. On graduating in medicine in
1863, he was appointed by Surgeon-General Hammond for a
year as acting assistant surgeon U. S. A. and, on coming
of age passed a successful examination for the medical
corps of the army. He received his commission in 1864,
and was immediately ordered to duty in Arizona. His early
years of service in that territory, and afterward in
North and South Carolina, were utilized in investigating
the natural history of those regions, respecting which he
published various scientific papers.
Though he wrote some
professional articles, during his hospital experience,
Dr. Coues seem never to have been much interested in the
practice of medicine and surgery. After about ten years
of ordinary military service as post surgeon in various
places he was, in 1873, appointed naturalist of the U. S.
northern boundary commission, which surveyed
the line along the forty-ninth parallel from the Lake of
the Woods to the Rocky mountains.