Dr. Thomas Sterry Hunt

Abstract

DR. T. STERRY HUNT, who died at New York on the 12th of this month, in his sixty-sixth year, was widely known from his geological works, especially those relating to chemical geology. For some years past he had been in feeble health, suffering much from heart-disease. Early in this year he was attacked with influenza, from which he seemed to be recovering, but a relapse occurred, from which he failed to rally. Born on September 6, 1826, at Norwich, in Connecticut, he was educated for the medical profession, but in 1845 became assistant to Prof. B. Silliman at Yale College, and was also chemist to the Geological Survey of Vermont. In 1847 he joined the Geological Survey of Canada, under Sir W. Logan, as chemist and mineralogist. From 1856 to 1862 he was Professor of Chemistry at Laval University in Quebec, giving his lectures in French. From 1872 to 1878 he was Professor of Geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1859, and in 1881 received the honorary degree of LL.D. at Cambridge. Dr. Hunt was one of the founders of the International Geological Congress at Philadelphia, in 1876; he attended the meetings of the Congress at Paris in 1878, Bologna in 1881, Berlin in 1885, and London in 1888, taking an active part in the proceedings of each.