THOMAS STERRY

See also:

• HUNT, ALFRED WILLIAM (183o-1896)
• HUNT, HENRY (1i73-1835)
• HUNT, HENRY JACKSON (1819-1889)
• HUNT, JAMES HENRY LEIGH (1784-1859)
• HUNT, ROBERT (1807-1887)
• THOMAS STERRY HUNT (1826-1892)
• HUNT, WILLIAM HENRY (1790—1864)
• HUNT, WILLIAM HOLMAN (1827-1910)
• HUNT, WILLIAM MORRIS (1824-1879)

HUNT (1826-1892)  , American geologist and chemist, was born at Norwich, Conn., on the 5th of September 1826 . He lost his father when twelve years old, and had to earn his own livelihood . In the course of two years he found employment in a printing office, in an apothecary's shop, in a book store and as a clerk . He became interested in natural science, and especially in chemical and medical studies, and in 1845 he was elected a member of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists at Yale—a body which four years later became the American Association for the Advancement of Science . In 1848 he read a paper in Philadelphia On Acid Springs and Gypsum Deposits of the Onondaga Salt Group . At Yale he became assistant to Professor B . Silliman, Jun., and- in 1846 was appointed chemist to the Geological Survey of Vermont . In 1847 he was appointed to similar duties on the Canadian Geological Survey at Montreal under Sir William Logan, and this post he held until 1872 . In 18J9 he was elected F.R.S., and he was one of the original members and president of the Royal Society of Canada . He was a frequent contributor to scientific journals, writing on the crystalline limestones, the origin of continents, the chemistry of the primeval earth, on serpentines, &c . He also wrote a notable " Essay on the History of the names Cambrian and Silurian " (Canadian Naturalist, 1872), in which the claims of Sedgwick, with respect to the grouping of the Cambrian strata, were forcibly advocated . He died in New York City on the 12th of February 1892 .

His publications include Chemical and Geological Essays (1875, ed . 2, 1879);

Mineral Physiology and Physiography (1886) ; A New Basis for Chemistry (1887, ed . 3, 1891); Systematic Mineralogy (1891) . See an obituary notice by Persifor Frazer, Amer . Geologist (xi . Jan . 1893), with portrait .