Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Verrill, Addison Emory

3236533Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography — Verrill, Addison Emory

VERRILL, Addison Emory, naturalist, b. in Greenwood, Me., 9 Feb., 1839. He was graduated at the Lawrence scientific school of Harvard in 1862, where he specially studied natural history under Louis Agassiz. In 1864 he was called to the chair of zoölogy in Yale, which he still retains. And he was also professor of entomology and comparative anatomy in the University of Wisconsin in 1867-70. The instruction on geology in the Sheffield scientific school of Yale is under his care, and since 1867 he has been curator of zoölogy in the Peabody museum. The zoölogical collection has been created by him, and it now ranks as one of the host in this country. Since 1860 he has devoted part of every summer to collecting and studying the marine animals of the Atlantic coast, and since 1871 he has had charge of the dredging of marine invertebrates of the United States under the auspices of the U. S. fish commission, to whose reports he has annually contributed an account of his work. Prof. Verrill is a member of various scientific societies, and in 1872 was elected to the National academy of sciences. The degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Yale in 1867. He has made original investigations on corals, mollusca, annelids, echinoderms, tunicata, and bryozoa, and of the gigantic cephalopods of Newfoundland. His bibliography is quite large and includes papers in the “American Journal of Science” and the proceedings of various societies of which he is a member.