STIMPSON, William, naturalist, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 14 February. 1832; died in Ilchester Mills, Maryland, 26 May, 1872. He was earn led to the study of natural history, and made extensive collections. It is claimed that he was the first to enter upon the work of deep-sea dredging in searching for specimens. He became a pupil of Louis Agassiz, and accompanied that naturalist in 1852 on his expedition to Norfolk, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina, to investigate the marine fauna of that region. Later in the year he was appointed naturalist to the North Pacific expedition, and spent three years and a half in making observations and collections. On his return he settled in Washington, and for nine years was engaged in classifying the results that he had obtained. In 1864 he became curator of the Chicago academy of sciences, and subsequently he was its secretary. While holding this office he organized a system of exchanges by which the library of the academy was supplied with scientific journals and transactions, and enriched its museum with specimens of natural history from all parts of the world. These collections, as well as much other valuable material, including his own manuscripts, which represented the researches of more than twenty years, were destroyed by the fire of 1871. For several years he visited Florida on scientific expeditions, and during the early part of 1872 he was engaged in superintending deep-sea dredging, under the auspices of the United States coast survey, in the Gulf of Mexico. The thoroughness of his researches, with the clearness and accuracy of his descriptions, gained for him a high rank as a :scientific observer, and it was said of him that he described more new species of marine animals than any naturalist except James D. Dana. He was a member of various scientific societies, and was early elected to membership in the National academy of sciences. During his connection with the Chicago academy of sciences he edited its " Transactions" and its annual reports. Besides his various contributions to scientific proceedings, he published numerous memoirs, including "A Revision of the Synonymy of the Testaceous Mollusks of New England" (Boston, 1851) : "Synopsis of the Marine Invertebrata of Grand Manan," in the " Smithsonian Contributions" (Washington, 1853) ; " Crustacea and Echinodermata of the Pacific Shores of North America" (Boston, 1857); " Descriptiones Animalium Evertebratorum" (Philadelphia, 1857-'60); and "Notes on North American Crustacea" (New York, 1859). He was associated in the preparation of "Check-Lists of the Shells of North America " (Washington, 1860), and "Researches upon the Hydrobinae and Allied Forms " (1865).