the only post mortem examination of small-pox that occurred during the prevalence of that awful scourge.

Having glanced rapidly over the public services of one of the most noted and valuable of private citizens, it may be added that Dr. Rowell ranks high with the most distinguished physicians and surgeons of San Francisco. Being one of the oldest, he is also one of the ablest and most popular, not only in the estimation of the public, but likewise with the members of his profession. In private association he is social, generous, and sympathetic, ambitious of popularity and of distinction as a man of liberality and public spirit; caring far more for the good opinion and friendship of his fellow-men than for all the golden treasures that could be heaped around him. In the lecture-room, he is versatile, instructive, and entertaining, giving apt expressions to thoughts original, philosophical, or humorous, as the circumstances and fancy of the moment may suggest. The structure of his mental organism leads to inquiry, analysis, and invention; and perhaps no member of the Faculty in this State is better adapted to the requirements of the lecture-room in a medical institute. As a citizen, he is well informed, public spirited, and liberal, closely observing every new movement of the public mind, taking part in every worthy enterprise, and contributing freely, generously, and almost thoughtlessly to the appeals of charity; the chief obstacle to his greater professional success and fame being the multiform and eclectic nature of his occupations, and his irresistible desire to take part in every great public enterprise, and to be personally identified with every great work of progress and reform. The physician's highway to eminence is through the quiet and sorrowful places of affliction, and it is a long distance; but in the scale of an unselfish philanthropy, it may claim precedence in the loftiest occupations of mankind. To breast the beating storm at midnight, and linger till gray dawn in the abode of poverty, in spite of the invocations of sleep, and with scarcely any hope of reward other than the intangible fees of conscience, are acts of the sublimest heroism.

Professor Rowell is still in the prime of vigorous life, as appears from the excellent portrait preceding this sketch. In personal presence he is as manly and noble as he is refined, humane, and generous in the structure of his mind. And whether in social companionship with his friends, in the public assembly of his fellow-citizens, or in the abodes of threatening death or friendless poverty, he is always recognizable among the highest types of enlightened mankind and the truest of American citizenship.

NATHANIEL BENNETT.

BY THE EDITOR

HIS gentleman is one of the oldest practitioners at the San Francisco bar. For nearly twenty years, with the exception of the time when he occupied a seat upon the Supreme Bench of California, and the further period of nearly five years passed in two visits to the Eastern States, he has been actively engaged in the practice of law in the metropolis of the Pacific.

Judge Bennett is of regular old Puritan stock. His father and mother were born and married in Fairfield county, Connecticut, where their ancestors had resided for several generations. A short time after their marriage, his parents removed to Caatskill, then a village just beginning to flourish in the State of New York, and where his father engaged in the mercantile business for some years. The latter afterwards moved to Clinton, Oneida county, at which place Hamilton College had then lately been established. His object in moving to Clinton was to embrace the better opportunities which offered for the education of his children.

Two of his sons, older brothers of Nathaniel, graduated at Hamilton College. One of them was for many years chief judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Erie county, New York. The other was also a lawyer, and practiced his profession in New York city, in partnership with Hugh Maxwell, Esq., at that time District Attorney of the city. This brother died when quite a young man.

Nathaniel Bennett was born at Clinton, Oneida county, New York, on the 27th day of June, 1818. When he was three or four years old his father purchased several tracts of land of considerable extent, in Erie county. On one of these tracts he settled as a farmer, moving his family thither from Clinton. Nathaniel passed his early boyhood on this farm, and in his twelfth year was sent to Buffalo to a military school, then lately established by the celebrated Captain Partridge, who had been for more than twelve years principal of West Point Academy.

Nathaniel was at school at Buffalo for over two years. The pupils of this school were daily subjected to regular military drill and exercise, after the fashion at West Point. From Buffalo, young Bennett was sent to the Academy at Canandaigua, under the direction of Mr. Howe, where he continued his studies for about a year. One of his schoolmates at Canandaigua was Stephen A. Douglas, who then gave no indication of his subsequent renown. After leaving the Academy, young Bennett was sent to Hamilton College, where he remained one year; at the end of that time he entered Yale College.

Mr. Bennett read law at Buffalo, New York. He was admitted to practice as an attorney in 1840, and as a counselor in 1843. He practiced at Buffalo from 1840 until the fall of 1842, in partnership with Eli Cook, a brother of Elisha Cook, Esq., of San Francisco. He then determined, as his health was somewhat impaired, to make a tour through the Southern States. In 1838-9, he had traveled through Ohio, and visited many parts of Indiana and Kentucky, but had beheld no spot for which he was willing to exchange his own home-Buffalo. Up to the time of his starting upon his second and longer journey, Mr. Bennett had always been an ardent Democrat, and a great admirer of the South and southern institutions. A radical change was soon to come over his feelings. He passed, on horseback, through the States of Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisana, to New Orleans, where he spent the winter of 1842-3. In the following spring. he started upon his return trip. He rode, on horseback, through eastern Louisiana, through Mississippi, Georgia,