PALMEN
PALMEBSTON
lanea Zoologica, 1766), in which there were
ideas anticipating later research, and in
1768 Catherine II invited him to Russia.
He was admitted to the Eussian Academy
and appointed professor at the St. Peters
burg College. From 1768 to 1774 he was
at the head of the scientific expedition to
observe the transit of Venus and explore
Eastern Eussia (Eeisen durch verschiedene
Provinzen des russischen Beichs, 3 vols.,
1771-76). Eight further volumes des
cribed his results, and in 1777 he made
another great scientific expedition. In
1787 he became historiographer of the
Admiralty College. Pallas was equally
distinguished in geology, zoology, and
anthropology, and Catherine loaded him
with honours. He was a Knight of the
Order of St. Vladimir, and a member of
the Academies of Science of St. Petersburg,
Berlin, and Stockholm. His very numer
ous works were highly esteemed all over
Europe. D. Sep. 8, 1811.
PALMEN, Professor Baron Ernst,
Ph.D., Finnish historian. B. Nov. 26, 1849. Ed, Helsingfors University. In 1877 he began to teach northern history at Helsingfors University ; in 1884 he was appointed professor ; and in 1911 he became professor emeritus. He received his title in 1877 ; and he was a member of the Historical Society and the Geo graphical Society of Finland. Palmen is one of the most eminent scholars of his country, and he has shown a generous zeal for the enlightenment of the people. He is an outspoken Monist, and greets Professor Haeckel as a Prometheus, " like every bringer of truth and light " (Was Wir Ernst Haeckel Verdanken, ii, 314).
PALMER, Courtlandt, American writer. B. Mar. 25, 1843. Ed. Columbia Law School. Palmer became a Eationalist in his youth, and, inheriting wealth, he used it liberally for the spread of advanced ideas in New York. In 1880 he established the Nineteenth Century Club, chiefly for the purpose of discussion of religion, and was
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its first President. He, said the New York
Sun in its obituary notice, " accomplished
a surprising feat in making fashionable in
New York a sort of discussion which before
had been frowned upon as in the last
degree pernicious." Large and distin
guished audiences, of both sexes, thus
heard Eationalism defended. Palmer
himself contributed to the Truthseeker and
the Freethinkers Magazine. His sister
married Professor J. W. Draper, with
whom and Ingersoll he was familiar. D.
July 23, 1888.
PALMER, Elihu, American author. B, 1764. Ed, Dartmouth College. He was withdrawn from his study of divinity by becoming a Deist in 1791, and he gave lectures on Deism. In 1793 an attack of yellow fever led to total blindness, and Palmer slowly meditated the Deistic works which he eventually dictated (Principles of Nature, 1802, reprinted by Eichard Carlile in 1819 ; and Prospect or Vieiu of the Moral World from the year 1804). He was the head of the Society of Columbian Illu- minati, which he founded in New York in 1801. D. Apr. 7, 1806.
PALMERSTON, Henry John, third Viscount, statesman. B. Oct. 20, 1784. Ed. Harrow, and Edinburgh and Cambridge (St. John s College) Universities. He suc ceeded to the peerage in 1802, and entered Parliament in 1807. Palmerston was at once appointed a Lord of the Admiralty. Two years later he was offered the Chan cellorship of the Exchequer, which he declined, and he became Secretary at War, a function which he discharged for nearly twenty years with conscientious efficiency. In 1818 he was nearly assassinated by a man who suffered from one of the many reforms he effected. He repeatedly refused higher positions, and attached himself to neither party in the political world. In 1830 he undertook Foreign Affairs, and in the course of eleven years of office, and again from 1846 to 1851, he became one of the most accomplished Foreign Ministers
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