Verrier in Paris and Humboldt in Berlin. After her return from Europe she was presented with a telescope, much larger than any owned by her father, by the women of America, through the ex- ertions of Miss Elizabeth Peabody, of Boston. In 1865 she was called to the professorship of astron- omy at Vassar college, which, with the post of di- rector of the observatory, she retained until Janu- ary, 1888, when she offered her resignation, but the trustees refused to take any definite action, grant- ing her, however, a leave of absence. In addition to her teaching, she, in recent years, specially studied the sun-spots and the satellites of Jupi- ter and Saturn. The degree of LL. D. was con- ferred on her by Hanover in 1882 and by Colum- bia in 1887. She was a member of various scien- tific societies, having been elected a member of the American association for the advancement of science in 1850, and a fellow of that organization in 1874. Miss Jlitchell was the first woman to be elected to the American academy of arts and sciences, and she was prominent in the movement tending to elevate woman's work, having held the presidency of the American association for the advancement of women at the Syracuse meeting in 1875 and at the Philadelphia meeting in 1876. Her published writings were restricted to scien- tific papers. — William's son, Henry, hydrog- rapher, b. in Nantucket, Mass., 16 Sept., 1830, was educated at private schools, and turned his attention to physical hydrology as relating to rivers and harbors and their regimen and control under the action of tide-water and river cur- rents. His earliest work was performed under the auspices of the U. S. coast survey, near the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Subsequently he made the waters of the vicinity of New York the subject of his investigations, serving as assistant to the commissioners on harbor en- croachments in 1859, and while thus employed first discovered the underflow of the Hudson, which has been since shown by him to be a restitution of equi- librium between river and sea waters of different densities, that changes with the seasons. In 1860-'7 he served as consulting engineer to the U. S. commission on Boston harbor, and later he became a member of the commission itself. He was called in as consulting expert by the National academy sent to investigate the causes of the de- cline of Greytown harbor, Nicaragua, in 1867, and the report contained a theory of the case that has since been confirmed by his later observa- tions at Greytown. Mr. Mitchell has held gov- ernment commissions to examine the principal har- bors along the Atlantic coast, including Portland, Me., Providence, R. I., Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va., and Philadelphia, Pa., many of which he has been called to report on several times. In 1874 he was appointed to represent the U. S. coast survey in the board of engineers for the improvement of the mouth of the Mississippi, and was subsequent- ly a member of the James B. Eads advisory board and of the Mississippi river commission. He was invited to take part in the Agassiz summer-school, and has also held the chair of physical hydrogra- phy in the Massachusetts institute of technology. He visited the Suez canal in 1879, and inspected it under the authority of Ferdinand de Lesseps, publishing a report in the " North American Re- view." Mr. Mitchell received the degree of A. M. from Harvard in 1867, is a member of the American society of civil engineers, and was chosen to the National academy of sciences in 1885. His scien- tific papers have been published principally in the U. S. coast survey reports. Among the most im- portant are " Reclamation of Tide-Lands and its Relation to Navigation " (1869) ; " On an Inspec- tion of the Terminal Points of the proposed Canal through Nicaragua and the Isthmus of Darien " (1874) ; " Notes concerning Alleged Changes in the- Relative Elevations of Land and Sea" (1877); " Phvsical Hydrography of the Gulf of Maine " (1879); "The Estuary of the Delaware" (1888); and " On the Circulation of the Sea through New York Harbor" (1886).
MITCHELL, William, theatre-manager, b. in
Billquay, Durham, England, in 1798 ; d. in New
York city, 12 May, 1856. He appeared first in New-
castle-upon-Tyne in a small part in " The Recruit-
ing Officer," and afterward acted at other English
provincial theatres. In 1831 he was engaged in
London at the Strand theatre, making his debut in
" Professionals Puzzled," and later he became stage-
manager of the Coburg theatre. In 1836 Mitchell
came to this country under an engagement with the
lessees of the old National theatre in New York
city, where, on 29 Aug., he made his debut as Jem
Baggs in " The Wandering Minstrel," and even-
tually, under James W. Wallack's direction, became
stage-manager. After the destruction of that play-
house by fire he assumed control of the Olympic
theatre, which he conducted from 1839 until 1850.
This house was frequented by the wits and men-
about-town, and became popular for the perform-
ance of operas in miniature, farces, and burlesques,,
in which the manager usually performed the lead-
ing parts. Mitchell retired "from its control with
only small gains. Stricken by disease, he lingered
several years in reduced circumstances. As a co-
median he was painstaking and industrious, and
had an artist's conception of the characters he rep-
resented. The drawbacks to his becoming distin-
guished in the regular line of comedy were im-
mobility of features and inflexibility of utterance.
One of his most amusing personifications was that,
of Manager Crummies in a dramatization from.
Dickens's " Nicholas Niekleby."
MITCHILL, Samuel Latham, scientist, b. in:
North Hempstead, L. I., 20 Aug., 1764; d. in New
York city, 7 Sept., 1831. He studied medicine
under his maternal un-
j?zis*-=^
cle, Samuel Latham,
in his native town and
with Samuel Bard in
New York city, and
was graduated at the
University of Edin-
burgh in 1786. On his
return to New York he
devoted part of his
time to the study of
law under Robert
Yates, and was ap-
pointed in 1788 one
of the commissioners
to treat with the Iro-
quois Indians for the
purchase of then- land
in western New York,
being present at the council held at Fort Stanwix. In 1790 he was elected to the New York legislature. In 1792 he was appointed professor of natural history, chemistry, and agriculture, and other arts depending thereon in Columbia, and while holding this chair he introduced the chemical
nomenclature of Lavoisier, but with a dissent from some of the principles of that chemist. This action led to a controversy with Joseph Priestley, which was conducted with such courtesy that it ended in the warm personal friendship of the two»
