The New International Encyclopædia/Hoffman, Walter James

HOFFMAN, Walter James (1846-99). An American ethnologist. He was born at Weidasville, Pa., studied medicine at Jefferson College, Philadelphia, and practiced it in Reading, Pa., till 1870, when he went to the Franco-Prussian War as a surgeon with the German Army. On his return he took a similar position with the United States troops, and thus obtained opportunities for natural history researches in Arizona, Nevada, and Dakota. In 1877 Hoffman was attached to the Geological Survey, and two years afterwards became assistant in the Bureau of Ethnology at its formation.