Amos Binney, an American savant and patron of art and science, born in Boston, Mass., Oct. 18, 1803, died in Rome, Feb. 18, 1847. He was educated at Brown university and studied medicine, but engaged in mercantile pursuits, and devoted a great deal of time to science, especially mineralogy and conchology. He was one of the founders of the Boston society of natural history, and its president from 1843 to 1847, a member of all the scientific societies in the country, and active in the formation and promotion of the American association of geologists and naturalists, of which he was the president elect at the time of his death. When a member of the state legislature he used his influence to sustain the geological survey of the state, and succeeded in having attached to it a commission for the zoological and botanical survey also, which resulted in the important volumes of Harris on insects injurious to vegetation, Emerson on forest trees, Storer on fishes, Gould on inverte-brata, etc. He wrote many valuable papers in the proceedings and the journal of the Boston society of natural history, devoted many years to the study of the terrestrial mollusks of the United States, and fitted out several expeditions to Florida, Texas, and other unexplored regions, to collect materials.

He employed the best artists to delineate and engrave figures for his work on this subject, "Terrestrial and Air-breathing Mollusks of the United States and adjacent Territories of North America," which was published after his death, under direction of his friend Dr. A. A. Gould (2 vols, of text and 1 vol. of plates, Boston, 1851).