William Sttmpson, an American naturalist, born in Roxbury, Mass., Feb. 14, 1832, died at Hchester Mills, Howard co., Md., May 26, 1872. He studied under Agassiz, and in 1849 engaged in dredging off the coast of New England. In 1852 he accompanied Agassiz to Norfolk, Va., to investigate the marine fauna of that region. In 1852-6 he was naturalist to the North Pacific exploring expedition, and in December, 1864, became curator of the Chicago academy of sciences, and afterward secretary and director of the museum. The great fire of October, 1871, destroyed his collections and manuscripts, embodying the results of 20 years of scientific labor, including his works on the shells of the E. coast, and on the Crustacea of North America, with 500 drawings and 200 illustrations already engraved. He passed the winter of 1871-2 off the Florida coast, till a haemorrhage of the lungs ended his activity. His works include "A Revision of the Synonymy of the Testaceous Mollusks of New England" (Boston, 1851); " Synopsis of the Marine Invertebrata of Grand Menan," etc. (in vol. vi. of "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," "Washington, 1854); "Crustacea and Echinodermata of the Pacific Shores of North America" (Boston, 1857); Prodromus Descripjtionis Animalium Evertebratorum qum in Expeditione ad Oceanum Pacificum Septeii-trionalem, etc. (8 parts, Philadelphia, 1857-'60); "Notes on North American Crustacea" (New York, 1859); and " Researches upon the Hy-drobiinaa and Allied Forms " (18G5).