William D. Moore (1824-96), Amateur Geologist Of Mississippi

It is now nearly ninety years since William D. Moore, then professor of English at the University of Mississippi, collaborated with Eugene W. Hilgard on his famous geological report of that State. The archivists and historians have lost Moore from their records (if, indeed, they ever sought seriously for information of him), so that what was written five years ago of W. D. Moore (in another connection) remains as true as it was then: No record of whence he came, or whither went (when the University closed in 1861), is to be found at the Univer­sity. Since the present writer has been for some time gathering materials on the teaching of science in certain Southern universities and colleges before the Civil War, and since there is now no reason for obscurity about this gifted amateur of science, it seems well to put on paper the outlines, at least, of what we know of his life and work