RIDDELLS OF COLERAINE, MASSACHUSETTS, NO. 2. 257
supposed locality of the mines; but becoming more and more annoyed
by the Comanche Indians, judged it hazardous to remain very long.
It was found no easy matter to discover, in so short a time, a mine, con-
cerning which many conflicting statements had been made; yet the object
of the company was in part realized, since they had obtained a knowledge
of the general inineral character of the country. For his services Mr.
Riddell received one share in the rights of the company, equivalent to
ten thousand acres of Texas lands.
On his return to New Orleans, he learned of his appointment, by the
President of the United States, as "Melter and Refiner" in the branch
mint; this office he held till 1849. His contributions to science, in the
meantime, had been of a varied nature. In 1835, at Cincinnati, O., he
published a catalogue of plants, entitled "A Synopsis of the Flora of the
Western States," including eighteen hundred different species, which may
truly be styled one of the pioneers in the botany of the West. Subse-
quently he published a catalogue of the plants of Louisiana, comprising
some twenty-three hundred species. In the West, in Louisiana, and in
Texas, he was the discoverer of numerous new species, and has, by the
consent of botanists, left his name indelibly impressed on the science, in
the genus named for him, Riddellia.
In 1845 he published "A Monograph of the Dollar," including fac-simile
impressions of between five and six hundred varieties of American and
Mexican dollars and half-dollars, both genuine and counterfeit; with the
assay of each, and if counterfeit, pointing out the method of detection.
The original coins were obtained from Boston, New York, and the mints
of Philadelphia and New Orleans. He was author of numerous other
small publications, principally delivered as lectures, and published by his
auditors and students, such as "Orrin Lindsay's Aerial Navigation," deliv-
ered before the People's Lyceum of New Orleans, in 1847; "Constitution
of Matter," in 1846, published in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical
Journal; introductory lecture on "The Natural Sciences," published in
1852, by the medical students of the University of Louisiana, also in the
Medical Journal. In 1836, his thesis on "Miasm and Contagion" was
published in Cincinnati, and republished in Boston; in which he advocated
the theory that "organized and living corpuscles of various kinds" were
the agents of communication in contagious diseases, and in this he was
one of the earliest to adopt that theory, which has long since become set-
tled. While an officer under the government, he published a short historic
account of the mint and its operations, together with the coining process.
In 1844 he was one of five commissioners appointed by the Governor
and Legislature "to devise some means to protect New Orleans from in-
undation." In 1852 he was giving his attention principally to microscopy,
and observations connected with the animalculæ and algæ found in the
swamp-waters in the vicinity of New Orleans. His widow was living in
New Orleans in 1873. I do not know the date of his death. His son
Sanford promised the complete genealogy and history of his father's fam-
ily, but the MSS. seem to have been lost in the mails.
Lephia-Maria Riddell (1), eldest daughter of John (1), was born in
Preston, N. Y., Jan. 1, 1809; was married in 1829, to Ruel Crumb, and
had issue four children. She resided at Onondaga, N. Y.; died Nov. 5,
1840.
Julia-Ann Riddell (1), second daughter of John (1), was born in
Preston, N. Y., July 19, 1812; was married in 1830 to J. S. Brown, of
17
