and found himself especially welcomed as the bearer of a manuscript copy of the text of the treaty of peace, which had been handed him at the moment of sailing by an official in the British service. The conditions of peace were known, but the text had not yet been made public in England; and, although the official copy had been forwarded, the "Vigilant" had outstripped the bearer of the government dispatches by some days. John Delafield was a founder and director of the Mutual insurance company, established on June 15, 1787, that being the first company organized to take risks against fire in the City of New York after the Revolution. On January 12, 1792, he was appointed director of the branch of the U. S. bank, and was afterward elected to the same office. He was one of forty gentlemen who subscribed $10,000 each, and founded (February 1, 1796) the United insurance company, also acting as a director, and serving as president for many years. His summer residence on the East River, opposite Blackwell's Island, known as" Sunswick," built in 1791, was one of the largest and best appointed private houses near New York. John Delafield had nine sons and four daughters. Two of his sons died young. Francis Delafield was fitted for college in private schools in New York City, and at Yale received a dissertation appointment in junior year and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 1863, he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia, and then for some months continued his medical studies abroad — in Paris, Berlin and London. Career Upon his return to the U.S. in 1865, he became surgeon in the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, and physician and pathologist in 1871 to the Roosevelt Hospital (now Mount Sinai West). He was the founder of the first pathological laboratory in US, and his writings upon pathological subjects were accepted as standard authorities. His first important literary work, "A Handbook of Post-Mortem Examination and Morbid Anatomy" (1872) was later rewritten and enlarged into "A Handbook of Pathological Anatomy and Histology" (1885) and became a textbook for medical colleges. In 1878, appeared his "Manual of Physical Diagnosis," and in 1895 "Diseases of the Kidneys". Another achievement was his classification of the group of diseases generally treated under pulmonary consumption. Probably his most important contribution to medicine was "Studies