DRAPER, John William, American phys iologist and chemist: b. Saint Helens, Lan cashire, England, 5 May 1811; d. Hastings-on the-Hudson, N.Y.,4 Jan. 1882. He obtained his early schooling at Woodhouse Grove in a Wes leyan Methodist institution and then took up courses in chemistry, physics and higher mathe matics under a private tutor. In 1833, when 22 years of age, he came to the United States and entered the University of Pennsylvania, there taking a course in medical studies and gradu ating with his degree of M.D. in 1836. Shortly after graduating he received an appointment to the chair of chemistry, natural philosophy and physiology in Hampden-Sidney College in Vir ginia, continuing in that capacity until 1839. It was then that he commenced the experimental researches which rendered his name famous, and during those years he contributed the results of his experiments to the American Journal of Medical Sciences. In 1839 he was called to the chair of chemistry and natural history in the academic department of the of New York and also gave lectures on physiology to the more advanced undergraduates. In 1841 he became professor of chemistry in the University Medical College and in 1850 professor of physi ology. Draper made many improvements in the art of photography. Following out the princi ples as invented by Daguerre in 1839, he com menced experimenting along the same lines and became the pioneer of photography in America ; and it was he who first applied photography to the portrayal of the human face, his first photo graph being that of his daughter, taken in 1839.
He also discovered and described ((misers' images)) or roric figures and about the same time applied the use of ruled glasses and specula to the study of chemical action of light.
Dr. Draper's writings were numerous, among the most important of them being
Treatise on the Forces which Produce the Organizations of Plants' (1844), in which the author demon strates that the most intense action of sunlight is produced by yellow rays; 'Text-book on Chemistry' (1846) ;