This is a biographical sketch of Dercum, who was a specialist in neurology and president of the American Philosophical Society (1927-1981). Dercum practiced medicine in Philadelphia and made the first contribution to understanding adiposis dolorosa, or Dercum's disease. This essay was presented before the Section on Nervous and Mental Diseases of the American Medical Association, in Cleaveland, June 4, 1941.

The collection consists of diaries, 1890-1938, containing brief records of professional work and family events (49 vols.); also autobiography entitled "Memories for my boys," 1930 (B D713m), referring to his childhood and to his professional career and mentioning Franz Boas, William Comstock, Livingston Farrand, William W. Keen, S. Weir Mitchell, Elihu Root, and W. T. Sedgewick and also APS, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, and Wistar Institute (1 vol.); also a few miscellaneous papers, 1869-1932, chiefly letters to and from members of his family, and also Poultney Bigelow, Simon Henry Gage, and W. B. Van Ingen; two essays ("The Days of Man" and "A Venetian Night"): genealogical data; verses dedicated to his wife; extracts of letters to supplement his diaries.