THE INCORPORATORS 125 
ford professorship. He equipped a small laboratory for himself 
and carried out those brilliant researches on complex inorganic 
acids, which brought him the highest praise. The chief piece 
of apparatus used in these important investigations was a cast- 
iron cooking stove, and the rest of the equipment was equally 
modest. 
After the closing of the Scientific School laboratory, Dr. 
Gibbs lectured to small classes upon the spectroscope, and on 
thermodynamics. Upon his retirement as professor emeritus, 
he removed his private laboratory to Newport, where he had a 
summer home. Here he took pleasure in his garden and especi- 
ally in the cultivation of roses. His death occurred on Decem- 
ber 9, 1908, when he was nearly 87 years of age. 
Gibbs wrote no books and delivered no popular lectures, but 
his researches and his voluminous scientific writings brought 
him honors from many scientific societies in Europe and America. 
He was the first Home Secretary of the National Academy of 
Sciences and its President for five years, and also presided over 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 
1897. 
As a citizen he was not devoid of public spirit. The Union 
League Club was founded at his house, and he took an active 
interest in the Sanitary Commission, the forerunner of the Red 
Cross Society. 
(From F. W. CiarKeE, in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of 
Sciences, vol. 7, 1910, pp. I-12.) 
JAMES MELVILLE GILLISS 
Born, September 6, 1811; died, February 9, 1865 
Captain Gilliss was the eldest son of George Gilliss and Mary 
Melville Gilliss of Georgetown, D. C. His father, who was in 
the service of the Government, was a descendant of Thomas 
Gilliss, a native of Scotland, who settled at an early date on the 
Eastern Shore of Maryland. James Melville Gilliss entered 
the Navy, as midshipman, in 1826. He obtained leave of 
absence in 1833, and entered the University of Virginia, but was 
