16 William Keith Brooks 



salpas are still of different minds. This discovery was 

 but one in a long series of difficult observations upon the 

 anatomy and embryology of the salpas, that occupied Pro- 

 fessor Brooks for twenty years and more. In fact, the 

 publication in 1893 of his great quarto monograph of 400 

 pages and 50 plates did not end his interest in these 

 salpas. It was a source of deep regret to him that his 

 plan to write the manuscript of a last investigation of 

 salpa, for which he had completed a long series of illus- 

 trations, could not be carried out this past summer. 



Professor Brooks's work was at the seaside and upon the 

 ocean, on the eggs and young of marine animals, for 

 they seemed to offer solutions of the fundamental prob- 

 lems of morphology. In brief, his task was the testing of 

 the theory of evolution by the study of lower animals. 

 Over and beyond the accumulated facts that will remain 

 irterwoven in the fabric of human knowledge, there was 

 ic all that he did the spirit of genius in point of view and 

 interpretation. His philosophical bent and his love for 

 Nature were the prime motives for his labors. 



His last book, "The Foundations of Zoology.," contains 

 many of his long-matured thoughts and will stand as his 

 chief monument. The viewpoint there taken seems a diffi- 

 cult one; but it is characteristically balanced, profoundly 

 philosophical, and full of reservation of judgment where 

 human experience fails to supply facts. 



For text-book making Professor Brooks had little zest, 

 yet his "Manual of Invertebrate Zoology" was a quite new 

 conception and has no peer nor successor. 



Tradition has it that, in the inception of this university, 

 there was a hope that Professor Huxley might hold the 

 chair of Biology. What different history that would have 

 made! But is it not true that, in the life-work of William 

 Keith Brooks, the Johns Hopkins University had the 

 services of a mind even superior to that of Thomas 

 Huxlev? 



