28 William Keith Brooks 



discovery of the ocean bottom and its effects upon the 

 evolution of animals. 



As is well known, Brooks's work was inspired through- 

 out by his interest in the intellectual problems presented 

 by animal life as well as by his love of their forms and 

 activities. And it was this tendency to the philosophical 

 application of zoological facts that was expressed in his 

 later essays and lectures and finally in his book "The 

 Foundations of Zoology." He was not a writer of text- 

 books, yet his "Handbook of Invertebrate Zoology" shows 

 his original and novel treatment of what was then an 

 almost unexplored field in text-book writing, the study 

 by the student, at the seashore, of the life-histories and 

 eggs and larvae of marine animals as a basis for the philo- 

 sophic study of morphology. And with, a more fortunate 

 choice of publisher the book might have long continued 

 to widen the sphere of his influence. 



Dr. Brooks married, in 1877, Amelia Katherine Schultz, 

 of Baltimore. His happy home life furnished the environ- 

 ment for the development of his very domestic social 

 needs and the loving care of his devoted wife tided him 

 through many difficult contests between his over-zeal for 

 work and his physical restrictions. But, in the spring of 

 1901, after long years of suffering, lightened we hope for 

 a time by the appreciation that came to Professor Brooks 

 when his students requested him to sit for the portrait 

 that they presented on his fiftieth birthday, and which 

 came more for her comfort than for his, Mrs. Brooks 

 passed away from life, to be followed, for us too soon, by 

 the man whose life we rejoice in, whose death we mourn. 



To the students who were taken so freely into that home 

 life a hope of attaining the best that life has to offer, 

 despite financial restrictions, was held forth, and there 

 are many who recall the delightful evenings of reading 

 and talk when they met at his house on terms of equality 

 and free intercourse. His two children he strove to edu- 



