36 WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS 



long campaign of education. In this he had in mind to bring the 

 State to realize the value of the Chesapeake for oyster production, 

 and the worth of proper methods of supervision and cultivation. 

 He was available for semi-popular lectures, wrote magazine and 

 newspaper articles on the subject of oysters, and in 1891, published 

 a treatise entitled "The Oyster," a little book that had wide 

 influence and which was characterized by President D. C Gil- 

 man as ''a memoir in natural history and a chapter of political 

 economy," in which the life history of the oyster is described "in 

 terms scientific enough to be accurate, not so scientific as to be 

 hard of understanding." 



Dr. Brooks' efforts during this period resulted in the creation 

 of an intelligent appreciation on the part of the general public 

 not only throughout Maryland but in all of the Atlantic States 

 as well, of the value and possibilities of the natural resources of 

 tidal waters for the production of oysters, and men of large influ- 

 ence were enlisted in the cause of oyster culture. This deep cumu- 

 lative influence of Professor Brooks on the public mind made him 

 one of the most valuable citizens Maryland has ever had. Others 

 carried to completion the task of crystallizing sentiment in favor of 

 oyster culture, and finally in 1906 the Maryland Legislature 

 passed a law for the protection and propagation of oysters along 

 substantially the line that had been advocated by Brooks. The 

 long campaign was thus happily terminated. 



Contribution to Anthropology. 1 '' Brooks' paper "On the Luca- 

 yan Indians" embodies the results of an excursion into the field 

 of physical anthropology made during two visits to the Bahama 

 Islands in connection with his summer laboratory. Very charac- 

 teristically, he became interested in the history of the islands 

 and in the people who dwelt there when they were discovered 

 by Columbus. The skeletal fragments which there is reason to 

 believe represent remains of the aborigines are very few. The 

 material which Brooks had, and which was found in caves on 

 the islands, consisted of three well preserved skulls and some 



17 Professor H. H. Donaldson, The Wistar Institute. 



