10 WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS 



of mind and enough elementary training to handle books and 

 journals which record the actual state and progress of zoology. 

 Of lectures there was one now and then from Professor Brooks on 

 any subject. A round of lectures by older students in the de- 

 partment was given some years, and this was excellent practice. 



The journal club was serious. It met weekly and the arrange- 

 ment was such that each graduate student reported a number of 

 times during the year. A reading club met weekly in the even- 

 ing at Professor Brooks' house. Some pleasant book of general 

 zoological interest, often one of travel, was read, after which came 

 tea. In the laboratory again once a week readings of a more 

 serious nature and with some discussion were held. The "Origin 

 of Species" was in this way gone through, and "Agassiz's Essay 

 on Classification." 



Professor Brooks had compiled an elaborate list of the litera- 

 ture, with which it was supposed candidates for the doctor's 

 degree were to make themselves familiar. It included the 

 text-books of the period and important memoirs on the various 

 subdivisions of zoology. The list was long. Perhaps some stu- 

 dents completed it. But we all read with considerable diligence 

 and it was the custom to make careful abstracts. On the basis 

 of this common reading a good deal of informal talk and dis- 

 cussion was maintained among us. 



We lived in the laboratory all day and the younger men learned 

 much from the older, especially in matters of technique. Brooks 

 gave excellent suggestions on drawing and would occasionally go 

 through the form of taking a micro-photograph. A beginner in 

 my time was usually given some material, referred to a paper or 

 two on comparative anatomy or embryology, and told to verify 

 the research. At intervals, frequent enough, Brooks looked at 

 his figures, notes, and preparations and had something to say 

 about the matter. Frequently before this first testing and form- 

 ing exercise was completed, the man would be put at another. 

 Two or three filled the year. Then came a long season at the 

 seaside laboratory, in all probability the first for the student and 

 teeming with experience. There was daily collecting, much study 

 of live animals, much rearing of embryos and larva?. The pelagic 



