A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE 17 



ually became worse, until his system, enfeebled by a weak heart, 

 scarcely resisted the other difficulties that began to burden him. 

 It is true that periods of improvement alternated with those of 

 depression, but the doubt that hovered over him cast its shadow 

 through the laboratory. It was at this tune that Mrs. Brooks 

 died. 



Such health as he had known, never came back wholly, and 

 months passed before interest in life and work returned. With 

 renewed vigor he studied his hydroids, his salpas, and the oyster, 

 began to complete researches half-forgotten, and to start new 

 ones. The Sunday evenings at Brightside, too, were resumed, 

 and amid clouds of smoke, he read Berkeley or his own writings. 

 This was Indian summer. 



At home, much of his most vital teaching was done. Stretched 

 comfortably in his steamer chair, in full view of the books and pic- 

 tures that he loved, and surrounded by a family, not in the narrow 

 sense, but one in which his students, his negro servants, his dogs, 

 and his flowers had each a place, he was thoroughly at ease. Often, 

 as he laid his hand affectionately on Jupe's great head, he spoke 

 with tenderness of the details of his home-life. 



If one thing must be singled out to explain the affection he 

 inspired, it is that he himself was affectionate. The loyalty that 

 led him to give of his own small income in times of need and 

 made him speak of former students as though they had been with 

 him only yesterday, included other things, his science, his duties 

 as a teacher, and his university. In its period of hardship he 

 economized, and offers from other institutions did not shake him. 



His interests were human, and his science a pathway along 

 which he walked in humility to view the world and to interpret 

 it. The great problems were not mere exercises for the mind, but 

 human difficulties. The teacher and the mnn were inseparable 

 and it was no less the man than the teacher who inspired others. 



1905-08.* It was during Professor Brooks' declining years that 

 he honored me with his friendship. On these visits of his to the 



1 Dr. A. G. Mayer, Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY, VOL. 9, NO. 1. 



