academy of sciences.] BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 117 



Upon the completion of the summer's campaign, Williston went to the University of Iowa 

 for the first course of medical lectures, but in the meanwhile Prof. Marsh's attention had been 

 called to him, probably because the specimens collected by each man were marked with his 

 name. At any rate, in February Williston was invited to come to New Haven, and the offer 

 was eagerly accepted, for, as he says — 



I had lived practically all my life remote from scientific men, and authors were almost unknown. I had always 

 been a bookworm of the most accentuated type; I had grown to reverence, almost to worship, the writers of books 

 and especially of scientific books. * * * Such men as Huxley, Darwin, Dana, Gray, and Marsh were my ideals 

 of all that was great and good. I thought them impeccable and almost infallible. My greatest ambition was to follow 

 humbly in their footsteps — to write a book sometime myself and to make discoveries. 



Hence the first meeting of Prof. Marsh and the young westerner on March 19 or 20, 1876, 

 was of great moment to the latter, and he records his impressions of the professor in no uncer- 

 tain terms. The remainder of his visit was spent chiefly in the study of bird skeletons, and by 

 May 1 he was once more in the field in Kansas with a larger party, again in charge of Mudge. 

 A long season was followed by Williston's return to New Haven, and in 1877 he was himself 

 for the first time placed in charge of the Kansas party, while Mudge was sent to Texas. 



Williston hoped very much to do original work, and with this end in view spent much of 

 the preceding winter in studying fish skeletons in his own time, although under Marsh's direction, 

 but when he asked permission to do actual research on the Cretaceous fishes which he believed 

 Prof. Marsh had no intention of studying it was denied him on the ground that it would distract 

 his attention from his regular duties. Williston soon realized that he would probably never 

 have the opportunity of doing independent research on fossil vertebrates so long as he was Prof. 

 Marsh's assistant, and this realization was to have a very important influence upon his future 

 career. The season of 1877 was very long and tiring, as he spent no fewer than 10 months in 

 the field, and it was during this period that his interest in insects, at this time chiefly beetles, was 

 aroused. On his return to New Haven, in January, 1878, he was determined to find some in- 

 dependent field of research, and after mature deliberation chose the Diptera, of which he 

 eventually became the foremost American authority. But one more season, that of 1878, was 

 spent in collecting for Prof. Marsh, and from this work Williston was recalled in July. The 

 following January a new contract was made between them, whereby Williston was permitted to 

 complete his medical studies, which he did, taking his M. D. from Yale in June, 1880. 



Upon graduation, Williston was appointed assistant in osteology in Yale College, and in 

 1881 he was placed on the Government pay roll as assistant paleontologist. In December of 

 that year he married Miss Annie I. Hathaway, of New Haven, who survives him, with four of 

 their five children. He remained with Prof. Marsh until 1885, although discontented, chiefly 

 on account of the repressive policy of the latter. Hence in 1885 their relations were finally 

 severed, Williston receiving the degree of doctor of philosophy from Yale at commencement. 



He was now somewhat at a loss as to what course to pursue. He finally, however, refused 

 the offer made by Dr. C. V. Riley, the United States entomologist, to serve as his chief assistant, 

 and began the practice of medicine, in addition to which he acted as assistant editor of Science, 

 under Prof. Scudder. In September he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the Yale 

 Medical School, spending his days in New York in his capacity as editor and his evenings at 

 Yale in teaching. July of the next year brought him the title of assistant professor of anatomy, 

 at a very small salary, which he was forced to eke out by his medical practice and by serving 

 as town physician. It was as a health officer of New Haven in 188S that Dr. Williston carried 

 through single-handed an epidemic of smallpox, caring for the sick and burying the dead with 

 a singleness of purpose and devotion to duty which in war times would have won for him a 

 high military honor. The year 1887 saw his appointment as professor of anatomy at Yale; 

 1890 brought an offer from the Kansas Agricultural College which was declined, but an appoint- 

 ment as professor of geology in the University of Kansas was accepted in September of that 

 year. 



Much that has been said of Prof. Williston's early life and struggle's has been gleaned from a 

 manuscript autobiography prepared by him in May, 1916, and kindly placed at the writer's 



