528 WILLIAM RIPLEY NICHOLS. 



WILLIAM RIPLEY NICHOLS. 



Fortunately for the cause of science, it is seldom that the Acad- 

 emy has had to deplore the loss of a member at once so young and so 

 prominent as William Ripley Nichols. Though dead at the early age 

 of thirty-nine, he had already for some years been recognized as an 

 authority in most branches of chemistry that relate to sanitation, — 

 particularly in respect to his specialty, the chemistry of potable 

 waters, — and he had likewise played a prominent part in the move- 

 ment for the establishing of sound methods of scientific instruction, 

 which was contemporaneous with his life. 



Professor Nichols was born in Boston, April 30, 1847. He died at 

 Hamburg in Germany, July 14, 1886. During boyhood he was well 

 taught. After having passed through the Roxbury Latin School, he, 

 together with three of his schoolmates, went to Europe in charge of 

 the headmaster of the school, Mr. Augustus H. Buck. During an 

 absence of nearly two years he not only travelled extensively, but, as 

 his period of fruition proved, he must have studied also with no little 

 assiduity. He became proficient in the use of German and French, 

 and was subsequently repeatedly called upon to make particular use 

 of his linguistic powers both as a teacher of these languages and as a 

 scientific investigator. 



On his return from Europe, in 1865, Mr. Nichols joined the Sopho- 

 more Class in Harvard College, but in the course of a few months he 

 deliberately withdrew from the University and joined the school of 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then in the second term of 

 its existence. This movement — than which no event in the man's 

 career more clearly marks his native strength and independence of 

 character — was the turning point m his life. He had entered Har- 

 vard College with the purpose of devoting himself to the study of 

 languages and to literature, having already enjoyed, as it must have 

 seemed to him, somewhat exceptional advantages m preparation for 

 such a course. But on finding that the knowledge already acquired 

 would count for little or nothing for his immediate advancement, and 

 that the rigid non-elective system of study then in vogue at Cambridge 

 would compel him to spend much time upon subjects which seemed to 

 have no direct connection with his intentions and purposes, he reso- 

 lutely changed his plan and turned to a school of freer methods. He 

 immediately became interested iu the scientific instruction given at the 

 Institute, and devoted himself zealously to study. From that time 

 forth the story of his life is simply one of earnest devotion to the 



