802 JAMES MASON CRAFTS. 



but he told of them very modestly. In the following autumn (1867) 

 he became professor of chemistry and dean of the chemical faculty 

 at Cornell University, a position which he retained for three years. 

 From Ithaca he was called to the professorship at the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology as successor to Professor F. H. Storer. He 

 devoted himself to the work, and his health suffered. The call of 

 France was insistent, and changing in 1874 his title to that of non- 

 resident professor at the Massachusetts Institute, he turned again to 

 Paris, where, in collaboration with Professor Charles Friedel, he dis- 

 covered the important organic reaction which will always bear his 

 name. After 1880, when he resigned even the non-resident professor- 

 ship at the Massachusetts Institute, he spent most of the succeeding 

 decade in France, and it was not until 1891 that he returned to America 

 as a permanent abiding place. Then he once more became connected 

 with the Institute in Boston, conducting research there, and for five 

 years (1892-97) filling the chairmanship of the chemical department 

 and the professorship of organic chemistry. His work as a teacher 

 was inspiring and effective. From October, 1897 to 1900 he was first 

 acting president and then president of this great technical school. 

 After his resignation of the presidency, which offered a sort of work 

 never entirely to his taste, he returned to the labors which really 

 claimed his interest, namely, research in the direction of organic and 

 physical chemistry, still doing part of his work in the old Walker 

 building of the Institute near Copley Scjuare. He worked for the love 

 of science, not for fame or money, and his ample means never led him 

 away from high aims and solid attainments. 



His noteworthy contributions to the sum of human knowledge 

 gained for him recognition on all sides. In ISSo he received the 

 Jecker prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and was made Chevalier 

 of the Legion of Honor of France. In 1898 he was awarded the hono- 

 rary degree of LL.D. by Harvard University, and in 1911 the Rumford 

 Medal by this Academy "for his researches in high temperature 

 thermometry and the exact determination of fixed points on the 

 thermometric scale." He was first elected a fellow of the Academy in 

 1867 and was reelected to resident membership in 1891 after an interval 

 of non-membership due to his prolonged absence in France. As long 

 ago as 1872 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences, 

 and was later corresponding member of the British Association for the 

 Athancement of Science, foreign member of the Royal Institution of 

 Great Britain (1904) as well as fellow of many other learned academies 

 and chemical societies. He was a member also of the Saturday Club 

 of Boston, famous in the annals of American literature. 



