340 



BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



often said that nothing could have been more enjoyable and more 

 successful in developing his powers than the wisely ordered work so 

 sympathetically directed, which he carried on at the Johns Hopkins 

 in the two years of his life there. 



Among the results of his university work are two published papers, 

 one a report on Pteropods and Heteropods, and one on the "Anatomy 

 and Histology of Cymbuliopsis calceola." 



In 1889 he was appointed Biologist to the Boston Water Works 

 and had begun a careful system of investigation of the water supplied 

 to the city of Boston, when failing health made it necessary for him 

 to give up his work for a long rest. With health recovered after two 

 years of farm life, he accepted a call to become Assistant in Biology 

 at Williams College. He received the degree of Ph.D. there in 1893, 

 and in the following year he was made Assistant Professor. 



For several years Professor Peck was connected with the United 

 States Fish Commission, at first as Assistant and later in charge of 

 the laboratory of the Commission at Wood's Holl. He developed a 

 line of work there concerning the food of the Menhaden, and the 

 distribution of the food of certain marine fishes, which led him to 

 results quite unexpected and of far-reaching importance. Further 

 opportunity for work of this nature was offered him by observations 

 and collections made by Mr. N. R. Harrington in Puget's Sound. 

 The results of this work were studied and a report upon them by 

 J. I. Peck and N. R. Harrington was published in the Transactions 

 of the New York Academy of Science in 1898. 



It was Professor Peck's hope that he might sometime have a 

 chance to extend his observations on the Atlantic coast outward to 

 and across the Gulf Stream and also into greater depth. 



In 1896 the position of Assistant Director of the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory at Wood's Holl was offered him and he accepted it. Dur- 

 ing the three sessions of 1896, 1897, and 1898, Professor Peck devoted 

 himself to the interests and the development of the laboratory, 

 taking the supervision of the class in Animal Morphology. The 

 course of study had to be revised and a new staff of teachers brought 

 in and trained to the work. Professor Peck met all the difficulties of 

 the new situation with remarkable energy, perseverance, and tact. 

 Teachers and students alike caught the spirit of his enthusiasm and 

 zeal, and every day's work was carefully planned in a teachers' con- 

 ference the evening before. The example of such whole-souled devo- 

 tion to the work will not be soon forgotten. 



I have already referred to the scientific character of his mind, and 



