CHARLES ROnp:RT SANGER. 815 



Colloj;;e — his great grandi'iithcr Zedekiiih Sanger, minister at l)ux- 

 I)ury and South Bridgewater, Ralph Sanger his grandfather, the hist 

 town minister of Dover, so eminent that he was remend)ered last 

 vear l)v a eek^hratiiMi of the one huiuh'edth anniversary of his onhna- 

 tion, and in tlio generation immecHately preeeding him from his father 

 George Partridge Sanger who was judge of the court of common pk'as 

 and hiter United States District Attorney for Massachusetts, and from 

 an aunt, who kept a successful girls' school in lioston, so that on this 

 side he inherited with these scholarly instincts a love of truth and the 

 judicial faculty for weighing evidence. On the other hand he undoubt- 

 edly owed his accurac\', his executive ability, his power of discipline, 

 and the neat orderliness so characteristic of him to the family of 

 Portsmouth sea captains from which he was descended through his 

 mother, Elizabeth Sherburne (Thompson) Sanger; while from both 

 sides he drew that faithfulness, which was his most prominent char- 

 acteristic. 



It was to be expected from this family history that he should choose 

 the life of a student, but it is strange that he turned to chemistry rather 

 than to some branch of literary work. Perhaps the practical ability 

 inherited from his mother's ancestors gave this direction to his energies. 

 Howe\er this may be, the call of science to him was irresistil)le, and 

 even when he entered Harvard College, his taste for chemistry was 

 strongly developed. I remember well the marked impression he pro- 

 duced on me in his first chemical recitation, and throughout his course 

 he was an eminent student in that subject, which occupied a large 

 part of his time. 



On graduating in ISSl he began the higher study of chemistry, and 

 for the first time came into intimate relations with Professor H. B. 

 Hill, who was to have such a determining influence on his life; for, 

 although he passed the second year after his graduation (1882-1883) 

 in Europe studying at Munich, and at Bonn, where Professor An- 

 schiitz, struck by his al)ility, devoted special attention to him, and 

 thus became an important factor in his higher education, Hill was his 

 chemical father. During four of the five years, when he was growing 

 into a chemist, he shared Professor Hill's private laboratory, working 

 the entire day in his company, and part of the time in the even closer 

 intercourse of a common research. Upon Hill therefore he modelled 

 his methods of research, and views of chemistry, and this was the 

 easier, since the two men naturally resembled each other as closely 

 as father and son in aims, mental habits, and ideals. This warm and 

 beautiful friendship was broken only by the death of the older man. 



