SKETCH OF SPENCER F. BAIRD. 555 



ceedings of the society, and liis reluctance to making any formal 

 address. This modesty — indeed, timidity — in an eminent writer 

 and thinker whose lightest words were sure of eager attention in a 

 society composed mainly of his personal friends and wholly of his 

 admirers, was the more remarkable because his address, presented 

 a few minutes later, was most pleasing in its delivery as well as 

 instructive in its substance. 



About a year before his death, Prof. Baird was informed by his 

 medical adviser that complete rest from mental exertion was 

 necessary to the restoration of his nervous energies. He accord- 

 ingly obtained the appointment of two assistants to relieve him of 

 the burden of his cares, and sought the recuperation which he 

 needed. In the summer of 1887 he returned to his work by the 

 sea-side, to Wood's Holl, where he had created the greatest biologi- 

 cal laboratory in the world ; and in that laboratory, says Major 

 Powell, " with the best results of his life-work all about him, he 

 calmly and philosophically waited for the time of times. Thurs- 

 day, before he died, he asked to be placed in a chair provided with 

 wheels. On this he was moved around the pier, past the vessels 

 which he had built for the research, and through the laboratory, 

 where many men were at work at their biologic investigations. 

 For every one he had a word of good cheer, though he knew it was 

 his last. At the same time, along the pier and through the labora- 

 tory, a little child was wheeled. ' We are rivals,' he said, ' but I 

 think that I am the bigger baby.' " Then he was carried to his 

 chamber, where he soon became insensible. 



Of the honors given to Prof. Baird, besides the usual supple- 

 mentary college degrees conferred by Dickinson College and 

 Columbian University, he was awarded the silver medal of the 

 Acclimatization Society of Melbourne, the gold medal of the 

 Socidt^ d'Acclimatation of France, the first honor-prize (the gift 

 of the Emperor of Germany) of the Internationale Fischerei Aus- 

 stellung at Berlin, and the decoration of the Royal Norwegian 

 Order of St. Olaf. He was a member of the council of the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences, was permanent secretary of the Ameri- 

 can Association in 1850 and 1851, was trustee of the Corcoran Art 

 Gallery, president of the Cosmos Club, a trustee of Columbian 

 University, and a member of the Historical Society of New York. 

 Among foreign societies in which he held honorary or other mem- 

 berships, were the Linnsean and Zoological Societies of London, 

 the Linnsean Society of New South Wales, the New Zealand In- 

 stitute, the Geographical Society of Quebec, and Royal or other 

 scientific societies in Vienna, Lisbon, Batavia, Buda-Pesth, Cher- 

 bourg, Jena, Halle, Nuremberg, and Berlin. More than twenty- 

 five species and one genus in zoology, and a post-ofl&ce in Shasta 

 County, Cal., bear his name. 



