126 Early Work in North America 



his high school course by " hindrances due to the possession of a 

 large farm," he completed his pre-university work in 1869 and 

 entered the University of Michigan that year. After graduating, 

 he served as a high school principal at Battle Creek and Flint, 

 Michigan, and probably during these years had little to do with 

 farming. Two years later, he was called to the University of 

 Michigan, there to find the beginnings of a modernized instruction 

 in science. In high school he had studied " two or three of the 

 sciences, taught as ' information subjects.' " Greek, Latin, and 

 mathematics were then regarded the best preparation for " a 

 really substantial college course." Alexander Winchell, learned 

 in botany, zoology, and geology, did not leave the University of 

 Michigan to become chancellor of Syracuse University until 1873, 

 the year of Spalding's graduation. Consequently, Spalding's work 

 in natural history was mainly under Winchell, but also he took 

 advanced work in the sciences at Cornell, Yale, Harvard, and the 

 University of Pennsylvania. Late in the 1880's he spent a summer 

 at the Physiological Institute at Jena, Germany, under Professor 

 W. Detmer and still later in 1894 was to obtain his doctorate 

 in philosophy under Wiihelm Pfeifer at Leipzig. 



University Hall, the well equipped "noble structure [which 

 stood} on the north side of the Campus," Spalding prophesied, 

 would " doubtless long stand as an encouraging reminder that 

 achievement is very largely a matter of keeping everlastingly at 

 it." Probably no one of the several university buildings, library, 

 museum, or other, housed in 1885-1886 any student and teacher in 

 whom mutual respect and esteem were stronger than between 

 Spalding and Smith. Spalding evaluated Smith's work at the 

 university thus: 



I have never been associated with one who had more of the spirit of 

 investigation and whose results I would accept with more confidence. He 

 is widely and favorably known to the botanists of the country and in ail 

 cases I think has inspired the utmost confidence as the result of his patient, 

 thorough and conscientious treatment of every subject that falls into his 

 hands. . . . [H}e has devoted all the time that he could command to 

 [botany] for ten or fifteen years. He has, however, a practical knowledge 

 of entomology and has done some close and creditable work in histology. 

 In the other sciences he has done about what is accomphshed by our most 

 thorough students in physics, chemistry, zoology etc. He could not be 

 called a specialist in those branches, but has done his work in them well. 



