To the Academy of Science. 



Your Committee, charged with the duty of expressing the sentiments 

 of tiie Academy concerning the character of Capt. James B. Eads, beg leave 

 to submit the following report. 



We have received with profound sorrow the intelligence of the death of 

 Capt. James B. Eads, who departed this life at Nassau, New Providence 

 Island, on the 8th day of March, 1887, in the 67th year of his age. 



He was one of the original founders of the Academy in the year 1836, 

 and was its first Treasurer, and for several years prior to the civil war 

 was a member of its Finance Committee, and ultimately became a life- 

 member. 



During the years 1872 and 1873 he was President, and, when in the city, 

 was a regular attendant upon its meetings, and took an active interest in 

 promoting its welfare. 



His inaugural address in January, 1872, covering some 19 pages of the 

 Journal of our Proceeding*, was a scholarly, clear, and lucid statement 

 of recent discoveries in the nature of laws of light, heat, and sound, and 

 the use and revelations of the spectroscope in scientific inquiries. 



That address, and others delivered at the close of each year of his Pre- 

 sidency, show that his studies were not confined alone to those special 

 problems that engaged so much of his attention, and the working out of 

 which has rendered his name illustrious, but that his active mind was 

 busy in exploring other fields of scientific pursuits, and were also full of 

 encouragement and stimulus to his associates and rich in suggestions for 

 their progress and improvement. Those addresses are worthy of careful 

 perusal. 



While we are proud of Capt. Eads as a co-worker with us in the high 

 aims we cherish, we are prouder still of the great work and magnificent 

 results wrought out b}' him in his chosen departments of labor, that have 

 become blessings to his country and the world. 



Among the old Greeks, those men of great physical strength and cour- 

 age who attacked and conquered wild beasts of the woods and waters were 

 appropriately denominated heroes, and their fame has been celebrated by 

 historians and sung by poets, and they were magnified and worshipped 

 as demi-gods. This was a natural tribute, from people of primitive times, 

 to superiority in strength, prowess, and force of will, that dared to battle 

 with hydras and monsters. 



Among the Hebrews, patriarchs, prophets and legislators of their race 

 were eulogized as heroes of faith, and this feeling sprang from a reverence 

 for piety and high moral and religious qualities. 



It is no flattery but the simple truth to say that James B. Eads united 

 in his character and achievements the heroism of the ancient Greek and 

 the faith of the Hebrew; for he, like them, battled with the Titanic forces 

 of nature, and subdued and converted them into ministers of service and 

 blessing through the combined action of intellectual power and an abiding 

 faith in the stability, uniformity, and permanency of nature's laws. 



