THE PB OGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



219 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



Dr. Wolcott Gibbs presented his 

 resignation from the presidency of the 

 National Academy of Sciences at the re- 

 cent Washington meeting, and the occa- 

 sion permits the publication of his por- 

 trait and a few words in reference to his 

 great contributions to science. Born in 

 New York City in 1822, Dr. Gibbs grad- 

 uated from Columbia College fifty-nine 

 years ago. He studied abroad under 

 Liebig, the founder of the first chemical 

 laboratory, occupied a chair in the Col- 

 lege of the City of New York, and was 

 for twenty-four years Rumford pro- 

 fessor at Harvard University. He be- 

 came professor emeritus in 1887, and 

 established a private laboratory at 

 Newport, where he has continued his re- 

 searches. Dr. Gibbs is one of the great 

 chemists of the world. He is the only 

 American honorary member of the Ger- 

 man Chemical Society. Among other 

 important ideas, his suggestion that the 

 electrolytic deposition of copper be used 

 as a means of quantitative analysis is 

 one which has grown to a remarkable 

 extent. There are now a number of vol- 

 umes devoted solely to the amplifica- 

 tion of this idea, which has been ap- 

 plied to numerous substances. Many 

 other methods of quantitative analysis 

 have been improved and simplified un- 

 der his guidance, but perhaps his great- 

 est work is his extended experimental 

 study of complex salts, especially the 

 cobaltamine compounds, and a great 

 number of singularly complicated 

 bodies, containing some of the rarer 

 elements. Most of these substances are 

 of no practical value, but they are of 

 great theoretical interest, because they 

 are only partially explained by the 

 present theories of molecular structure. 

 While the resignation of Dr. Gibbs from 

 the presidency of the Academy is doubly 

 regretted because it is owing to the fact 



that his health no longer permits the 

 strain of the office, chemical science will 

 profit all the more from his exclusive 

 devotion to research. 



The meetings of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences held annually at Wash- 

 ington during the third week of April, 

 pass without the general attention that 

 they deserve. For the Academy meets 

 not only to listen to special scientific 

 papers, but also as the official scientific 

 adviser of the Government. As knowl- 

 edge increases in range and exactness, 

 it is evident that expert advice becomes 

 more and more necessary, both for the 

 enactment of legislation and for carry- 

 ing it into effect. It may, indeed, be 

 fairly claimed that the advisory or ex- 

 pert department of the Government 

 should rank coordinate with its legis- 

 lative, executive and judicial branches. 

 The National Academy has on occasion 

 been called to investigate scientific ques- 

 tions — thus it has recently presented a 

 report to the Department of the Interior 

 on a policy for the forested lands of the 

 United States — but it has been of less 

 service in this direction than was in- 

 tended by the act of incorporation or 

 than sound policy dictates. This limita- 

 tion to the usefulness of the Academy 

 seems to depend in part on the small 

 membership, and the fact that it con- 

 sists of the most eminent rather than 

 the most efficient men of science of the 

 country. The Academy has less than 

 one hundred members, only one fourth 

 as many as the Royal Society. Pro- 

 fessor Jastrow shows in the present 

 number of this journal that men of 

 science do not become eminent until 

 rather late in life, and the members of 

 the Academy are apt to be somewhat 

 lacking in initiative. University profes- 

 sors are now selected chiefly from 



