EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXIIT. October, 1910. No. 5. 



Three years ago a brief account was given in these pages" of the 

 life and work of Dr. Charles Anthony Goessmann, for nearly forty 

 years professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege, the first director and chemist of the Massachusetts Station, and 

 one of the foremost pioneers in agricultural investigation in tliis 

 country. This review was prepared on the occasion of his retirement 

 from active service at the age of eighty years. It is now a sad duty 

 to record his death, which occurred September 1, at his liome in Am- 

 herst, Mass., in his eighty-fourth year. Thus closed a life of remark- 

 able activity, full of honor to himself and of service to the cause of 

 agricultural experimentation. 



Although a German by birth and retaining a strong affection for 

 his mother country, Doctor Goessmann was an American in spirit 

 and had given to this country the best years of his life, dating back 

 to 1857. The product of his activity is not measured in monetary 

 terms, for the value of a movement which looks to the development 

 of an industry on a more intelligent and secure basis is beyond such 

 measure. It is found rather in a changed public attitude which ap- 

 propriates thousands for experimentation where hundreds were hesi- 

 tatingly given before, in an unconscious change of practice the real 

 origin of which is rarel}' known, and in the lives and activities of a 

 band of students who received from him their first encouragement 

 and inspiration, their standards and conception of values, and an 

 outlook which has in large measure furnished the basis of their suc- 

 cess. He taught the will to know, and by his teaching and the ex- 

 ample of his work he opened up a field which was virgin and full of 

 unseen possibilities. His ow^n high ideals of thoroughness and 

 accuracy and the spirit of investigation were impressed upon those 

 who came under his teaching. 



Doctor Goessmann Avas a man of rare personal charm and lovable 

 character. In class room or laboratory, in the meetings of the college 

 faculty or on the lecture platform, he was always the same gentle, 

 patient, and considerate personality, charitable and tolerant to all 

 men and broad and sympathetic in his views. His kindly personal 



« E. S. R.. 18, pp. 1101-1104. 



401 



