8 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



were long the most intimate of friends, were long closely associ- 

 ated in altruistic enterprises, and their careers were all terminated 

 by death within an interval of twelve months to a day. The 

 association of Billings and Mitchell arose during the stormy 

 period of the Civil War and continued uninterruptedly for more 

 than half a century; Mitchell and Cadwalader were brothers- 

 in-law, Mitchell having married Cadwalader's sister, Mary, in 

 1875; Billings and Cadwalader collaborated actively for nearly 

 a quarter of a century in the development of the public library 

 system of New York City ; while all three of these men were equally 

 closely associated in the development of the Carnegie Institution 

 of Washington. To have witnessed the united devotion of these 

 men to the interests of the Institution and to other similar 

 interests and to have been cognizant of their mutual personal 

 attachments are rare experiences. 



Dr. Mitchell was one of the best known and highly esteemed 

 of Americans at home and abroad. He was at once a man of 

 science and a man of letters. He is distinguished alike for his 

 contributions to physiology and pathology and for his contribu- 

 tions to prose and poetry. His breadth of interest and his versa- 

 tility as a writer have been rarely equalled. He was a member of 

 the Executive Committee of the Institution from the time of its 

 foundation to the time of his death, and although seventy-three 

 years of age when he assumed the duties of this position he was 

 continuously active, energetic, and helpful in the work of that 

 body. His peculiar suggestiveness in research and the wide 

 range of his personal studies are well illustrated by the fact that 

 for an hour before the last meeting of the Executive Committee 

 he attended (December 11, 1913) he discussed with me questions 

 as widely different as the physics of the diffusion of odors, the 

 literary value of the Institution's edition of the Arthurian 

 Romances, and the possibility of discovering the characteristics 

 of his own mental processes. 



In the deliberations of the Trustees and of the Executive 

 Committee Dr. Mitchell was a man of few words. He was some- 

 what handicapped by partial deafness, and he was rarely much 



