738 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 2 8 



chemistry and astronomy. Possibly only the accident of defective 

 eyesight deterred him from selecting the latter field for his life work, 

 but it is probable that acquaintance with Prof. Josiah P. Cooke, 

 of Harvard, who was a summer neighbor at Newport, exerted a 

 strong influence on his decision. At any rate, after graduating with 

 high honors at Haverford in 1885 he entered Harvard College as a 

 senior specializing in chemistry. In order to do this, it was neces- 

 sary for him to pass the examination in Greek for entrance to 

 Harvard. Again, with the help of his mother, he succeeded in 

 preparing for the examination in six weeks of study during the 

 summer. As a senior at Harvard his time was devoted to complet- 

 ing under Professors Cooke, Charges L. Jackson, and Henry B. Hill 

 the fundamental preparation necessary for advanced work in 

 chemistry. On commencement, 188G, the bachelor of arts degree was 

 awarded with highest honors in chemistry, summa cum laude. 



At Harvard the influence of Cooke upon Richards was immediately 

 apparent. Cook's interests were largely in the field nowadays 

 labeled physical chemistry, partly by inclination, partjy, perhaps, 

 through association with the French physicist Regnault, under whom 

 he had worked some years earlier as a student. One of Cooke's 

 earliest publications concerned the numerical relations between the 

 atomic weights of similar elements. But this investigation had made 

 clear to Cooke the necessity for more accurate determinations of the 

 atomic weights and he had undertaken the experimental revision of 

 some of these constants. Under Cooke, Richards as a graduate stu- 

 dent at Harvard carried through a redetermination of the relative 

 atomic weights of hydrogen and oxygen, which holds its place to-day 

 as one of the outstanding determinations of this important ratio. 

 No problem of the sort could have presented more difficulties than 

 did this one, and in this investigation appear all the qualities which 

 Jater were so vital for the work which Richards was to do. An 

 infinite capacity for taking pains, an uncompromising attitude to- 

 ward the possibilities of hidden errors, a determination to be certain 

 that no precaution had been overlooked, an extraordinary persistence 

 in the patient repetition of exacting and laborious experiments were 

 combined with unusual manual dexterity and ingenuity, the exercise 

 of which must have given great satisfaction to the possessor. One 

 can not but feel that although these qualities would unquestionably 

 have brought success wherever they were directed, chance favored 

 him in presenting at the outset a field in which his talents cou]d be 

 so profitably employed. 



After receiving the doctor's degree in 1888 at the age of 20, 

 Richards spent the following year as the holder of a traveling fellow- 

 ship in study at German universities under Jannasch, Victor Meyer, 

 Hempel, and others. His plan of devoting hajf of the year abroad 



