744 HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH. 



helped to broaden its scope and importance. Between 1895 and 1902 

 he was happily engaged as trustee of the Boston Public Library. As 

 a member of the Committee of Fifty on the Alcohol Problem, he sub- 

 mitted a report on the character of public school instruction regarding 

 the effect of alcohol, and urged that that instruction should be made to 

 accord with scientific fact. 



For his important services he was widely honored. He was elected 

 a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1872. Dur- 

 ing the year 1877 he was its Recording Secretary, and from 1881 to 

 1883 a member of its Council. For twenty-two years he served on the 

 Library Committee. He was also a member of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society of Philadelphia, the National Academy of Sciences, 

 and many other scientific bodies in this country. The Royal Society of 

 Medicine and Natural Science of Brussels, the Academy of Science of 

 Rome, and other foreign societies enrolled him among their members. 

 The IFniversity of Cambridge made him Doctor of Science in 1898 ; 

 and Edinburgh (1898), Toronto (1903), Pennsylvania (1904), and Har- 

 vard (1906) gave him the degree of Doctor of Laws. 



Everyone who came in close contact with Dr. Bowditch was impressed 

 by his rare combination of sure and sober judgment with vigorous will 

 and readiness of action, — qualities which made him a natural leader. 

 Furthermore his mind was fertile with ingenious and effective ways to 

 secure the accomplishment of worthy ends. He was eminently single- 

 minded ; the matter in hand was always the important matter to be 

 attended to. Persons who knew him well recall that he seldom spoke 

 of the past, almost never of his experiences in the War, and rarely of 

 his earlier researches. The forward look to the fulfilment of plans 

 already started was characteristic of him to the last. These qualities 

 of energetic leadership were tempered by unfailing courtesy, fairness, 

 and good-will, and warmed by a delightful sense of humor. These 

 lovable characteristics brought to him the friendship and lifelong devo- 

 tion of the foremost men of medical science, as well as of his students 

 and his associates in various activities. Friendship was to him a 

 blessing to be cultivated. He rejoiced in having his friends with him 

 at his beautiful home in .Jamaica Plain, and in his summer camp in the 

 Adirondacks, or in going to be with them. Comrades of his Leipzig 

 days visited him thus, as well as Sir Michael Foster, Professor Mosso, 

 and Professor Waller. And he frequently renewed associations with 

 them in Europe. 



Although during the years from 1906 to his death Dr. Bowditch's 

 vigor and activity were more and more limited by the advances of a 

 paralysing disease, his mind remained clear and he continued much in- 



