BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xix 
In 1878 he published his first scientific paper ‘‘ The Embryology 
of Clepsine’”’ in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 
vol. 18, pp. 215-315. This was his doctor’s thesis; in many 
respects it was a very notable, indeed epoch-making work. It 
was the first time that the primordia of any ectodermal organs 
had been followed to individual cells, and that the cleavage process 
itself had been adequately interpreted as a process of ‘histoge- 
netic sundering.’ He laid emphasis on the existence of embryonic 
axes in the unsegmented egg, and anticipated to a considerable 
extent views that did not receive adequate recognition until 
the period of study of ‘cell-lineage’ began about fifteen years later. 
On his return to America he was appointed Junior Master, first 
grade, of the English High School in Boston, teaching English, 
and resigned in 1879. It is evident that now for the first time, 
at the age of nearly thirty-seven, he had irrevocably decided to 
devote himself entirely to zoology, for by his resignation he burned 
his bridges behind him. He received an appointment as fellow 
in biology in Johns Hopkins University for 1879-80, but he did 
not enter on the fellowship, haviny in the meantime accepted the 
chair of zoology in the University of Tokyo. He sailed for Yoko- 
hama, August 21, 1879. On the voyage he made observations 
on the flight of flying fish which he described in the American 
Naturalist, vol. 14, 1880, maintaining that their course through 
the air is actual flight. 
WHITMAN IN TOKYO 
With his appointment to the University of Tokyo in 1879, 
begins Whitman’s real influence as a teacher and organizer in 
zoology. He was then nearly thirty-seven years of age and had 
passed through a most varied preparation for his life-work. He 
had pushed on without haste but without rest, always carrying 
with him his original and vital interest in living things since he 
first studied pigeons as a boy, in spite of the necessity of earning 
a livelihood by teaching school. He thus came to his chosen 
life work in full maturity with a mind broadened by varied expe- 
riences, yet with actual boyish enthusiasm and interest, that 
never left him throughout life. 
