XXV111 CHARLES OTIS WHITMAN 
Whitman’s teaching career, interrupted since he left Tokyo 
eight years before, was now resumed, and continued to the time 
of his death. A small body of research students was attracted 
to him, who carried on their work in Worcester during the aca- 
demic year and at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods 
Hole during the summer. Whitman’s laboratory was a paradise 
to the properly qualified research worker. There was practically 
no set instruction and the student’s liberty was complete in all 
respects, but a spirit of hard work and complete absorption in 
the fundamental problems of biology prevailed. The problems 
of biology were the true topics of the day and, when the zoologi- 
cal club met, such subjects as Darwinism and Lamarckism were 
discussed with a fire and enthusiasm comparable to the most 
intense political or religious controversies. The main business 
of each student was his research problem, a secondary business 
was the preparation of some subject set for presentation at the 
zoological club, and the animated discussion of fundamental 
problems of biology prevented too much narrowness. Students 
read much and thought much because they had both time and 
inclination, and were not subject to trivial academic demands. 
Whitman had a great respect for the intellectual independence 
of his students. He set them worthy problems but left the work- 
ing out to the student; he was at the same time their severest and 
most friendly critic. He maintained their courage through 
difficulties, rejoiced with them in their discoveries, and always 
acknowledged their complete ownership in their results. He 
required convincing proof of each statement, and one could feel 
sure that whatever passed him would stand. He was completely 
loyal to them in all relations, and it is characteristic that the main 
event which finally induced him to resign and move to Chicago 
was an act of the administration which he regarded as an injustice 
to one of his students. He was not alone in his displeasure with 
the administration, though the causes were various and the de- 
partments of physics and chemistry, zoology, anatomy, neurology, 
and palaeontology of the new University of Chicago were organ-— 
ized by seceders from Clark University in 1892. 
