BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xli 
ing marine laboratories of the world, we owe it in large part to him. The 
interest of almost every member of this board of trustees and of the 
corporation was enlisted through his efforts, and the splendid influence 
which the Marine Biological Laboratory has had upon the development 
of biology in this country is traceable ultimately to him. 
His connection with the laboratory began at a time when it had neither 
permanent home, recognized standing, nor scientific ideals. Some of the 
leading biologists of this country felt that it could not compete as a 
research station with the U. 8. Fish Commission Station, backed as 
the latter was by the resources of the government, and that its chief 
field of usefulness must be as a summer school. Whitman thought 
otherwise, and by his real greatness as a scientist, his untiring energy 
and enthusiasm, his splendid ideals and his unfailing faith and courage 
he made it from the start the principal center in America for biological 
research. 
From start to finish his ideals for the laboratory were these: (1) A 
national center for research in every department of biology; (2) a lab- 
oratory founded upon the cooperation of individuals and institutions; 
(3) an organization independent in its government and free to follow its 
natural course of growth and development. For these ideals he has 
labored consistently and persistently year after year, sometimes with a 
disregard of present advantage, to be gained by the sacrifice of one or the 
. other of these ideals, which cost him friendships which he highly prized. 
At one particular crisis he wrote: ‘If I have made any enemies through 
unkindness or injustice, I am sincerely sorry for it; but if I have made any 
because I have stated my conviction on the question before us I can 
afford to part with all friends who are made enemies for such a cause.’ 
His faith in the ultimate achievement of these ideals was so great that 
he chose rather to sacrifice present good than, as he believed, the future 
welfare of the laboratory; and his plans for the laboratory were so great, 
while current resources were so small, that he was frequently charged 
with being impractical. But it is only fair and just to recognize how 
much was accomplished by adherence to these ideals and to what an 
extent the spirit and success of the laboratory are due to them. 
Woods Hole is indeed a national center for research in several branches, 
if not in every department, of biology. Whitman had the wisdom to 
see that biology could progress only as a whole. ‘The great charm of a 
biological station,’ he wrote, ‘must be the fullness with which it repre- 
sents the biological system. Its power and efficiency diminish in geo- 
metrical ratio with every source of light excluded.’ To zoology, which 
was the only subject represented at first, he added botany and physiology 
and he strove to make Woods Hole a center in each of these departments. 
He was one of the first to insist upon adequate provision for experimen- 
tal work. He was, we believe, the first in this country to plan and plead 
for a biological farm for the study of problems of heredity and evolu- 
tion. He desired to make Woods Hole a center for the comparative 
study of anatomy, pathology and psychology. Some of these lines of 
work have since been taken up and largely developed elsewhere, but if 
