Ixxil CHARLES OTIS WHITMAN 
he would always offer cigars and cigarettes, and would frequently 
light a cigarette himself,—which burned however mostly in his 
fingers,—to heighten the spirit of hospitality. He rather fre- 
quently invited his students or members of his department and 
other friends to dinner, and then his usually simple meal was 
changed to a more elaborate repast. 
Dr. A. P. Mathews, one of his close friends, writes thus of 
him, ° 
It is not, however, of his work as a scientist upon which I wish to 
dwell, but rather to recall his personality that the memory of it may 
remain always with us. His white hair; his kindling, eager, but thought- 
ful eyes; his tender, gentle smile; his reticence of speech; his considera- 
tion for others; his generosity and courage; his hospitality and gracious- 
ness as a host; these endeared him to us all. We shall never forget his 
simple, unassuming, modest manner; his encouraging sympathy; his 
ripe and sane judgment. If when he was alone he lived simply, the 
absorbed student of science, when with his guests in his home he was 
the embodied spirit of hospitality. 
His great influence as a teacher is due in part to his fine example and 
noble ideals, and in part to his habit of picking out young men, who 
showed any love for science, inviting them to his home, drawing them 
out, encouraging them and giving them his friendship. Many of them 
he helped financially, and all of those fortunate to work near him owe 
him a debt of gratitude for his sympathy and inspiration. Probably 
no teacher in zoology since Louis Agassiz has exerted so great an influ- 
ence on young men. 
He was not a faultless man, but his faults were the outcome of 
his ardent, ideal, uncompromising disposition. He once said to 
the writer, about the year 1906, that he felt he had been too un- 
compromising in his beliefs. But it is questionable whether his 
life would have been so valuable, had his disposition been more 
pliable. The mood in which he made this remark was a rare one, 
and it is to be doubted that even had it been more common he 
could have overcome his native tendency. ‘This quality of course 
made him enemies who sometimes did not hesitate to express 
unfavorable opinions in a more or less open manner. But those, 
who knew Whitman best, know well that he never sought any 
small personal advantage, and that any appearance of neglect of 
small matters was due entirely to his absorption in higher con- 
® Science, N.S., vol. 33, no. 837, pp. 56-58, January 13, 1911. 
