54 IN I^IEMORIAM : JACOB B. BROWN. 



Mr. Alger's boat shop. The latter named a boat after him, 

 calling it the "Jacob B. Brown," but he did not like the pro- 

 minence thus given to his name, and that of " Mr. Brown " 

 was substituted. He also passed much of his time in and 

 near New York, as companion and adviser to an intimate 

 friend, in failing health, whom he later accompanied on a 

 long stay in South Carolina. 



Mr. Brown never married. He is survived by one widowed 

 sister living in England, and by several nephews and nieces 

 in England, Russia and Italy. 



Mr. Brown was a man of very high attainments, a natural 

 linguist, uniting with a fine literary taste very keen powers of 

 mathematical analysis — a rare combination of mental fac- 

 ulties. He translated many poems and prose works from the 

 German, and from the Italian of de Amicis " Sull'Oceano," 

 under the title " On Blue Water," as before noted. He made 

 also a rhythmical translation of " The ^Eneid " and of many 

 odes of Horace, and the Institute is indebted to him for many 

 essays connected with astronomical and mathematical subjects. 



Those who knew him well look back upon an attractive and 

 original character, upon a man of very winning manner, who 

 yet carefully avoided putting himself forward. Very tenacious 

 in his friendship, and finding something worthy of study in all 

 with whom he came in contact, his sympathy and interest 

 were always at the service of his friends, and he well exem- 

 plified the saying of Robert Louis Stevenson that it is the 

 mark of a modest man to take his friends as chance gives them 

 to him. Gifted with a very acute perception and an intuition 

 rarely found in the male sex, he had the power of often divin- 

 ing an anxiety or trouble on the part of a friend or associate, 

 and of adapting his conversation to its lightening and aid. 

 This faculty was at times so acute as to suggest mind reading. 



The Institute acknowledges its indebtedness to Mr. Thomas 

 Brown Whitney, a cousin of the deceased, for the above infor- 

 mation. Through his kindness it is enabled to record this 

 humble tribute to the memory of Jacob B. Brown. 



