450 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



where now nearly all aquatic life has disappeared. He produced 18 

 publications during this period, the most notable being his illustrated 

 catalogue of the " North American Acalephse," containing descrip- 

 tions of many new and interesting forms of medusae from the Pacific 

 and Atlantic coasts, and illustrated by 360 figures drawn from life 

 by his own hand. It is but a just tribute to his thoroughness as a 

 collector and observer to say that some of these medusse have never 

 again been seen since he discovered them off the Ncav England coast 

 50 years ago. 



Another interesting paper of this period is his " Embryology of 

 the Starfish," of 66 pages, illustrated by 8 plates containing 113 

 figures beautifully drawn from life by the author; and yet anotlier 

 paper is uj)on the young stages of annelid worms in which he shows 

 that in past ages adult worms were often provided with veiy large 

 bristles, and that the young of existing marine worms still have such 

 structures. 



At this time also 1^-e wrote much upon echiiioderms, and made sub- 

 stantial progress upon that great work of his early manhood, the " Re- 

 vision of the Echini," which finally appeared in four parts between 

 1872-1874 and consists of 762 quarto pages of text and 94 plates ; com- 

 posed of drawings and photographs made by the author. This work 

 caused his father keen delight, for he foresaw that it portended a dis- 

 tinguished career in scicuce to his gifted son. It won the Walker 

 prize of $1,000 from the Boston Society of Natural History, and 

 brought to its young author an international reputation. 



In 1866 he was elected to membership in the National Academy of 

 Sciences, which at that time recruited itself from the active young 

 workers of the country. He was president of the academy from 1901 

 to 1907, and its foreign secretary from 1891 to 1901 and from 1908 

 until his death in 1910. He bequeathed $50,000 to the academy. He 

 was also deeply interested in the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences and served as its president, gave large sums to it and left 

 it $50,000 after his death. These two academies were the only scien- 

 tific associations of America in which he took any active interest. 



Between 1860 and 1866 he laid the foundation for all that he was 

 to achieve in science, with the exception of his elaborate explorations 

 of coral reefs, and, with this exception, all of the subjects which were 

 to engross his attention in future years were then engaging his active 

 interest. He never departed from the thought and method of these 

 early days, and he always spoke of them with loving remembrance as 

 " the good old days " — their influence upon his scientific career was 

 paramount. For example, he never adopted the methods of the his- 

 tologist, which were not used by his father, and he confined himself 

 to the study of living animals whenever this was possible. Thus it is 

 that he ranks among the foremost of those systematists and em- 



