296 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



Prof. Gibbs, during his lifetime, was invited to honorary member- 

 ship of most of the leading learned societies and academies of both 

 hemispheres that pursue physics and mathematics. In particular, he 

 became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1897, and was 

 awarded its crowning distinction, the Copley Medal, in 1901. His 

 thermodynamic writings are accessible in German and in part in 

 French ; the curious fatality which has rendered them almost un- 

 procurable, in the language in which they were written, seems happily 

 to be about to cease, through the publication of a memorial edition of 

 his works. We may apply to them his own reflexion on one of his 

 peers : " Such work as that of Clausius is not measured by counting 

 titles or pages. His true monument lies not on the shelves of libraries, 

 but in the thoughts of men, and in the history of more than one 

 science." 



This notice may fittingly be brought to a close by another quotation, 

 expressing the sentiments of the University in which Prof. Gibbs passed 

 his life. " It was not given to laymen to appreciate his services, but 

 all who thought at all of what was being done at this University knew 

 that the roll of Yale teachers was illuminated by a great name ; that 

 one of the men who passed in and out so quietly among his colleagues 

 and his students, bearing in his face and forehead such unusual marks 

 of the scholar, was familiarly known in his works wherever in the 

 world the highest scholarship was pursued, and was frequently followed 

 with admiration in new paths of learning. The very presence of such 

 a man as Prof. Gibbs is an asset to a University whose value is beyond 

 measure as an influence upon its members of which they are often 

 unconscious, but by which they are powerfully affected to their 

 good." 



J. L. 



