418 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



Niagara, Pullman palace car far ahead of anything in England. 

 Professor Clifton referred in glowing terms to the wonderful instru- 

 ment that had been put into the hands of physicists, and spoke of 

 the beautiful geometrical demonstrations of Rowland Professor 

 Dewar said that Johns Hopkins University had done great things 

 for science, and that greater achievements would be expected of it. 

 Captain Abney wrote a letter which Rowland ought to show you, 

 for, after having been read at the meeting, it was given to him." 



What about Rowland as a teacher? It has already been said 

 that he was not well fitted for the routine work of a routine pro- 

 fessor. He would not have made a good college professor. This 

 is not intended as a reflection upon the good college professor 

 who in my opinion is a very good and useful man. Nor is it in- 

 tended as a reflection upon Rowland. He was cut out for other 

 work. In one sense he was one of the best and most successful 

 teachers ever connected with the Johns Hopkins University. No 

 teacher of physics in this country has ever trained as many men 

 who have risen to places of importance and influence. He cared 

 little for those who had not the desire to learn. That was the first 

 condition to be satisfied. He cared little for the dullard or the 

 clumsy. He could tell whether the student he was dealing with 

 had anything in him. If he had not, he would not "waste his time 

 over him" as he expressed it. But let him show promise and 

 there could be no better guide and friend than Rowland. All his 

 students respected him. Of course they did. His assistants also. 

 They could not help it. Sometimes he was a little harsh in his 

 treatment of his assistants, but they knew that at heart their chief 

 was true and they always stood loyally by him in spite of occasional 

 provocations. He owed much to his assistants and he was always 

 ready to acknowledge his debt. They relieved him of many duties 

 that were distasteful to him and, although he was the director of 

 the laboratory, much of the work of directing fell to their hands. 

 And they did not murmur, for they knew that in this way they 

 were contributing to the success of his work. 



He lectured regularly on such subjects as he thought ought to 

 be presented to the students, and often in these lectures made 

 valuable suggestions for researches. One of them being taken up 



