WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS 435 



spirit, but there was some opposition and lack of financial support 

 till Andrew J. Rickoff, Superintendent of Public Schools, urged 

 the use of the Central High School Buildings, during vacation, 

 as all the three projectors, Albert H. Tuttle, Theo. S. Comstock, 

 and William K. Brooks, were formerly pupils of that school. The 

 school started with but three pupils, school-teachers, all women, 

 from Indianapolis; but soon, after unexpected and most generous 

 pecuniary aid from Leonard Case, twenty-five enthusiastic teachers 

 attended the lectures, excursions and laboratory meetings. In 

 Brooks' "splendid work of that summer," as Comstock has re- 

 cently recalled it, we see the characteristic faith and confidence 

 that led him to success even when at first, from lack of buildings, 

 he thought they must hold field sessions only or use Doctor Kirt- 

 land's barn, relying upon "enthusiasm and contact with nature to 

 somehow work out results," or when there were but three pupils, 

 to say "three teachers well trained, means the sowing of seed 

 which shall yield a harvest none can measure." 



Going then to Newport he began his memorable research on 

 the transparent marine animal Salpa. Meantime he eked out his 

 resources by instructing some lads from New York in the mysteries 

 of marine life which he knew so well how to make vivid and full of 

 meaning. 



As this was the beginning of an interest which with characteris- 

 tic persistence he kept vividly burning till his death, his work on 

 Salpa may well receive more extended notice here. When in 1908 

 his eyesight made it difficult for him to longer use the high powers 

 of the microscope he rejoiced that he had what he thought his last 

 piece of observational work so far finished that a summer of writing 

 would make his completed drawings ready for the printer. This 

 last monograph on the embryology of Salpa remains unfinished, 

 as cruel sickness robbed him of that summer of writing. 



But his first investigations on Salpa came to pass because 

 Salpa was abundant in the clear waters of Newport and Alexander 

 Agassiz suggested he should study them. So clear and translucent 

 are these organisms that Brooks was able to make out the anatomy 

 of the live animals by patient microscopic study without dissection. 



