WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS 447 



Ohio Railroad, giving a lecture "Upon some methods of locomo- 

 tion in animals" in which after clearly describing the locomotion 

 of several non-vertebrates he led to a brief exposition of the princi- 

 ples of natural selections and ended with the application that each 

 to succeed should "make yourselves a little different from your 

 neighbors" and that the one lesson which natural science teaches 

 is "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." 



His wish to aid the community also found expression in the 

 establishment of a public aquarium in Druid Hill Park, but 

 the time was hardly ripe and so the aquarium became a black- 

 smith shop. 



But to the practical man Brooks gave the greatest boon in his 

 work upon the oyster industry of Maryland. Finding in 1878 

 new and remarkable scientific facts regarding the American 

 oyster he entered upon a thorough study of the problems of the 

 oyster industries that meant so much to the state of his adoption. 

 Realizing that the oyster was peculiarly adapted to reclaim for 

 mankind the waste material swept into the Chesapeake by the 

 rivers that drain so vast an area and carry off the wealth of the 

 soil, and that the methods of fishing were primitive and waste- 

 ful, while legislation favored a few he pointed out in his Report 

 as Oyster Commissioner what principles should be followed out, 

 what legislation enacted, in order to greatly enrich the whole 

 community. Though his recommendations were then rejected 

 as being too ideal for the times, yet by lectures and discussions 

 and by his popular book The Oyster published in 1891, and revised 

 in 1905, he so kept the matter in the public eye that in 1906, 

 legislation in the right direction was finally obtained and the future 

 wealth of the state will be derived in part from his scientific 

 beliefs and keen foresight. So deeply did the success of the oyster 

 industry impress itself upon Professor Brooks that from 1882 he 

 lived always in the eager hope of practical realization from his 

 application of sound judgment upon extensive scientific observa- 

 tions. In fact when urged strongly to head the zoological depart- 

 ment of a new university in the north, his desire to see the oyster 

 industry restored to prosperity by the application of science to the 



