SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 529 



Reluctantly he accepted the decision of the doctors, Last days at 

 but it was too late. The end of his life, at Wood's Hole 

 Hole, is thus described by Major Powell : 



For many long months he contemplated the day of parting. Labor that 

 knew no rest, responsibility that was never lifted from his shoulders, too soon 

 brought his life to an end. In the summer of 1887 he returned to his work 

 by the seaside, that he might die in its midst. There at Wood's Hole he had 

 created the greatest biologic laboratory of the world ; and in that laboratory, 

 with the best results of his life work all about him, he calmly and philo- 

 sophically waited for the time of times. Three days before he died he asked to 

 be placed in a chair provided with wheels. On this he was moved around 

 the pier, past the vessels which he had built for research, and through the 

 laboratory, where many men were at work at their biologic investigations. 

 For every one he had a word of cheer, though he knew it was the last. At 

 the same time, along the pier and through the laboratory, a little child was 

 wheeled. "We are rivals," he said, "but I think that I am the bigger 

 baby." In this supreme hour he was playing with a child. Then he was 

 carried to his chamber, where he soon became insensible and remained so 

 until he was no more. 



References 



DALL, WILLIAM H. Spencer Fullerton Baird, A Biography. J. B. Lippincott 



Company, Philadelphia. 

 Popular Science Monthly, January, 1906, pages 63-83. 



