174 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[September, 



. Dr. A. M. Bleile read a paper en- 

 titled " The Effects of Division of the 

 Vagii upon the Heart," and Dr. M. L. 

 Holbrook described the terminations 

 of the nerves in the liver. His inves- 

 tigations fully upheld the views of 

 Nesterowsky, that the nerves termin- 

 ate in the capillaries. This paper led 

 to some discussion, but mainly upon 

 another subject, viz. : the so-called 

 net-work structure of the blood-cor- 

 puscle, which was supported by Drs. 

 Barrett and Holbrook, but not by 

 the other members. 



Dr. George C. Taylor exhibited a 

 form of the Hitchcock lamp well 

 adapted for microscopical use, and 

 Mr. W. H. Walmsley read a short 

 paper on micro-photography, and 

 ^photographed the proboscis of a fly 

 at the meeting. 



Prof. H. L. Smith read a memoir 

 of the late Charles A. Spencer, the 

 opening paragrajjhs of which we 

 quote : — 



CHARLES A. SPENCER. 



" Since our last meeting, one of our 

 most distinguished associates, one 

 who has been justly considered as the 

 pioneer of scientific optics in this 

 country, has been taken from us. 



" Mr. Spencer was, in the truest ac- 

 ceptation of the word, a genius. Life 

 was not to him a contest for the pos- 

 session of what the world commonly 

 calls gain. No man was ever more 

 indifferent to this than he. From his 

 boyhood he seems to have had an all- 

 controlling idea, a self consciousness, 

 which seemed but conceit to those 

 who did not understand him, or real- 

 ize how much there really was in him, 

 of his ability to produce better opti- 

 cal work than the world had yet seen. 

 There is in existence a portrait of 

 him, taken when he was but twelve 

 years old, and which must have been 

 a very truthful likeness of him, for it 

 shows already the character of the 

 future man. He is looking straight 

 forward with a fearless eye, and al- 

 ready reading on the scroll of fame 

 the name of Charles A. Spencer. The 



bright visions of his boyhood were 

 realized, but he had little conception 

 of what it was to cost him, and that 

 the struggle was only to end with his 

 life. 



" Few of those who have in past 

 years accomplished much in the way 

 of perfecting instrumental means of 

 scientific research, or the advance- 

 ment of the economic arts, have, dur- 

 ing their lifetime, received any ade- 

 quate reward, and certainly Mr. Spen- 

 cer was not an exception. He might 

 have gathered a more abundant har- 

 vest of what the world terms wealth, 

 if he had understood, and practiced 

 somewhat closer, the ways of the 

 world in financial matters ; but where 

 then were the brilliant results ? Mr. 

 Spencer was not only industrious, 

 though not in a way for pecuniary 

 recompense, he was also economical 

 and of unblemished moral character ; 

 for we must not consider the unful- 

 filled promise — the often apparent 

 and blamable neglect arose from 

 no intention or design on his part to 

 say, or do, aught wrong. He had an 

 unbounded hope, it was a moral cer- 

 tainty to him, a faith in himself of be- 

 ing able to do all he had promised ; 

 and of accomplishing all he might 

 undertake, which only lacked pru- 

 dence in the ways of common life, 

 and a closer watching of the balance- 

 sheet, to have been fully justified. He 

 has gone — he has left only friends. 

 He had outlived most of those who 

 hailed his advent as an honor to 

 American science. And in the rapid 

 march of improvement of the past 

 decade, he had begun to feel, with 

 his infirmities and declining powers, 

 that he was almost left behind. We 

 cannot say he had not grave faults, 

 few of us but have ; happy if, when 

 we lie down to rest, so few will be re- 

 membered of us. When the name of 

 many a successful man, as the world 

 deems success,^ shall have been for- 

 gotten, and the marble on which 

 alone it is recorded shall have crum- 

 bled away, that of Spencer will still 

 live ; nor will it be forgotten until the 



