16 McGEE MEMORIAL MEETING 



esting contributor. He was fond of combating antagonistic views 

 and was glad to proclaim his own. Yet he never seemed to be tinc- 

 tured with pedantry. He enjoyed wit and humor, but cared little 

 for amusements that others usually find attractive. Many years ago 

 at his suggestion I accompanied him to Kernan's to witness feats of 

 strength performed by a man of rare muscular development. I went 

 for diversion and was entertained, while he went for the opportunity 

 to study and was rewarded. Another time I went with him to see 

 an alleged petrified woman. Neither of us believed there existed an 

 authenticated case of petrification of a human body. I was satis- 

 fied at viewing a well molded form, but he, imbued with the scientific 

 instinct, secured permission from the owner to make a test, and at a 

 subsequent visit drilled a hole in an arm of the form and turned a 

 phenomenon into a fake by exposing a piece of gas pipe. 



Many instances might be recounted of his propensity to test or 

 investigate and bring to light the facts before consenting to a pos- 

 sibly false claim. 



He was at all times an optimist. He had absolute faith in the 

 progress and development of the human race and believed it the duty 

 of everyone to use his best endeavor to further this end. Even as 

 death's gloom rapidly settled upon him he manifested his confidence 

 in the final triumph of Science over the malady that was remorse- 

 lessly dragging him from life. 



He looked to the educated investigator for the solution of prob- 

 lems, but if the end sought was accomplished by an empiric he ac- 

 cepted the result gladly. 



He was an industrious man and capable of sustained exertion. 

 He said he needed ten hours sleep in each twenty-four, but I have 

 known him to work thirty-six consecutive hours with brief intermis- 

 sions for eating only. 



His life habits were simple. I never knew him to be addicted to 

 extravagent indulgence. He was profligate of his limited means, how- 

 ever, in responding to appeals for aid, and he was sometimes the vic- 

 tim of parasites. He was not wanting in sympathy, but at times I 

 thought him wholly lacking in the element we call emotion, and I 

 never but once saw a manifestation of it in him. This was about a 

 month before he died when I related to him a highly complimentary 



