94 McGEE MEMORIAL MEETING 



conclusions indicated by such facts as are known, even though those 

 conclusions may not at present be definitely established. 



Doctor McGee's death at the Cosmos Club on September 4, 

 1912, removed from the domain of science and from the forum of 

 public discussion one of its leading personalities. His career em- 

 braced an unusually wide range of activities, and in each of these he 

 attained distinction. As a geologist he was one of the group assem- 

 bled by Major Powell during the formative period of the United 

 States Geological Survey, a group which made American geology 

 classic and its leaders world-leaders in their science. In this field 

 McGee's name is associated with the names of Powell, Button, Gil- 

 bert, Holmes, Emmons, and Hague. Later, with the establishment 

 of the Bureau of Ethnology, into which he followed Major Powell, 

 he became a pioneer in ethnological research, although retaining con- 

 tinually his interest in geologic and geographic problems. At the 

 time of his death and for a few years prior thereto, he was the erosion 

 and hydrologic expert of the Department of Agriculture, his immediate 

 connections with that department being through the Bureau of Soils. 

 His last years are distinguished by a number of papers on the subject 

 of Conservation, in which he was so vitally interested; these articles 

 are broad in their scope, thoroughly original and stimulating in their 

 expression, and point out fearlessly some dangers of present practice 

 and suggest methods of remedy. But a few days before his death 

 he completed the correction of the galley proofs of the last of his 

 papers, faithful to his work and to his duty even while descending 

 into the Valley of the Shadow. 



This very brief sketch would not be complete without expressed 

 recognition of the fact that Doctor McGee's attitude in the face of 

 death was in accordance with the best traditions of the science to 

 which his life had been devoted and was as admirable and as deeply 

 stirring and stimulating as any act of his career. For a year or more 

 he had recognized the fact that he was afflicted with cancer and that 

 his days were numbered. He faced this fact calmly and prepared pa- 

 tiently for the inevitable by carefully completing all work on hand 

 and by disposing by will of his body and his brain to his friend and 

 fellow scientist, Doctor Spitzka, to be used in the way most likely to 

 be beneficial to humanity. So long as his faculties remained un- 



