JOSIAH WILLARD GIBBS. xxv 



the mechanical nature of the systems considered, except that they are 

 mechanical and obey Lagrange's or Hamilton's equations. In this 

 respect it may be considered to have done for thermodynamics what 

 Maxwell's treatise did for electromagnetism, and we may say (as 

 Poincare has said of Maxwell) that Gibbs has not sought to give a 

 mechanical explanation of heat, but has limited his task to de- 

 monstrating that such an explanation is possible. And this achieve- 

 ment forms a fitting culmination of his life's work. 



The value to science of Professor Gibbs's work has been formally 

 recognized by many learned societies and universities both in this 

 country and abroad. The list of societies and academies of which he 

 was a member or correspondent includes the Connecticut Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, 

 the Dutch Society of Sciences, Haarlem, the Royal Society of Sciences, 

 Gottingen, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Cambridge 

 Philosophical Society, the London Mathematical Society, the Man- 

 chester Literary and Philosophical Society, the Royal Academy of 

 Amsterdam, the Royal Society of London, the Royal Prussian 

 Academy of Berlin, the French Institute, the Physical Society of 

 London, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. He was the 

 recipient of honorary degrees from Williams College, and from the 

 universities of Erlangen, Princeton, and Christiania. In 1881 he 

 received the Rumford Medal from the American Academy of Boston, 

 and in 1901 the Copley Medal from the Royal Society of London. 



Outside of his scientific activities, Professor Gibbs's life was 

 uneventful ; he made but one visit to Europe, and with the exception 

 of those three years, and of summer vacations in the mountains, his 

 whole life was spent in New Haven, and all but his earlier years in 

 the same house, which his father had built only a few rods from the 

 school where he prepared for college and from the university in the 

 service of which his life was spent. His constitution was never 

 robust the consequence apparently of an attack of scarlet fever in 

 early childhood but with careful attention to health and a regular 

 mode of life his work suffered from this cause no long or serious 

 interruption until the end, which came suddenly after an illness of 

 only a few days. He never married, but made his home with his 

 sister and her family. Of a retiring disposition, he went little into 

 general society and was known to few outside the university ; but 

 by those who were honoured by his friendship, and by his students, 

 he was greatly beloved. His modesty with regard to his work was 

 proverbial among all who knew him, and it was entirely real and 

 unaffected. There was never any doubt in his mind, however, as 



