Ixiv OBITUARY NOTICES OF MEMBERS DECEASED. 



however put together cannot make a good school ;" " Versatility is 

 far less valuable than thoroughness ; " " The first and most impor- 

 tant point is to train the mind, to educate the judgment, the reason, 

 the memory, the imagination, and the second and subordinate object 

 is to convey such knowledge to the scholar as may be useful to him 

 in life." During this period he satisfied his lexicographical interest 

 by assisting in the revision of Webster's Dictionary, and disclosed 

 a new specialty by preparing, in conjunction with Professor Guyot, 

 a series of school geographies and maps. Another trip to Europe 

 in 1857 supplemented the observations of the previous visit. 



In 1863 Dr. Oilman was appointed professor of physical geo- 

 graphy in the Sheffield Scientific School, and two years later he 

 resigned his position as librarian, a vocation that he was not destined 

 to resume. Though fully appreciative of the significance of library 

 training and organization, as is evident from his address on Uni- 

 versity Libraries in 1891, it is doubtful if he ever felt much in 

 touch with some phases of modern library methods. He con- 

 centrated his attention more and more upon educational problems, 

 particularly upon those connected with scientific schools in America, 

 and devoted no little time to writing and speaking on the subject. 

 The decade from i860 to 1870 was a time when the founding of 

 technical and industrial schools was prominently before the public, 

 owing in part to the passage of the Morrill Act of 1862, commonly 

 but erroneously called the Agricultural College Bill. When, there- 

 fore, in 1 87 1, he was appointed by the government a commissioner 

 to investigate certain phases of the operation of this measure, he 

 accepted the appointment and travelled extensively, observing, 

 interviewing, corresponding, in order to inform himself thoroughly 

 of the difficulties and limitations of the project. In this case, as in 

 others, he found that the greatest obstacle to the success of the 

 undertaking lay in the scarcity of able and accomplished men as 

 professors in the department of science to which these institutions 

 were devoted. 



Dr. Oilman's connection with the Sheffield School opened a 

 larger field for his activity and called into play those gifts of leader- 

 ship and governance with which he was richly endowed. From 

 1865 to 1872 the chief responsibility for the direction of the school 



