RICHARD RATHBUN—BENJAMIN. 529 
all of which had to do with the institution to which he gave his life, 
he had but little time for other interests. 
Nevertheless, his scientific work gained deserved recognition from 
Indiana University, which in 1883 conferred upon him the degree of 
M. S., and in 1894 Bowdoin gave him her doctorate in science. 
His colleagues found pleasure in dedicating in his honor recently 
discovered forms of life, and a genus of fishes, Rathbunella (“in 
recognition of his many services to science”), as well as a genus of 
starfish, Rathbunaster (“in appreciation of his pioneer work on 
Pacific starfishes”), and many new species of plants, batrachians, 
fishes, and mollusks preserve his name in the literature of science. 
Naturally he was a member of many scientific societies. At home 
he was active in the Biological Society of Washington, and he was 
an early member of the Philosophical Society, becoming its presi- 
dent in 1902; also he was a member of the Washington Academy 
of Sciences, and in 1905 he was chosen by his associates to be presi- 
dent of the Cosmos Club, an honor that he greatly appreciated. 
Among the national societies he was a fellow (since 1892) of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, correspond- 
ing member of the Boston Society of Natural History, member of the 
American Society of Naturalists, councilor of the American Associa- 
tion of Museums, and a member of the American Fisheries Society. 
His foreign connections included membership in the Fisheries 
Society of Finland, the Russian Imperial Society for the Acclimati- 
zation of Animals and Plants, and corresponding membership since 
1917 in the Zoological Society of London. 
Mr. Rathbun was also a permanent councilor of the International 
Fisheries Congress, a member of the American committee for the 
Boston meeting of the International Zoological Congress, and in 
recent years every gathering of scientists, such as the International 
Congress of Applied Chemistry, the International Congress of Amer- 
icanists, and the Second Pan American Scientific Congress held in 
Washington, placed his name on their honor lists of distinguished 
members. 
At a memorial meeting of the various members of the staff of the 
Smithsonian Institution and its branches, held in the National Mu- 
seum on the day of Mr. Rathbun’s death and presided over by Mr. 
Henry White, a regent of the institution, record was made of “their 
profound sorrow at the loss of a sincere friend, an executive officer of 
marked ability, and one whose administration has had a wide in- 
fluence upon the scientific institutions of the Nation.” 
