August 27, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



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the pessimistic feeling, not uncommon at 

 that time, that all the interesting things 

 had been discovered, and all that was left 

 was to alter a decimal or two in some phys- 

 ical constant. There never was any justi- 

 fication for this feeling, there never were 

 any signs of an approach to finality in 

 science. The sum of knowledge is at pres- 

 ent, at any rate, a diverging not a converg- 

 ing series. As we conquer peak after peak 

 we see in front of us regions full of in- 

 terest and beauty, but we do not see our 

 goal, we do not see the horizon ; in the dis- 

 tance tower still higher peaks, which will 

 yield to those who ascend them still wider 

 prospects, and deepen the feeling, whose 

 truth is emphasized by every advance in 

 science, that "Great are the Works of the 

 Lord." J. J. Thomson 



ROBERT EDWARDS CARTER STEARNS 

 Dr. Robert Edwards Carter Stearns died 

 at Los Angeles, Cal., July 27, in his eighty- 

 third year. He was a native of Boston, 

 Mass., a son of Charles Stearns, and was born 

 February 1, 1827. He was educated in the 

 public schools, followed by a course of 

 mercantile training, and from his earliest 

 years evinced a deep love of nature, fostered 

 by his father, with whom similar tastes led to 

 a degree of comradeship in rambles and hunt- 

 ing expeditions which be always remembered 

 with appreciation. The boy had an unusual 

 artistic ability, and, though his early avoca- 

 tions were services in a bank and on a farm, 

 when only twenty-two years of age he painted 

 a panorama of the Hudson River from the 

 mouth of the Mohawk to Fort William, 

 which he exhibited with much success. He 

 turned his attention to mining, explored the 

 coal fields of southern Indiana, and in 1854 

 was appointed resident agent of several copper 

 mines in northern Michigan, on Lake Supe- 

 rior. In 1858 he went to California, where he 

 became a partner in the large printing estab- 

 lishment of a brother-in-law of his wife, in 

 San Francisco. This firm published the 



Pacific Methodist, a weekly religious paper, 

 and in the troubled times preceding the civil 

 war the reverend editor of this journal was 

 obliged to visit the east. Stearns was re- 

 quested to fill this place during his absence. 

 The fate of California hung in the balance, 

 many of the immigrants from the southern 

 states urged independence for that territory 

 when hostilities broke out. Stearns took the 

 responsibility of making his paper an en- 

 thusiastic advocate of the union cause, and to 

 this call and the eloquence of Thomas Starr 

 King, old Californians believed the decision of 

 the people to stand by the Union in that strug- 

 gle was due in no small degree. Through the 

 influence of Justice Field, Stearns was ap- 

 pointed deputy clerk of the supreme court of 

 California in 1862, a post which he resigned 

 in the following year to accept the secretary- 

 ship of the State Board of Harbor Commis- 

 sioners, which he was obliged to resign some 

 years later on account of ill health. Coming 

 to the east, he made one of a party, comprising 

 besides himself the late Dr. William Stimpson 

 and Col. Ezekiel Jewett, for the exploration of 

 the invertebrate fauna of southwestern 

 Florida, during which large collections were 

 made for the Smithsonian Institution. He 

 returned to California, and in 1874 was elected 

 secretary of the University of California, be- 

 ing the business executive of that institution 

 under the presidency of the late Dr. Daniel C. 

 Gilman. He served in this capacity for eight 

 years with great approval, and, when ill 

 health again obliged him to retire from serv- 

 ice, the university as expressive of their 

 sense of his services to the cause of education 

 in California, and in recognition of his sci- 

 entific attainments, conferred upon him the de- 

 gree of doctor of philosophy. Returning to 

 the east after the death of Mrs. Stearns, he 

 was engaged in researches for the U. S. Fish 

 Commission in 1882, was appointed paleontol- 

 ogist to the U. S. Geological Survey by Major 

 Powell in 1884, and assistant curator of mol- 

 lusks in the National Museum by Professor 

 Baird. His collection of mollusca was ac- 

 quired by the museum. Age and infirmity ob- 

 liged him to return to the more genial climate 



