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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1290 



notes : Profoimd admiration for the clear mind 

 ■which has accomplished so much for the uni- 

 versity and for science; gratitude for the 

 wisdom with which he has gxiided the develop- 

 ment of the department, for the standards of 

 teaching and research which he advocated 

 and maintained and for the inspiration he 

 breathed into all about him; and greatest of 

 all the personal affection and esteem for their 

 leader, and rejoicing that, freed from teaching 

 and administrative cares, he was to remain 

 with the department to carry on his researches 

 and lend the inspiration of his presence. 



The first speaker called upon was the presi- 

 dent of the university — President Schurman. 

 He expressed in fitting words the feelings of 

 all of us when he characterized Dr. Nichols 

 as a man who as teacher, administrator and 

 investigator had measured up to the highest 

 standard, and had realized in his department 

 and in the university the ideal college pro- 

 fessor, one that a university president rejoices 

 in finding and when found gives him encour- 

 agement and support to the limit. 



Professor Ernest Fox Nichols sketched for 

 us in broad outlines " A Generation of Physics 

 in America," and showed the role that he 

 whom we were honoring had played in that 

 generation, and the mighty impulse forward 

 he had given by founding the Physical Review, 

 where American work could be fittingly pub- 

 lished, and in aiding the formation of the 

 American Physical Society where the young 

 men especially found encouragement and a 

 scientific home. 



In discussing the early years of Professor 

 Nichols's leadership, Mr. Louis B. Marks 

 pointed out how that he had been one of the 

 best possible friends of applied science from 

 the zeal and earnestness with which he ad- 

 vocated and joined in the discovery of science 

 to apply, and how the problem of the illumi- 

 nating engineer had been helj)ed to get upon 

 a firm foundation by the exposition of the 

 , principles of photometry and the establish- 

 ment of a photometric laboratory in the 

 department of physics. While it was not 

 upon the program, a pleasant incident was the 

 tribute of appreciation brought by Dr. C. H. 



Sharp, from the Illuminating Engineering 

 Society in recognition of Professor Nichols's 

 work in putting the measurement of light 

 upon a scientific basis. The tribute was elec- 

 tion as honorary member of the society — the 

 only other honorary member being Thomas A. 

 Edison. 



Besides the address of former members of 

 the physics seminary, Dean Prank Thilly of 

 the College of Arts and Sciences expounded 

 in a pleasant way the skill with which Dr. 

 Nichols had cut red-tape and made the dean's 

 office in that college a really efiicient and help- 

 ful element in the university; and Professor 

 S. H. Gage welcomed Professor Nichols into 

 the group of the emeriti with the assurance 

 that its freedom for investigation and its 

 privileges made it the happiest group in the 

 whole educational world. 



Finally in behalf of the members of the 

 seminary past and present Dr. C. W. 

 Waggoner, presented as a tribute of affection, 

 a beautiful, inscribed silver tea service which 

 up to that time had been hidden under a bank 

 of roses. 



All generous minds can understand why 

 Professor Nichols was thus honored when they 

 read his response: 



If health permits and life lasts I am coming 

 back (i. e., from Japan) and I hope I may have a 

 few years more, so that with that sort of curiosity 

 which has always animated me I may have the 

 privilege of watching the wheels go round, for 

 that is all I feel I can do or ever have done. It 

 has been delightful — unspeakably delightful — that 

 life which comes from the study of science. 

 What I would like to say, among the thousand 

 things I would like to say and can not, is that you 

 must not be content with the things the genera- 

 tion that is passing away had to be content with. 

 It is for you to do greater things, and more im- 

 portant things than we have ever done. The 

 things are crying to be done, and the world ia 

 crying out to have them done. If Cornell is to be 

 what we all hope and believe she is to be, it can 

 only be through the endless strivings of the imagi- 

 nation, through ceaseless labors and great crea- 

 tive art. It can only be by the highest efforts of 

 everybody who has a mind to do anything what- 

 soever. Then we can look back upon the crude 

 efforts of those who went before and while we 



