SCIENCE 





Feidat, February 25, 1921 



CONTENTS 



The Public Health Work of Professor Sedg- 

 wich: PEorEssoB Geoege C. Whipple 171 



Our Disappearing Wild Plants: Albebt A. 

 Hansen 178 



A Suggestion for making our Scientific Pub- 

 lications more useful and Our Post-offices 

 a center of Information: Peofessoe Heed- 

 man r. Cleland 180 



Scientific Events: — 



The Institute of Human Paleontology ; 

 A Canadian Agricultural Journal; Scien- 

 tific Lectures at the University of Minne- 

 sota; The Marsh Fund of the National 

 Academy of Sciences; The Election of Dr. 

 Angell as President of Yale University .... 182 



Scientifio Notes and News 185 



University and Educational News 187 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



On a Bottle which drifted from the Gulf of 

 Maine to the Azores: James W. Mooe. An 

 Adjustable Embouchure: Peopessob Ae- 

 THUK GoEDON Websteb. . Variation in 

 Taraxacum: De. Paul B. Seaes 187 



Scientific Books: — 



Youngken's Phatrmaceutioal Botany: De. H. 

 H. M. Bowman 188 



Special Articles: — 



Two Limestone Formations of the Creta- 

 ceous of Texas which transgress Time 

 Diagonally: De. Eobt. T. Hill 190 



The American, Mathematical Society: E. G. 

 D. Eichaedson 191 



The American Astronomical Society: Peo- 

 fessoe Joel Stebbins 193 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



THE PUBLIC HEALTH WORK OF PRO- 

 FESSOR SEDGWICKi 



WiLLLiM Thompson Sedgwick, son of Wil- 

 liam and Anne Tlionipson Sedgwick, was bom 

 at West Hartford, Connecticut, December 29, 

 1855. His colonial ancestor was Robert Sedg- 

 wick, wbo settled in Boston in 1636. He stud- 

 ied at tbe Sheffield Scientific School, the Tale 

 Medical School, and Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity. On his twenty-sixth birthday he married 

 Mary Katrine Eice, at ITew Haven, Connecti- 

 cut. In 1883 he came to Boston and the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where 

 for thirty-eight years he was professor of 

 biology and public health. He died at Boston, 

 January 25, 1921, at the age of sixty-five. 



These simple facts tell who Professor Sedg- 

 wick was. But what he was and what his life 

 meant to the people of Boston, to hundreds of 

 young students, to the science of public health, 

 and to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 

 can not yet be told or even estimated. Hia 

 death is too recent and our thoughts are stiU 

 so touched with sadness that one can not ade- 

 quately picture his manifold activities or form 

 a just appreciation of his life or his place in 

 history. But in the various eulogies already 

 written a few words stand out prominently 

 and must be regarded as characteristic of the 

 man. The words are service, public service, 

 kindliness, serenity, inspiration, buoyant op- 

 timism, love of young men. Let these suffice. 

 They are eulogy enough for any man. 



I can not write about Professor Sedgwick's 

 work in pu^blic health without saying more 

 about my own relations to it than is becoming 

 on such an occasion — but it is characteristic of 

 his work that it was not done in the seclusion 



1 A memorial address delivered at Unity House, 

 Boston, February 6, 1921, by Professor George C. 

 Wliipple, of Harvard University. Professor Sedg- 

 wick was to have spoken at this meeting on the 

 subject of Child Welfare. 



