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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1309 



of Vassar College, were sisters. Her father, 

 Aaron Perkins, served the Baptist church as 

 minister for over seventy years. The Perkins 

 family also settled in Massachusetts early in 

 the seventeenth century. 



Professor Whitman was born and spent his 

 boyhood years in Troy, N". Y. After attend- 

 ing a private academy, the high school, and 

 also for a while a private home school in 

 Pittsfield, he entered Brown University and 

 graduated in 1874. He was a member of 

 Alpha Delta Phi, Phi Beta Kappa, a Junior 

 Exhibition speaker and on the commence- 

 ment list. After graduation he tatight in the 

 English and Classical High School of Mowry 

 and Goff for four years, at the same time 

 pursuing graduate studies at Brown Univer- 

 sity, and received the master's degree in 1877. 

 In the year 1878-9 he studied physics at the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at the 

 same time making astronomical observations 

 with E. C. Pickering, and working on lenses 

 with Alvan Clark. He spent the following 

 year at the Johns Hopkins University. Dur- 

 ing this time he was associated with Mr. New- 

 ton Anderson, who later founded the Univer- 

 sity School in Cleveland. 



In 1880 Professor Whitman was called to 

 the professorship of physics at Rensselaer 

 Polytechnic Institute at Troy, where he re- 

 mained until he came to Cleveland. His 

 work in Adelbert College and the College for 

 Women began in 1886, and continued until 

 1918, when, after a year's leave of absence, he 

 became professor emeritus. He acted as dean 

 of Adelbert College from 1903 to 1906. 



He was chairman of the physics section of 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, and thus vice-president of 

 the association, in 1898. His vice-presiden- 

 tial address was on the subject color-vision. 

 Two years before he published a paper on the 

 subject of the flicker photometer, an idea 

 not original with him, but he developed its 

 possibilities .and it has since been perfected 

 by others. His scientific ability was critical 

 rather than creative. For this critical faculty 

 there developed few opportunities, hence his 

 scientific activities were confined mainly to 



college halls. He was not a research scholar 

 and never wished to be considered one, but 

 he did have a profound knowledge of the 

 great problems of physics and astronomy, and 

 he kept up with the research work done in 

 these branches. He devoted much of his at- 

 tention to the possibilities of lecture experi- 

 ments as a means of instruction. The con- 

 struction and administration of the physics 

 laboratory naturally received much of his 

 time and interest. He never failed in the 

 mass of executive work which is required in a 

 college, and in this field he showed the great- 

 est capacity and usefulness. In addition to 

 his minor interest in local organizations, he 

 was a member of Sigma Xi, of the American 

 Physical Society, of the American Astro- 

 nomical Society and of the Ulimiinating En- 

 gineering Society. He received the honorary 

 degree of Sc.D. from Brown University in 

 1900. He was a trustee of the University 

 School of Cleveland, and took an active in- 

 terest in its development. 



During his long connection with Western 

 Eeserve, Professor Whitman endeared him- 

 self to his colleagues in an imusual degree by 

 his unfailing courtesy and generosity, the 

 charm of his personality, the wisdom of his 

 counsel, and the absolute integrity of his 

 conduct. A righteous man, whose ear was 

 ever open to the voice of an enlightened con- 

 science, he inspired complete confidence and 

 made himself a trusted leader. He brought 

 honor to his profession, happiness to his 

 friends, a rich service to the university; and 

 in the halls of memory, his figure will long 

 remain a type of perfect faithfulness. 



HORATIO C. WOOD 



Horatio C. Wood, M.D., LL.D., emeritus 

 professor of materia medica, pharmacy and 

 general therapeutics in the University of 

 Pennsylvania Medical School, died, January 

 3. The obituary notice in the Pennsylvania 

 Gazette states that for three generations mem- 

 bers of the Wood family have been on the med- 

 ical faculty. Dr. George Bacon Wood, one of 

 the founders of the Philadelphia Collie of 

 Pharmacy, and an uncle of Horatio C. Wood, 



