Decembeb 4, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



779 



Park, though this was subsequently aban- 

 doned, since the city had not then grown 

 sufSciently mature to feel the need of such 

 mild expression of intellectual interest and 

 means of instruction. 



His summer schools in the Chesapeake, 

 at Crisfield, at the old fort on the Rip Raps 

 oS Old Point Comfort, and at Hampton, 

 at first provided instruction for elementary 

 students and school teachers as well as 

 opportunity for research by naturalists, 

 but later this latter side was the one ex- 

 clusively developed. His study of the 

 fauna of the Chesapeake soon made it evi- 

 dent that the fundamental problems of 

 marine biology could be more profitably at- 

 tacked at some point on the ocean shore 

 farther south and it revealed also the 

 hitherto unknown fact that the practical 

 problems here in pressing need of solution 

 could be solved by common sense applica- 

 tion of scientific principles. 



Professor Brooks's discovery that the 

 eggs of the American oyster could be 

 fertilized outside the body suggested the 

 development of an oyster industry along 

 the lines in use by the fish hatching sta- 

 tions and led to the establishment of the 

 Maryland Oyster Commission. As leading 

 and working member of this body, Pro- 

 fessor Brooks made an extensive survey of 

 the oyster beds of Maryland and concluded 

 that the state had there a vast means for 

 development, which needed but the ap- 

 plication of good business management to 

 rescue it from its condition of neglect. 

 From that date, 1882, Professor Brooks 

 lived in the belief that the people of Mary- 

 land would utilize the gi-eat natural gifts 

 of the Chesapeake by legislation that would 

 remove the oyster industry from a mere 

 hunt to the level of scientific agriculture. 

 To this end he stimulated popular interest 

 add sought to appeal to those of slow com- 

 prehension both by popular lectures and 

 by his popular book, ' ' The Oyster, ' ' which 



was issued in 1891 and reedited later. 

 With characteristic persistence of purpose 

 he was loath to let the truth be swamped 

 by popular conservatism and ignorance 

 and became so determined to see the state 

 enter upon the enjoyment of the fruits of 

 his labors that the oyster question and its 

 ultimate solution played no small part in 

 keeping Professor Brooks in Baltimore 

 when alluring opportunities for enlarged 

 activities were offered at a more northern 

 university. However, he was tempera- 

 mentally more at home in the non-nervous 

 community of his adoption than in the 

 bustle of the strenuous life of denser popu- 

 lations. 



This interest in the practical value of 

 zoological work was sustained by several 

 of his students, who, following Professor 

 Brooks's lead, made advances in the cul- 

 ture of the oyster, in New England, in New 

 Jersey, in Oregon, in Louisiana, in the 

 Carolinas and in Maryland itself. For at 

 the eleventh hour a good beginning was 

 made and Brooks's disciple, Professor Cas- 

 well Grave, the zoological member of the 

 present Shell Fish Commission of Mary- 

 land, has utilized the new legislation for a 

 most promising realization of Professor 

 Brooks's dreams of scientific knowledge 

 and control of the vast natural resources of 

 the state. 



But the philosophical problems of biol- 

 ogy always took first place in Brooks's 

 mind and it was at Beaufort, N. C, that 

 he found marine life presenting the prob- 

 lems best suited to his patient and enthusi- 

 astic labor. The yearly work of his labora- 

 tory, established in the old Gibbs house 

 (that boasted the distinction of being built 

 of cypress and put together with copper 

 nails), added much to the facts of marine 

 embryology and to the number of now well- 

 known investigators. 



Upon that foundation was ultimately 

 builded the present well-known marine 



